THE VELVET UNDERGROUND
Todd Haynes' Doc and Warhol's Band: 7 Rare, Live Films
Sex, drugs, rock & roll, coming to you October 15th. Todd Haynes’s documentary The Velvet Underground is an undeniably authentic immersion into the early days of the The Velvet Underground, Nico, and Andy Warhol’s 1960s New York city art scene.
While not as inventive as his non-linear, fictionalized Bob Dyla biopic I’m Not There, nor his banned directorial debut Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, which used Barbie dolls as actors, Todd Haynes’s take on the Velvet Underground is an undeniably art-house homage to the band’s near-mythical beginnings. Told mostly through rare archival footage as well as through interviews with still-living original band members John Cale and Maureen “Moe” Tucker, The Velvet Underground is more a cinematic collage than it is a critical review. The film is all the better for it, allowing viewers to immerse themselves in something that feels similar to the lost world of a 1960s Velvet Underground performance, as opposed to rehashing modern day music journalists’ analyses on what made the band great. This, after all, is a band whose hazy drug-fueled performances were a mainstay of Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable, and whose debut album reportedly only sold 30,000 copies, before being hailed as one of the most formative rock & roll sounds of the modern era. It would be a mistake to make any film about them crisp and cohesive, when the allure of the Velvet Underground has always been the moody and the misunderstood.
Haynes’s documentary is mostly focused on the origins of the band, and on the singularly dark and droning sound of their debut album “The Velvet Underground & Nico.” Haynes is less interested in the band’s various conflicts, dissolution, and eventual reunion than he is on what made them initially groundbreaking. The film also strays away from unpacking too much arcana around Lou Reed’s exploits, such as the night he punched David Bowie in the face – although his sister, Merrill Reed Weiner, is interviewed, and does her best to address the story that her parents okayed Reed’s electroshock therapy during his teenage Long Island years in order to undo his bisexuality.
The film is a must-see for anyone interested in The Velvet Underground, the New York art scene, the evolution of modern alt rock, or Todd Haynes’s work. And on the same day that the film is released, Republic Records and UMe will release the accompanying soundtrack, which is said to contain both rare and well known Velvet Underground tracks. Catch the film on Apple+ as of October 15th, or in select theaters.
