1164 The Velvet Underground

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bad future
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1164 The Velvet Underground

#1 Post by bad future » Wed Jan 01, 2020 3:57 pm

The Velvet Underground

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Emerging from the primordial soup of glamour, gutter sleaze, and feverish creativity that was New York's 1960s underground culture, the Velvet Underground redefined music with its at once raw and exalted blend of experimentation and art-damaged rock and roll. In his kaleidoscopic documentary The Velvet Underground, Todd Haynes vividly evokes the band's incandescent world: the creative origins of the twin visionaries Lou Reed and John Cale, Andy Warhol's fabled Factory, and the explosive tension between pop and the avant-garde that propelled the group and ultimately consumed it. Never-before-seen performances, interviews, rare recordings, and mind-blowing transmissions from the era's avant-garde cinema scene come together in an ecstatic swirl of sound and image that is to the traditional music documentary what the Velvets were to rock: utterly revolutionary.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital master, approved by director Todd Haynes and cinematographer Ed Lachman, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack
• Audio commentary featuring Haynes and editors Affonso Gonçalves and Adam Kurnitz
• Outtakes of interviews shot for the film with musicians John Cale, Jonathan Richman, and Maureen Tucker; filmmaker Jonas Mekas; and actor Mary Woronov
• Conversation from 2021 among Haynes, Cale, and Tucker
• Complete versions of some of the avant-garde films excerpted in the movie, including Piero Heliczer's Venus in Furs (1965)
• Teaser
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Optional annotated subtitle track that identifies the avant-garde films seen in the movie
• PLUS: A 2021 essay by critic Greil Marcus

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DarkImbecile
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Re: The Films of 2020

#2 Post by DarkImbecile » Wed Jan 01, 2020 4:04 pm

bad future wrote:
Wed Jan 01, 2020 3:57 pm
! Is there really another Todd Haynes film on the way? I tried googling, but all the results, including the *current draft* of his wikipedia page, are from a world where Dark Waters is still the Haynes project on the horizon. Which, fair; I guess it may as well be still unreleased as far as most people seem concerned...

very exciting post either way!
In addition to a possible Peggy Lee biopic that is very unlikely to come this year, he has a documentary on Lou Reed that is finished or very close to it.

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Big Ben
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Re: The Films of 2020

#3 Post by Big Ben » Wed Jan 01, 2020 6:54 pm

DarkImbecile wrote:
Wed Jan 01, 2020 4:04 pm
bad future wrote:
Wed Jan 01, 2020 3:57 pm
! Is there really another Todd Haynes film on the way?
In addition to a possible Peggy Lee biopic that is very unlikely to come this year, he has a documentary on Lou Reed that is finished or very close to it.
Imdb lists it as finished but not yet screened. It appears to be about the Velvet Underground years specifically.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The Films of 2020

#4 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Jan 01, 2020 7:46 pm

Big Ben wrote:
Wed Jan 01, 2020 6:54 pm
DarkImbecile wrote:
Wed Jan 01, 2020 4:04 pm
bad future wrote:
Wed Jan 01, 2020 3:57 pm
! Is there really another Todd Haynes film on the way?
In addition to a possible Peggy Lee biopic that is very unlikely to come this year, he has a documentary on Lou Reed that is finished or very close to it.
Imdb lists it as finished but not yet screened. It appears to be about the Velvet Underground years specifically.
I rarely get hyped for docs but this is incredibly exciting

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FrauBlucher
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Re: The Films of 2020

#5 Post by FrauBlucher » Wed Jan 01, 2020 8:05 pm

Totally agree. And could see it end up with Criterion eventually

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senseabove
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Re: The Films of 2020

#6 Post by senseabove » Wed Oct 21, 2020 3:19 pm

Apple has picked up Todd Haynes' Velvet Underground doc.

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hearthesilence
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Re: The Films of 2021

#7 Post by hearthesilence » Sat Mar 20, 2021 7:50 pm

Todd Haynes's new film The Velvet Underground is set for 2021 release through Apple TV Plus.

The new issue of Uncut has an interview with Haynes, as well as a boatload of Velvets material (interviews with John Cale, Doug Yule, Jonathan Richman, Lenny Kaye and more).

