"Linear" - U2

Film

Track Listing:

Background Information

“Linear” was a film by Anton Corbijn which was released with deluxe versions of the “No Line on the Horizon” album. It was not sold separately. The writing credits for the film are given as Anton Corbijn and Bono. The film features a mix of black and white and colour video and runs for just under an hour.

The film was built around an early track list for the album. It does feature a song which does not appear on the album, “Winter” as well as an edited version of the song “Breathe”. The film was too far along when the decision to move “Winter” from the album was made. “I’ll Go Crazy if I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” is not featured in the film. Corbijn’s version of “Linear” remains the only location that this version of “Winter” can be heard. Anton commented that “It is not an extended music video or a U2 documentary, it’s a new way to listen to a record – a new way to use film to connect to music.” The film follows a character, played by Said Taghmaoui, on a journey from Paris to Cadiz by motorcycle. Musically the film has a different running track than the album. The story is based around characters that Bono had created while writing “No Line on the Horizon”.

The film was developed as a way to give listeners more content than just the basic album. Corbijn explains, “Linear was born when we were in Morocco in June 2007. I did some filming with the band, including some bits where I asked them not to move. It was like a photograph done on film in which they were still but there were lots of other things moving, such as birds flying around. Bono then thought it would be an idea that if you downloaded an album, instead of looking at the sleeve in your hands you could have something else that moves a little bit. That stuck with him. In May last year they asked if I was interested in making something moving for the duration of the album. I filmed in July and edited in August.”

A download of the film was made available when purchasing the digipack, or magazine formats of the album. A DVD of the film as well as the download were available with the boxed version of the album. It was also available for download from iTunes, when purchasing the deluxe version of the album on that service.

Liner Notes

Director: Anton Corbijn
Story: Anton Corbijn and Bono
Produced by Iain Canning and Emile Sherman
Executive Producers: Bono, Adam Clayton, Edge, Larry Mullen Jr.

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