“ In the Court of the Crimson King is really about as good as rock
documentaries get” - VARIETY
“ This elegant, intimate, funny and surprisingly moving film covers every
aspect of the group — from its thorny interpersonal history to the almost
religious loyalty it inspires in fans — and lays out exactly what makes Crimson
such a singular and enduring musical force.” ROLLING STONE
King Crimson has been
described as popular but never populist. Just as King Crimson has been, for
more than half a century, an atypical rock band, this film is a refreshingly
atypical music documentary.
Toby Amies’ film about one
of rock music’s most enduring, but simultaneously elusive, bands, ‘In The Court of the Crimson King – King
Crimson at 50’ provides a unique insight into the working process of a
complex touring band, interspersed with contributions from previous band
members to provide a contextual backdrop to the band’s past, as the most recent
(2014-2021) line-up tours the world just before and during its 50th
anniversary.
As King Crimson producer and band manager, David
Singleton observed of the film: “All of
life is here, not just music, and certainly not just rock. It has rightly been
described as going beyond King Crimson into a ‘universal, inspirational study
of what it is to work or dream to work as an artist’.”
While director Toby Amies writes of the experience: “In the Court of the Crimson King is not a
film that wants to tell the audience what to think, rather it presents several
different points of view about the creative process and what it means to be in
this most unusual band; leaving the audience with a sense of both how
complicated it all is, but also just how incredibly rewarding the King Crimson
experience is both for the musicians and its fans.”
Robert Fripp announced that
King Crimson had “moved
from sound to silence” on social media after their final date in Japan in
December 2021, making this release all the more poignant as a unique record of
the band’s longest lasting line-up with tantalising glimpses of the band’s
history.
