Chemical Brothers launch 'Don't Think' in front of Keira Knightley, Klaxons and Matt Smith

The Chemical Brothers launched their new live film Don't Think with a star-studded premiere at London's Hackney Picturehouse last night (January 26).


The film is a collaboration between the band and their visual designer/director partner Adam Smith and was screened last night in front of audience that included actress Keira Knightely, Klaxons and Doctor Who's Matt Smith and Karen Gillan. 


Don't Think was filmed during The Chemical Brothers' headline set at Fuji Rock festival in Japan in 2011 and is a mixture of footage of handheld cameras from inside the festival's crowd and the band's spectacular visual show. You can watch the trailer for the film by scrolling up to the top of the page and clicking. 


Speaking about the film, band member Ed Simons said: We wanted to have a film for us to keep as a record, but Adam had more ambition. There was footage from Glastonbury 2007 which was pretty amazing, it really started to capture what it is to be in the crowd, how the music and the visuals are intoxicating. You have to capture that thing that’s in the air.
Smith, who has also directed recent episodes of Dr Who and the Emmy-winning drama Little Dorritt, said of his ambition for the film: "It’s trying to get the experience of it [the live show] rather than the spectacle of it. To make people feel what it feels like."


Simons also spoke about why the duo chose to film Don't Think in Japan, saying: "The Japanese have a love of our music that is, I’m going to use this word, quite spiritual - people go crazy, there’s a quite repressed nature suddenly being expressive and lots of emotion coming up. The way the edit and cameras are done, it captures that distracted, buzzy thing, there’s a certain irreverence to it. The camera wanders off into the forest at one point, then you’re back to the gig."


Smith also said that they were extremely keen to capture as much of Fuji Rock's atmosphere as they could. He added: "We wanted to capture the festival, but every time we went out into the festival we tried to connect it to the show, so we took some projectors out and projected images from the visuals onto flags and trees. People were really playful with it."


The film will be shown for one night only on February 3 at selected cinemas across the UK. In the meantime, The Chemical Brothers also revealed that they have been working on music "connected to the cycling" for the 2012 Olympics.