Tag: Andy Warhol

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND – Review

This past year we’ve seen several very entertaining documentary features set in the world of music, particularly SUMMER OF SOUL. Another lauded film was the profile of the rock band Sparks, titled simply THE SPARKS BROTHERS, which set itself apart from many doc features in that it was helmed by a director who’s mainly known for fiction films, Edgar Wright. Now another similar director enters the fray, Todd Haynes, who last told the story of corporate polluters in the “based on real events” drama DARK WATERS. He’s the force behind the new film that chronicles the history of a most influential band that merged rock and roll with the avant-garde, a group of acclaimed musical talents known as THE VELVET UNDERGROUND.

This story begins, oddly enough, with a grainy kinescope of the CBS TV game show staple, “I’ve Got a Secret’. The audience titters when told of the “secret”: pianist John Cale played an 18-hour concert (he was joined by the only attendee that stuck it out). We’re then plunged into the changing cultural landscape of the 1960s as Cale meets an intense young poet/guitarist named Lou Reed. They became a fixture of the hip, young New York scene as The Primitives which included Sterling Morrison. Eventually Maureen (Moe) Tucker came aboard as the band’s drummer as they decided on the new moniker, The Velvet Underground. Despite the personality clashes and indulgencies (including heroin), their dark-themed songs caught the attention of art icon Andy Warhol who made them the “house band” for his “factory”. Eventually, he would manage the band in 1966 and soon he would pair them with the exotic actress/model Nico for a series of live shows and record albums. After the exit of Nico, the band finally broke with Warhol, who made their shows a full media “happening’ with projected film and slides. VU continued to make music through the 60s until 1973, a couple of years after Reed left to embark on a lauded solo career.

Those hoping for an involving introduction to the iconic group will be dumbstruck for the sensory overload orchestrated by Haynes. After the game show epilogue, he fills the screen with multiple images, often distracting from the music snippets and the more recent interview subjects. As he presents the original band members, 2/3 of the screen is taken up by a “locked-down” headshot from the Warhol factory with each musician trying not to blink while assorted archival stills and news footage flash by in countless boxes (one sequence looks like the Brady Bunch opening titles times six). Sure, we hear from surviving members of the VU, along with family members and old pals of those departed, but they’re generic talking heads as the ever-changing “slide show” numbs us. There are also a few celebs like Jonathan Richmond, Jackson Browne, and Warhol “superstar” Mary Woronov (who joins Moe in a rant against those “hippie flower kids”), but they don’t truly enlighten or illuminate. Oh, and those Warhol unflinching static shot close-ups haven’t become more charming with age. The group seems worthy of an engrossing cinematic recollection but this visually erratic and haphazardly cut fever dream from Haynes will not add many new fans for THE VELVET UNDERGROUND. Now, where’s the Dramamine?

1 Out of 4

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas and begins streaming on Apple TV + on October 15, 2021

BLANK CITY – Official Trailer

Featuring

Jim Jarmusch, Debbie Harry, Steve Buscemi, John Lurie, Fab 5 Freddy, Thurston Moore,
Richard Kern, Lydia Lunch, Amos Poe, Eric Mitchell, James Nares, Maripol, Ann Magnuson,
James Chance, Beth B, Scott B and John Waters

A Film By

Opening at the IFC Center in New York on Friday, April 6

Before there was HD there was Super 8. Before Independent film there was Underground Cinema. And before New York there was…well, New York. Once upon a pre-Facebook time, before creative communities became virtual and viral, cultural movements were firmly grounded in geography. And the undisputed center of American – some would say international – art and film was New York City. In particular, downtown Manhattan in the late 1970’s and 80’s was the anchor of vanguard filmmaking.

BLANK CITY tells the long-overdue tale of the motley crew of renegade filmmakers that emerged from an economically bankrupt and dangerous period of New York History. It’s a fascinating look at the way this misfit cinema used the deserted, bombed-out Lower East Side landscapes to craft daring works that would go on to profoundly influence Independent Film today. Unlike the much-celebrated punk music scene, this era’s thrilling and confrontational underground film movement has never before been chronicled.

