Music documentaries may be my favorite new film genre, if they qualify as one (they do, right?). Maybe I've just been lucky, but Netflix has fed my mailbox some quality stuff recently. Here's a list:
I'm Your Man: Leonard Cohen (brought me to tears)
No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (made me wish for the sixties, just like in The Bends)
Standing in the Shadows of Motown (made me shake my rump)
Bob Dylan: Don't Look Back (made me slightly angry, as the director definitely made BD look kind of like an arse, but the scene with Bob Dylan playing "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" to Donovan made it all worth it)
And of course, the eternal
The Last Waltz (I can't say enough)
I'm going to continue to pursue this path, I believe, so if anyone has any suggestions - bring 'em on. And to the rest of you - these are all highly recommended by me - get some!
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5 comments:
I don't know where to start. Seriously, watch Don't Look Back again. It's hardly a hit piece. Dylan lashes out at several times during the film. Sometimes it seems justified, sometimes not. (The journalist who asks him what his songs are about --- ARGH what a stupid question, the songs should speak for themselves, do we really want Dylan to have to explain it in an interview --- a particularly brazen example.) The film is a portrait of celebrity as a kind of suffocation, of a tremendously talented artist who experienced massive fame very quickly at a very young age. Surely that confluence of factors makes a bit of attitude something less than a complete surprise. I'm not defending anything here I'm just saying maybe it's possible this isn't all Pennebaker? And if Dylan isn't always the nicest person in the world.......well, I guess that's okay with me. I appreciate him as an artist, and how he is personally I guess doesn't bother me too much. In fact, sometimes it even bleeds over, his sheer gumption and brazen-ness is one of the qualities I think we like about him.
On a final note I do believe Dylan himself liked the film. (I don't have a link or cite handy, but I know it's out there, I read this a while back.) Anyway I hope it doesn't sound like I'm trying to be argumentative but when one of my favorite movies by one of the most influential documentarians of all time is brushed aside in a parenthetical it's sort of like I get some kind of whiplash.
John,
First of all, I'll watch it again. Secondly, I LIKED it, I really did (it wouldn't be on the list if I didn't) - I just wanted to prepare anyone who may watch it based on my recommendations. The others I mentioned are very kind, idolizing portraits of artists - I felt it necessary to add that little disclaimer. Thirdly, I am slightly insulted that you felt I "brushed [it] aside in a parenthetical" - the parentheticals spoke to the aspect I enjoyed most about the films - and part of what I enjoyed about Don't Look Back was exactly that it made me slightly angry. It was the more truthful portrait and yes, Bob Dylan was kind of a jerk. BUT then you get to his performances, particularly the one I noted, and you sit back and think, "Oh yeah, that's why he gets to be an arse." And yes, his youth and the pressure of fame etc. etc. While this post was more of a memo to myself, and to anyone who may have more good recommendations (which I couldn't help but notice you didn't add...), I didn't give it much thought. It's not as if I expected sentence fragments to really connote what the film was all about, but rather, chose the shortest way to express the main effect these films had on me and what anyone who takes my recommendations should expect. Fair?
Seems fair, I offer you a virtual handshake as a symbol that all is well. As far as recommendations go: I suggest Gimme Shelter (which I actually haven't seen, but is supposed to be good and is on my queue), Gigantic, and 24 Hour Party People. Which, erm......isn't actually a documentary, just pretends to be one. It's still good though and as someone who knew basically nothing about the bands it profiled I was educated, thus I cheat and include it here.
I accept your virtual handshake. I've actually seen Gimme Shelter (but not in years, thus its exclusion from the list) and I would definitely recommend it. I watched it with the Woodstock documentary, and the contrast between the two mass concerts is striking. 24 Hour Party People is in my queue, but I hadn't heard of the other, Gigantic. Time to head on over to www.netflix.com...
I am so glad to see The Last Waltz in your list of music documentaries. It really is a shining pinnacle, not only for the performances but also for the hilarious interview segments with the members of The Band.
Other amazing ones include Celebration At Big Sur - if only for Stephen Stills attacking an overenthusiastic concert-goer and then later on apologizing for it onstage explaining that "some brothers" had to "love him down."
I am a ridiculous Beach Boys fan so I would also recommend I Just Wasn't Made For These Times about Brian Wilson, which is basically the movie that got me interested in the first place.
Also amazing is Heartworn Highways made in 1975 about underappreciated country musicians including Townes Van Zandt. This segment ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTGKzWDakK8) is particularly beautiful.
Ok, pardon the unsolicited comments.
Christopher
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