Sparks is a band unlike any other.
Their witty, hyper-literate songs, along with the singer Russell’s good looks and keyboardist Ron’s deadpan, glowering stage presence, made Sparks icons of a sort in Europe, but never more than a cult band in the United States.
In 2017, the music-obsessed director Edgar Wright, fresh off the success of “Baby Driver,” went to see Sparks perform in Los Angeles.
One theme in the documentary is the Maels’ lifelong interest in film, and their multiple near-misses in trying to bring their music to the big screen, including a proposed collaboration with the French comedian Jacques Tati and a project with Tim Burton.
During a video call, Russell added that the endurance of the Maels’ partnership also seemed potentially problematic.
The fact that Sparks have lasted so long is partly because they’re always close to success but never mainstream.
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They started playing in groups while attending the University of California, Los Angeles, inspired by the spiky spirit of the Who and the Kinks and by French New Wave cinema.
Their most notorious signature is Ron’s mustache, alternately compared with that of Adolf Hitler or Charlie Chaplin.
Both Maels, though, deny that there’s anything willfully destructive in their musical choices.
The portrait that emerges in “The Sparks Brothers” is of musicians fully dedicated to their work — even in the years when Sparks didn’t have a record deal, the Maels continued to write and record with almost monastic discipline.
Wright said this example of artistic commitment beyond the pursuit of commercial success is the true intention of the film.
Meanwhile, the Mael brothers have not slowed down.
“We’ve always said that we dispose of everything immediately after the moment,” Ron said.