“Lou Reed’s Berlin,” the concert documentary directed by Julian Schnabel comes out this weekend in New York in limited release. We saw the film back during the Tribeca Film Festival and figured we’d give our review a bit more play for those that had missed it or were planning to check it out this weekend. Opinions on movies are fluid and should grow and change with time if neccesary (rush to judgement reviews aren’t ideal), but in this case we feel essentially like we did back in early May.
Some things to keep in mind about the concert film, ‘Berlin’ directed by insufferable and lovable artiste, Julian Schnabel are this (sacrilegious sacred cow alert!): If you don’t love Berlin the album (like know it front to back), this movie might not be for you, unless you’re a huge Lou Reed fan (we basically qualify here). Touted as the film that rediscovers – or at least shines a new light on – the Berlin album for a mainstream audiences, much like the LP itself, the film is not without its many flaws.
The well-known backstory here: At the time of its 1973 release Berlin was reviled and so poorly received that Reed and producer Bob Ezrin essentially disavowed it and never played it live (until it was finally performed and shot at the behest of big Berlin enthusiast Schnabel at St. Anne’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York in December 2006).
Obviously the album has been rechristened as an undiscovered masterpiece for some time now, but this movie reminds us that this claim is overstated no matter what revisionist greatest album lists can be generated. First off “Caroline Says,” while a great song is nothing but a sub-par (when compared to) re-write of “Stephanie Says” by the Velvet Underground. Anyone with half an ear can recognize this. Lou rejacks the same lyrics! (maybe cause the VU song was never officially released at the time so he felt it was ok to cannibalize his own work, but still).
The film starts out intercut with a lot of dreamy and stylized footage (shot by daughter Lola Schnabel) of Roman Polanski’s wife, the gorgeous French model/actress Emmanuelle Seigner (who also starred in Schnab’s ‘The Diving Bell & The Butterfly” and is in the band Orange who sang one of the tracks on the film’s soundtrack) interspersed throughout the concert. She’s acting as a surrogate stand-in for the album’s downtrodden protagonist Caroline, and the peppering of this allegorical footage on the live perf works quite well actually (Schnabel Sr. just directed the concert itself). Some have claimed the conceit is rather pretentious and silly, but frankly it’s a reprieve from constantly watching boring old Lou on stage the entire time.
But after a bold opening (first 15-20 minutes or so), the Schnab dispenses with the artful trick and the film devotes intself to your standard rock-concert doc that lives and dies by the material and how it’s performed and presented. This is where it gets kind of tricky. For one, see above, some of Berlin’s material is overwrought prog and always has been (sorry, olds at Rolling Stone) and some of it is beautiful and mournful. That latter material, “Sad Song,” “Caroline Says,” and “The Kids” is wisely saved for the end, but at times, it becomes a rather difficult mid-section to bear (the Schnab doesn’t seem to know what to do with his camera to breathe life into this concert). It doesn’t help that Reed was never the best singer in the world, fine, but then he deviates from the original melodies and talk/sings even more and lazier than he did originally (it really kills the mood of some songs that needs some emoting, i.e. melody). PS The fabled story behind the making of “The Kids” and the children crying at the end of the song is one of the great deplorable/awesome rock legends/myths and worth reading about.
And lastly, it is rather telling that the film’s most potent moment – the Velvets track “Candy Says” as sung by the tumescent transgendered angel Antony from Antony & The Johnsons – is not even a track from the re-heralded album.
“Lou Reed’s Berlin” is by no means terrible and is definitely engrossing at times, but world’s most under-appreciated album for concert film? Mmmm…not so much. A greatest hits concert film might have worked a little better, we must sadly admit. [-B] PS. We prefer Street Hassle and woulda paid admission to see “Waltzing Matilda” performed in its entirety with a string section.
Download: Lou Reed – “Berlin”
Watch: Lou Reed – “The Kids” (from Berlin, not the film)
