Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story [Blu-Ray]

At this years, the inaugural, Hebden Bridge Film Festival there was one film that stood out for, that was Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story.

You can read my full review of the documentary here, I’m not going to go over it again, but despite not liking the Frank Sidebottom character, I was enthralled by the story of this hugely creative man.

Speaking to writer and director Steve Sullivan afterwards, he mentioned that he’d had many, many hours of footage at his disposal and, obviously, not everything could go into the final film.

This made the thought of a whole bunch of extras on the Blu-ray (or DVD) release somewhat tantalising.

In terms of amount, the Blu-ray doesn’t disappoint, there’s probably getting on for some two-hours worth of extras, from songs to stories to various appearances at various venues.

There’s too many to go through each one, but you do get the other documentary of Sullivan’s he did when Chris was alive, which is the Frank Sidebottom tour of Timperley, where he attempts to cram as many people as he can into a fish and chip shop, amongst other crazy things.

The extras are good, but they somewhat loose their charm and warmth without the story Sullivan so expertly weaves in the main documentary. As single-short snippets, some of them can feel a little lost.

However, this is no excuse to not buy the Blu-ray, or DVD. The main documentary is simply brilliant, learning the life of this man, his trials and tribulations, how he compartmentalised these two personas he ended up with.

Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story is worthy every penny, just a shame it wasn’t made in Timperley.