![]() ![]() Warhol, who served as VU’s early manager and benefactor, was an obsessive documentarian of the world around him, and yet very little traditional footage of the band exists. This approach was partially out of necessity. Instead, he uses them as a springboard to create a moving visual tribute to New York’s experimental art scene of the 1960s. But for the most part, Haynes is unconcerned with capturing a definitive vision of the Velvet Underground. The film follows a relatively chronological narrative, beginning with the origin stories of VU’s core lineup (Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Moe Tucker), escalating with the release of 1967’s The Velvet Underground & Nico, and concluding with the band’s dissolution and Reed’s solo career in the early ’70s. His 1987 short Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story used Barbie dolls to paint a portrait of the tragic pop singer, 1998’s Velvet Goldmine put a Citizen Kane spin on the ’70s glam-rock scene (with details cribbed from Bowie and Bolan), and 2007’s I’m Not There posed the unlikely question: What if six famous actors channeled different sides of Bob Dylan to make the most interesting biopic ever? The Velvet Underground is not so blatantly deconstructivist. Now Streaming covers international and indie genre films and TV shows that are available on legal streaming services.Haynes has an impressive track record of making provocative films that cut through the mystique of musical icons. 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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