Direction: Todd Haynes
Country: USA
This documentary about the iconic American rock band The Velvet Underground was put together with imaginative visual collages by the renowned director Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven, 2002; I’m Not There, 2007; Carol, 2015), but it’s marred by basic flaws.
Mounted with a well-calibrated mix of archival materials, interviews, audio recordings and artful graphic mosaics, the film will mostly please the ones exceptionally familiar with the group, leaving the remaining viewers adrift. The reason behind this, is that the interviewees - author/film critic Amy Taubin, enthusiastic musician/fan Jonathan Richman, actress Mary Woronov and philosopher/musician Henry Flynt, only to name a few - are not properly identified as they detail several episodes that marked the group’s short yet influential existence. This major setback impedes the general audience to contextualize them on the picture since they don’t know which type of relationship they had with the Velvets.
For obvious reasons, Lou Reed and John Cale were the foremost figures of this progressive quartet and, therefore, it’s perfectly natural that more time has been given to them, as well as to the German model/singer Nico, who joined them in their first album.
Besides following the group’s story (more than their music), the film stresses the disagreements between Reed and Cale, which resulted in an early change of line-up, as well as the symbiotic relationship between the band and its manager/producer, the pop-art artist Andy Warhol, who allowed them to perform regularly in his New York City studio - The Factory.
It’s not a great documentary, yet fairly informative and entertaining.
