BLACK HEART PROCESSION "Tropics Of Love" DVD

After three albums of unending heartbreak, the Black Heart Procession released the concept album Amore Del Tropico. Based on a fictional, tropical murder mystery, the band took on a noticeable South American influence on their tried and true funeral marches.

Two years after its release, the Black Heart Procession have taken one more ambitious step and filmed a feature length movie based around the music of Amore Del Tropico. The film, Tropics of Love, thankfully eschews dialogue in favor of a musical score, and any narrative is gleaned from watching the action on screen. A heady mix of fantasy and film noir, Tropics Of Love, like the band themselves, doesn’t take itself too seriously, and the result is an engaging, relentlessly fun film.

Co-written and directed by Pall Jenkins, Tropics of Love is more David Lynch than John Huston. The film immediately puts into question the reality of the events we’re about to see, as it opens in a rock club with the Black Heart Procession performing on stage. Are we seeing a play within a film? The question is never really answered, as we are quickly plunged into the failing relationship between Luigi (Roman Dmitri Dziensuwski) and Maria (Traci Woolley). As we trace the downfall of their relationship, it’s not until the middle act of the film that Maria is mysteriously murdered. Thus enters the Inspector (Matthew Hoyt), who, after arresting prime suspect Luigi, must carefully reconsider the evidence before him.