#MOVIE THE VELVET UNDERGROUND 2021 HOW TO#

He draws on the underground films of the period, which were often dream-play documentaries, and he divides the screen into sections, introducing the principals by playing their words off the flickering black-and-white images of their Warhol screen tests.

(The Velvets hated Frank Zappa, so no pun intended.) Haynes appears to have vacuumed up every last photograph and raw scrap of home-movie and archival footage of the band that exists and stitched it all into a coruscating document that feels like a time-machine kaleidoscope. It’s called “The Velvet Underground,” and among other things it’s a fascinating study in how necessity becomes the mother of invention. The albums are there for all time, but as a historical presence the Velvets can seem a bit like a group of ghosts.īut now, the great director Todd Haynes has, at long last, made a documentary about the Velvet Underground.

(It’s quite an irony considering that Warhol, the band’s mentor, was the first person to be notorious for filming everything around him, but there you go.) The Velvet Underground, whose music was a mesmerizing midnight trance-out, had no radio niche, no publicity, no “media,” no backstage verité Pennebaker or Maysles. Every time I’ve raised the subject with those in the know, the explanation comes down to: “There’s no footage.” What they mean is: There are random bits of footage, and plenty of photographs, but if you want to see the Velvets in their prime performing “What Goes On” or “White Light/White Heat” in a steamy rock club, or get a taste of what it was like to see the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (the hypnotic chug-a-chug of the band, the psychedelic blobs and Warhol films) at the Dom in New York City in 1966, or to see any full-scale concert clip that would allow you to experience the Velvets in a you-are-there, that’s-what-they-were-like way, you’re out of luck, because those clips basically don’t exist. There’s a reason we’ve never seen that film. So surely they deserve to be captured and memorialized in a film that does them justice. They are, along with the Beatles and the Stones, one of the three seminal groups in the history of rock ‘n’ roll. The Belcourt Theatre does not provide advisories about subject matter or potential triggering content, as sensitivities vary from person to person.īeyond the synopses, trailers and review links on our website, other sources of information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDband as well as through general internet searches.For years, I’ve been longing for someone to make a documentary about the Velvet Underground.

In short, THE VELVET UNDERGROUND is a documentary that meets the Velvet Underground eye-to-eye and enriches it.” - Finnuala Halligan, Screen Daily

#MOVIE THE VELVET UNDERGROUND 2021 HOW TO#

The film features in-depth interviews with the key players of that time, combined with a treasure trove of never-before-seen performances and a rich collection of recordings, Warhol films, and other experimental art - creating an immersive experience into what founding member John Cale describes as the band’s creative ethos: “how to be elegant and how to be brutal.” “Haynes, the uncommonly sensitive and provocative director of CAROL, I’M NOT THERE and FAR FROM HEAVEN, among others, isn’t here to give us a blow-by-blow account of the New York band that was adopted by Andy Warhol’s Factory scene.THE VELVET UNDERGROUND is an exemplary doc, doing a virtuoso job of weaving archival footage, still photos and talking heads into a freewheeling trip through the band’s world.” - Steve Pond, The Wrap “Haynes deals with the band on the level they wanted (as musical poets, innovators and influencers) with admiration, but not uncritical reverence…. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Todd Haynes, THE VELVET UNDERGROUND shows just how the group became a cultural touchstone representing a range of contradictions - the band is both of their time, yet timeless literary yet realistic rooted in high art and street culture. The Velvet Underground created a new sound that changed the world of music, cementing its place as one of rock ’n’ roll’s most revered bands.

Reel Proud: A Film Seminar for LGBTQ+ High School StudentsĪll screenings: Video introduction from NPR music critic and correspondent Ann Powers.

Movie the velvet underground 2021