Just A Story From Paris

Elliott Murphy - Just A Story From Paris - The Backstreets Interview

JUST A STORY FROM PARIS
The Backstreets Interview-by-email with Broken Poet screenwriter, soundtrack artist, and yes, movie star… Elliott Murphy
May 15, 2020 – By Shawn Poole

Backstreets is proud to present the official world premiere of singer-songwriter Elliott Murphy’s film Broken Poet. The movie is now available to purchase via Vimeo for streaming at home, as a special limited-time offer for Backstreets readers.

Based on Murphy’s 1985 short story “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” the fictional-narrative film focuses on a modern-day search for world-famous 1970s rock star Jake Lion, who may — or may not — have killed himself in Paris back in 1974.

Elliott Murphy co-wrote the film’s screenplay with its director, Emilio J. Ruiz, and plays an intriguing, mysterious starring role in the film. The film also features Murphy’s longtime friends Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa in cameo roles, playing themselves, and a lot of great Elliott Murphy tunes from various phases of his four-decades-and-counting career.

In addition to permanent online access to the film, everyone who purchases Broken Poet through this Backstreets digital premiere will receive permanent access to a bonus feature created just for us: Elliott Murphy filmed a special “Couch Concert” especially for Backstreets readers, inspired by his longtime association and friendship with Springsteen.

In the 18:45 bonus video, Elliott tells stories and delivers three beautiful solo acoustic performances: his Broken Poet theme song, “Drive All Night” from his 1977 album Just a Story From America (which predated the official release of Springsteen’s song of the same title by three years,) and a cover of Springsteen’s “Better Days.” An intimate experience, like all of his Corona Couch Concerts, with a Boss twist.

This special premiere of Broken Poet was, of course, brought about by the enormous impact that the coronavirus has had on the ability of artists to present their works to homebound audiences. With that in mind, Backstreets is honored to join Elliott Murphy and our friend Joe Amodei, President of Broken Poet‘s worldwide distributor Virgil Films, in donating a portion of the proceeds from each Broken Poet purchase to the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund.

In the spirit of this unique, COVID-19-crisis-inspired way of premiering his film, Elliott Murphy also granted an extensive — but safe — interview with Backstreets, while quarantined in his Paris home.

Read the full interview on backstreets.com.