“It becomes almost interactive because he’s looking at us, he’s looking at the audience,” Gonçalves says of Reed. Reed, in particular, makes for an arresting presence, staring into the camera in those Warhol tests, barely blinking, the split screen next to him occupied with footage from that era. “It’s such a rare thing to be able to tell the story of a person and then just watch the person the whole time as you’re being told the story of their life or their childhood.” “I can’t tell you enough what a complete gift it was to have those ,” Kurnitz notes. For the editors, that was a Velvet goldmine. Warhol’s original black and white screen tests appear in the documentary, often in split screen with archival footage. And then I would light it with a gel, like Andy did with the color on their faces that were exactly natural.” And then the printed silk screens that he did of the movie stars, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis and Debbie Harry, Jacqueline Onassis… That’s in the background of all the interviews-we would pick a color for each person. “Andy’s screen tests where he would just set up the Bolex and have somebody look in the camera with one light source-that became a touchstone for us. “A combination between Warhol silkscreens and his screen tests informed how I would shoot the interviews,” Lachman explains. They cross-pollinated with experimental filmmaker Jonas Mekas and pop artist Andy Warhol and his Factory scene.Ĭale, Tucker and Factory star Mary Woronov are among the people Haynes interviewed for the film. The Velvet Underground inserts the viewer into the visual and sonic milieu from which the band sprang: low-rent Manhattan warrens of the mid-‘60s, where Reed combined energies with musicians John Cale, Sterling Morrison, Moe Tucker, and-for a time-German vocalist and model Nico. So, for me, all films are documentation.” Where they hit the light, how the camera moves, you’re documenting something in time and space. “You’re working with an actor, but no performance is ever the same. “I have to say, for me, there’s no difference… I always say, in a weird way, all films are documentations, even in a narrative form,” Lachman tells Deadline. He says he doesn’t alter his approach to photography based on whether a film is fiction or otherwise. Over the course of his long career, Lachman has shot documentaries and scripted films, and earned Oscar nominations for two of Haynes’ dramatic features, Carol (2015), and Far From Heaven (2002). Few rock albums are as important as The Velvet Underground & Nico, and fewer still have lost so little of their power to surprise and intrigue more 50 years after first hitting the racks.The Velvet Underground's Influence On Director Todd Haynes’ Film Went Far Beyond The Band’s Music - Contenders Documentary Cinematographer Ed Lachman Apple Original Films While the significance of Nico's contributions have been debated over the years, she meshes with the band's outlook in that she hardly sounds like a typical rock vocalist, and if Andy Warhol's presence as producer was primarily a matter of signing the checks, his notoriety allowed The Velvet Underground to record their material without compromise, which would have been impossible under most other circumstances. The bracing discord of "European Son," the troubling beauty of "All Tomorrow's Parties," and the expressive dynamics of "Heroin" all remain as compelling as the day they were recorded. Lou Reed's lyrical exploration of drugs and kinky sex (then risky stuff in film and literature, let alone "teen music") always received the most press attention, but the music Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Maureen Tucker played was as radical as the words they accompanied. Here, the Velvets dipped their toes into dreamy pop ("Sunday Morning"), tough garage rock ("Waiting for the Man"), stripped-down R&B ("There She Goes Again"), and understated love songs ("I'll Be Your Mirror") when they weren't busy creating sounds without pop precedent. While The Velvet Underground had as distinctive a sound as any band, what's most surprising about this album is its diversity. While it reportedly took over a decade for the album's sales to crack six figures, glam, punk, new wave, goth, noise, and nearly every other left-of-center rock movement owes an audible debt to this set. One would be hard-pressed to name a rock album whose influence has been as broad and pervasive as The Velvet Underground & Nico.
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