The Velvet Underground is often mentioned as a famous joke about The Velvet Underground, a British musician who was heavily influenced by minimalism and pioneered the ambient music genre, saying that Underground Velvet didn't sell a few albums, but that everyone who bought their albums formed their own band.
But in Todd Haynes' documentary of the same name for Underground Velvet, you won't hear this well-known joke or see a whole bunch of music industry's biggest names being interviewed like marquees, illustrating how important underground velvet is to them.
You won't even hear a complete underground velvet song in this movie until halfway through the two-hour movie.
The Velvet Underground band
Haynes, the director who has made the films Velvet Goldmine, Carol, Far from Heaven and I'm Not There (the latter is a film about Bob Dylan), is no such a conformist filmmaker, and he refuses to use traditional techniques to tell the story of underground velvet, considering that this is an avant-garde band that never compromises, which is indeed appropriate.
In July 2021, the documentary "Velvet Underground" premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and like the band itself, the film has a bold artistry, it is not marginal and exciting.
You can imagine that if Lou Reed himself could have seen the film, he would have looked approving of this treatment.
Director Haynes and the poster for "Velvet Underground"
Haynes said in an interview: "I don't have to make another movie to tell you how great this band is. ”
"There's a lot of stuff I think about: Well, we've known that for a long time. So let's talk about how it all happened, this music, where these people came from, and how this group of people miraculously came together. ”
The "Velvet Underground" movie will be officially released on October 15, 2021, and will appear online on Apple's streaming platform, and the film will dig up many rare clips and feature a large number of ancient interviews, including the band's original member John Cale, who described the band's efforts to "become elegant and how to become cruel".
In addition, interview clips from The Modern Lovers' Jonas Richman and the late avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Meccas will also appear in the film, including the person who made the first live performance of The Underground Velvet in 1964, to which Haynes also dedicated the film.
The most unique thing about "Underground Velvet" is that it recreates the art scene in downtown New York in the 1960s, and it is this art scene that gave birth to underground velvet and carried it forward.
Haynes patiently traces how Warhol's Factory rose to prominence; the gay explosion in New York; and how Lou Reid and The Underground Velvet were drawn to Lamont Young's experimental drone music.
Art, avant-garde film and music collide with each other in this scene, and this documentary focuses on this collision itself, but also on the revelatory depiction of the process of artistic fusion.
Andy Warhol's factory
Haynes said: "You can really feel this coexistence and creative inspiration passing from one medium to another. This breeding ground for localized art is no longer there because it's a digital age. I longed for a scene like this today, but I don't know where it could still be. ”
Velvet Underground was also Haynes's first solo documentary, after he had made several well-known fictional films about great musicians. Velvet Goldmine is a gorgeous rock fantasia based on David Bowie's story; in the movie I'm Not There, he doesn't try to play Bob Dylan with an actor — he finds seven in one go.
"When I study Bowie in Velvet Goldmine or all dylan in 'I'm Not There,' you stumble upon the real thing," Haynes says, "and I always feel that if I were to reconstruct these stories in a fictional way, I'd better use the opportunity to do something different." ”
"So, you're not trying to compare them to stories that really happened, one-on-one comparisons. When you use a different language and put it in a different context, the framework of the story is revealed. ”
Stills from Velvet Goldmine
Haynes never formally met Lou Reed until the latter's death in 2013. But he's met Reed several times at events like the Whitney Biennale, except he said, "I was too timid." ”
Reed allowed Haynes to use the famous "Satellite of Love" in the film Velvet Goldmine, and Reed's widow Laurie Anderson (who was also a filmmaker herself) supported Haynes in making the film, as did other witnesses of the year, such as Andy Warhol.
Warhol is the only person who has actually documented the underground velvet band before, and his footage will also run through the entire film. In split-screen screens, the band members play for long periods of time doing screen tests for Warhol's factory (often seen as still photos), in which Reed and Kyle look at you defiantly.
Lou Reed
"The only film about them was made by one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, which is really too rare and too strange. You won't find any traditional records about underground velvet live performances, you'll only have Warhol's films. Haynes said, "We just make art in art, tell a story about great art." ”
references：
https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/tv-film/9599215/the-velvet-underground-documentary-cannes-film-festival-todd-haynes/