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FrauBlucher
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The Velvet Underground (Todd Haynes, 2021)

#8 Post by FrauBlucher » Fri Jul 09, 2021 6:59 pm


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FrauBlucher
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Re: Festival Circuit 2021

#9 Post by FrauBlucher » Sat Jul 10, 2021 4:27 pm

Omensetter wrote:
Sat Jul 10, 2021 12:29 pm
FrauBlucher wrote:
Fri Jul 09, 2021 6:59 pm
David Ehrlich on The Velvet Underground documentary I'm looking forward to this
Yeah, this in my top five for the festival. Generally, I find it more interesting when Haynes is away from music-related projects, but then it's the Velvet Underground...it seems like something to watch in August before nearly every release is in some way angling for an Oscar. Hopefully, it receives a robust theatrical run in October; there's enough preawareness on the VU to sell tickets.
The distributor is Apple TV so I don't know what that means for a theatrical release. Perhaps Haynes relationship with Criterion could mean a physical release with them

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Ribs
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Re: Festival Circuit 2021

#10 Post by Ribs » Sat Jul 10, 2021 7:55 pm

It will be released Day & Date; Apple have gotten the foot in the door for one movie in semi-wide release, the Billie Eilish movie they booked in Imaxes in February day and date. It will assuredly be in Telluride, TIFF, and NYFF and I know Todd Haynes has said he cares immensely about the theatrical element for this film but I think it will in all likelihood do a week in specialty theaters in the major markets and anything more than that would be somewhat remarkable.

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senseabove
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Re: Trailers for Upcoming Films

#11 Post by senseabove » Mon Aug 30, 2021 3:30 pm


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therewillbeblus
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Re: The Films of 2021

#12 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Oct 17, 2021 12:25 am

The Velvet Underground begins as a typical programmer doc of the history of the band's formation, but Haynes mostly avoids banality by lifting his first feature-length documentary into an anamnesis of affection for what the music evoked, destroyed, and created for those of the time, as well as audiences still today. He accomplishes this through traditional documentary means of talking head interviews, combined with a collage of phantasmagoric imagery to emulate a Warhol-esque multimedia sensory experience over psychedelic VU tracks. Haynes also gets more personal in the back half as the band's critique of the hippie movement lends way to an amalgamation of their ethos as raw confessions of a dirty, oppressive, upsetting, and painful milieu, as well as a more truthful indication of the drugged-out rotten existence that comprised the late 60s, in the underbelly of the visible Flower Power veneer (at least from all the anecdotal evidence I've accrued from people who actually spent time hanging out in Haight-Ashbury and NYC during this era).

There's an implicit irony when the band goes pop and the more accessible tracks play over footage of jovial hippie counterculture partying, but the celebrations are allowed to coexist as an ascension from one dimension into new developments as artists. It's a deserved party for us to share with the filmmaker and band around their music, even if the images don't reflect the literal forms of engagement their ethos supports, for they elicit the warmth the catalog brings to us individually. Of course the pathos surrounding the fates of the band members challenges any white-light uniformity of positive vibes -as does the repetition of "Heroin"'s skinned confession of fatalistic emotional torment and alienated confusion, mixed with energetic push towards euphoria, in a necessarily compromised form of surrender. "Heroin"'s split, contradictory yet compositely authentic, essence is a good marker for the band's magic, and the significance of Haynes' utilization of the track, especially when and where he places it, is not lost on me.

I don't know if this film will sway detractors of the group to give them another go, but for those of us deeply in love with this music (for me, one of the few bands that changed my life as I entered adolescence and continues to change my life today, with rarely a day going by that I don't think of their music), it's well-worth checking out. But if you love them, you were probably already planning to do that. Despite some directorial flourishes that elevate the material, Haynes isn't trying to reinvent the wheel- the whole package is still reminiscent of many music documentaries that have come before, TV episodes dedicated to a band, etc., without a consistent auteurist flavor - though around (and within) some dry moments, it's still informative, well-edited, and fun.

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Re: The Films of 2021

#13 Post by FrauBlucher » Mon Oct 18, 2021 6:46 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Sun Oct 17, 2021 12:25 am
The Velvet Underground I don't know if this film will sway detractors of the group to give them another go, but for those of us deeply in love with this music (for me, one of the few bands that changed my life as I entered adolescence and continues to change my life today, with rarely a day going by that I don't think of their music), it's well-worth checking out. But if you love them, you were probably already planning to do that. Despite some directorial flourishes that elevate the material, Haynes isn't trying to reinvent the wheel- the whole package is still reminiscent of many music documentaries that have come before, TV episodes dedicated to a band, etc., without a consistent auteurist flavor - though around (and within) some dry moments, it's still informative, well-edited, and fun.
A lot of this are known and has been out there if you've read books about the VU, Reed and the beginning of punk. But Haynes does a great job creating this doc with a Warhol like flourish, yet still maintaining a thread of historical relevancy that ties everything together. I'm not sure if I wasn't a VU fan this would make me like them, but as a fan this made me appreciate them more so after seeing this

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The Films of 2021

#14 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Oct 18, 2021 7:06 pm

Yeah I agree, the actual information isn't groundbreaking or new, but during those low periods at lease they keep feeding you some interesting blips in concise, breezy forms. The film didn't linger with me after, and I'm cooler on it now than while watching it, but the Warhol-like collages were exciting, and of course the music is fantastic.