Directed by French newcomer Céline Danhier, BLANK CITY captures the idiosyncratic, explosive energy of the “No Wave Cinema” and “Cinema of Transgression” movements. Stark and provocative, the films drew name and inspiration from the French New Wave; as well as Film Noir, and the works of Andy Warhol and John Waters. Filmmakers such as Jim Jarmusch, Eric Mitchell, Beth B, Charlie Ahear, Lizzie Borden and Amos Poe showcased the city’s vibrant grit and bore witness to the rising East Village art and rock scenes and the birth of hip hop. Short, long, color or black-and-white, their stripped-down films portrayed themes of alienation and dissonance with a raw and genuine spirit, at times with deadpan humor blurring the lines between fiction and reality.

Running time: 96 minutes

Release date: April 6 at the IFC Center, New York

Visit the official site HERE


SLIFF 2010 Review: VISIONARIES

For many, VISIONARIES will feel like an incomprehensible documentary about a group of strange filmmakers who made incomprehensible films. For those who feel they may fit this description, this is your friendly “heads up’ to enter into the film with an open mind and uninhibited curiosity. Every film featured in VISIONARIES has some meaning or purpose.

Workman interviews several groundbreaking and influential filmmakers of the experimental and avant-garde “genre” including Jonas Mekas, who serves as the film’s tour guide into the minds of cinematic artists like Stan Brakhage, Man Ray, Su Friedrich and Kenneth Anger. David Lynch offers insights as well, one of the most interesting is when he explains how when sound and images are projected together, the viewer’s mind involuntarily begins to construct a narrative. With this concept, it may be assumed that the viewer is the storyteller and each film may ultimately have an infinite number of stories it tells.

VISIONARIES contains over 100 clips and excerpts from films with a variety of styles and executions. A significant portion of the film delves into the motion picture works of Andy Warhol, who cannot be dismissed as an influential force in the avant-garde. Mekas recalls memories and insights into Warhol’s films to accompany archival interviews with Warhol himself.

While some of the most recognizable films featured in VISIONARIES would include Andy Warhol’s SLEEP and EAT — both of which feature an uncut, unmoving shot of the title action – or, Salvador Dali’s UN CHIEN ANDALOU, infamously known for it’s image of an eye being sliced open with a straight razor. However, these films only break the surface of a vast and fascinating array of experimental works of cinematic art.

The avant-garde movement in film is an exploration of creativity and self-expression and deserves exposure to the general public. This is, more than anything else, what VISIONARIES offers… a chance for a greater audience to experience the typically hidden and unappreciated world of motion pictures outside of the traditional Hollywood narrative structure. Near the end of the film, a brief series of quick interviews with people standing in line for a film festival illustrates how having the courage and curiosity to seek out films outside our comfort zone is not only enjoyable, but necessary to fully understand the deeper possibilities of the cinematic arts.

VISIONARIES played during the 19th Annual Stella Artois St. Louis International Film Festival on Saturday, November 20th, followed by a free documentary filmmaking seminar with director Chuck Workman on Sunday, November 21st. While a release date has not been established, those who missed VISIONARIES during SLIFF can “save” the film into their Netflix queue and will be notified once the DVD is available.

Gus Van Sant reconsidering his Andy Warhol flick…

Gus Van Sant mentioned in an interview recently that he might consider doing his Andy Warhol movie that he previously had to scrap due to River Phoenix’s sudden death.

“I was all set to do the Warhol movie at one time – I even had a financing party.

“River (Phoenix) kind of looked like Andy in his younger days. But that project never really went forward. Maybe I’ll go back to it one day.”

I think Gus Van Sant would be an awesome, but super depressing Warhol movie, maybe he will move forward with this..just not with Shia LaBeouf please.