The DVD “A Skin, A Night” accompanies the release of the National’s EP The Virginia. The band’s “Fake Empire” was one of my favorite singles last year despite its dour tone, and Vincent Moon’s film style is perfectly suited to the band’s stark, serious sound. For me, an hour of grainy film, ultra-closeups and distant sound gets tiresome, but I can imagine others finding it artful. Moon films the band recording Boxer , and what struck me was how joyless the recording process appears to be for the band. Not even Sympathy for the Devil depicts making music as a grim, existential struggle of this magnitude.