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Matt
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The Films of 2021

#15 Post by Matt » Tue Oct 19, 2021 12:13 am

I don’t know who the audience for this film really is. As said, none of this information is new for even casual VU fans, but then names are dropped without any context (Gerard Malanga, someone named Paul [Morrissey, I assume] who was key to introducing Warhol to the band) and major events in the later life of the band (Songs for Drella, the 1993 reunion tour) are briefly referenced in images but not actually mentioned or acknowledged by anyone as if they’re either common knowledge or not worth mentioning.

And don’t get me started on how Reed’s “queerness” is teased early on as a major factor in his artistic creation and then summarily dropped and then waved away with a cute picture of him and Laurie Anderson (which seems a very Lou Reed thing for the film to do).

It was great to see all these snippets of Warhol (and Jordan Belson and Jack Smith and Jonas Mekas) films in HD (and at the right speed) that we will probably never see again in any other context, but apart from the visual and aural splendor, it felt like nothing more than an especially arty episode of VH1’s Behind the Music. That it was produced by the major music label that owns VU’s catalog fully explains to me the blandly corporate sheen of the narrative:
KCRW: This is your first documentary. Why did you choose The Velvet Underground as the subject?

Todd Haynes: “This project basically came to me through someone at Universal Music Group, David Blackman, where the masters of The Velvets’ music resides. David reached out to me and Christine Vachon, my producer, and asked if I would be interested in doing a documentary and I said, ‘Yes, absolutely. Hands down.’”
Someone give us a 4-hour Lou Reed biopic by Bruno Dumont or something. Something messy, something with blood in its veins.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The Films of 2021

#16 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Oct 19, 2021 12:39 am

Matt wrote:
Tue Oct 19, 2021 12:13 am
Someone give us a 4-hour Lou Reed biopic by Bruno Dumont or something. Something messy, something with blood in its veins.
Someone with connections needs to land you a pitch meeting! Now I just want to see this hypothetical movie

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hearthesilence
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Re: The Velvet Underground (Todd Haynes, 2021)

#17 Post by hearthesilence » Sun Mar 13, 2022 1:34 pm

Jim Hoberman writes about the film for Tablet, partly to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the debut album's release.

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swo17
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1164 The Velvet Underground

#18 Post by swo17 » Thu Sep 15, 2022 12:08 pm


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swo17
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Re: 1164 The Velvet Underground

#19 Post by swo17 » Thu Sep 15, 2022 12:25 pm

Complete versions of some of the avant-garde films excerpted in the movie, including Piero Heliczer's Venus in Furs (1965)
This is enticing. There are a ton of great options to choose from

ivuernis
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Re: 1164 The Velvet Underground

#20 Post by ivuernis » Thu Sep 15, 2022 12:45 pm

Cosmic Ray [-o<

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dda1996a
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Re: 1164 The Velvet Underground

#21 Post by dda1996a » Thu Sep 15, 2022 12:50 pm

swo17 wrote:
Thu Sep 15, 2022 12:25 pm
Complete versions of some of the avant-garde films excerpted in the movie, including Piero Heliczer's Venus in Furs (1965)
This is enticing. There are a ton of great options to choose from
Interesting, this is actually more enticing to me than the actual film (which is decent and all)

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Re: 1164 The Velvet Underground

#22 Post by FrauBlucher » Thu Sep 15, 2022 12:54 pm

I can't say I loved this as the ultimate tell all of the VU. But my expectations and excitement for a Criterion release were based on the supplements they would add. They've disappointed. I would've like to have seen performance and concert footage of the band. Btw... I can't wait to hold this up in front of a mirror

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swo17
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Re: 1164 The Velvet Underground

#23 Post by swo17 » Thu Sep 15, 2022 12:57 pm

"I'll Be Your Mirror"

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FrauBlucher
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Re: 1164 The Velvet Underground

#24 Post by FrauBlucher » Thu Sep 15, 2022 1:02 pm

:lol: :lol: :lol: Indeed

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ryannichols7
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Re: 1164 The Velvet Underground

#25 Post by ryannichols7 » Thu Sep 15, 2022 1:31 pm

FrauBlucher wrote:
Thu Sep 15, 2022 12:54 pm
I can't say I loved this as the ultimate tell all of the VU. But my expectations and excitement for a Criterion release were based on the supplements they would add. They've disappointed. I would've like to have seen performance and concert footage of the band. Btw... I can't wait to hold this up in front of a mirror
I honestly wonder how much licensing costs for those sort of extras are. Criterion rarely ever include additional performances as part of their extras, and I have to assume they have a greater licensing cost than we expect, because they'd otherwise be a no brainer.

that said I think the edition looks great - I haven't gotten the chance to check out the film but I love the band (though admittedly, I like them better with each successive album up till 1970, so the film may not entirely be my thing!) and Haynes enough to support this blindly. the extras look solid enough, I'm glad they got Cale and Tucker to sit down for an extra talk. and Criterion doesn't do nearly enough experimental/avant garde films - the Brakhage and Frampton sets are two of my favorite editions. thrilled to have more, even if it's just like five or something!

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