![]() ![]() ![]() And somewhere within its cavernous sound, an understanding that creativity itself comes, at least in part, out of subjugation.” “As a young gay guy, I didn’t have to read Lou Reed’s lyrics or see Warhol’s films to recognize the world being conjured in this music: its erotic charge and its drive came from its assertion of marginality. “his one band was at the source of everything I was listening to-Bowie, Roxy, punk, new wave,” he wrote in the press materials of his 1980s college years. And now, in his first documentary, The Velvet Underground, Haynes takes on the mythology of the eponymous group he himself idolizes. And then came I'm Not There (2007), where he explored the mythic Bob Dylan, using six different actors, including Cate Blanchett, to portray the many reinventions of the legendary singer/songwriter. Haynes returned to this theme with Velvet Goldmine (1998), a fantasy based on the careers of David Bowie and Iggy Pop. ![]() The short film with which he first made his name, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987), told the tragic story of the pop singer by using Barbie dolls. Now Streaming covers international and indie genre films and TV shows that are available on legal streaming services.Oscar-nominated filmmaker Todd Haynes has been fascinated with the mythology and idolatry of celebrity, and the space between artist and fan, throughout his career. Still, Haynes lays out convincing evidence to support his film's implicit argument that The Velvet Underground were the most important band of the 1960s. Like The Velvet Underground, the band, The Velvet Underground, the film, may not appeal to more than a few. By that point, he's also made his latest work of art. Todd Haynes notes the fate of all his interviewees and other key subjects in his documentary, as any good documentary filmmaker should do. The Velvet Underground's songs appealed to my adolescent sensibility at the time, though now I find that it resonates more deeply and more widely through my consciousness. Even years later, when I first heard their often transfixing music, they were little known, and were only likely to be recommended by friends.īy my entry point to their music in the mid-70s, Lou Reed was an established solo artist, and John Cale had released a string of urgent solo albums. Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Moe Tucker came together from different backgrounds and different musical disciplines and experiences, and were able to hone, refine, and expand their artistic consciousness thanks to the patronage of Andy Warhol, who ruled the Manhattan underground in that era.įilmmaker Haynes gathers interviews with Cale and Tucker, the surviving members of the group, along with a select group of people who were there to bear witness to a phenomenon that never became very popular. It's very much an NYC film, in a manner similar to how The Velvet Underground could only have flourished artistically in Manhattan. So, even though, from outward appearances, The Velvet Underground may resemble a more conventional film, sticking to an anticipated narrative, much like his recent Dark Waters (2019), Haynes instead lulls the viewer into a pleasantly informative overview of the (relatively) short-lived band's career before more fully showing his hand by constructing a mosaic that reflects a wider river of influences that changed the course of the 1960s counter-culture. Some films are difficult to wrest away from personal expectations and memories.ĭirector Todd Haynes' Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987), Velvet Goldmine (1998), and I'm Not There (2007), serve as potent examples of the filmmaker's approach to musical influences and his artistic ambitions to subvert expectations through the adhesion of his personal perspective to his subjects. ![]()
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