The Velvet Underground
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art 227 State St., Madison, Wisconsin 53703
courtesy Apple TV+
The Velvet Underground
It's been about 50 years since the original run of The Velvet Underground (without Lou Reed, but still including Sterling Morrison, Maureen Tucker and Doug Yule) sputtered to a halt after some sporadic touring for swan song album Loaded. There have been a lot of rock docs in those five decades, but nobody has tried to create a full-length VU documentary...until now. Taking a crack at it is writer-director Todd Haynes (Carol, Far from Heaven), who faced a tall order to create a doc about a group with so little actual in-action footage to draw on. Haynes' filmography features interesting takes on musical subjects (such as the one-of-a-kind Dylan rumination I'm Not There) so excitement is high for this Spotlight Cinema screening.
press release: Spotlight Cinema is $7 per screening, or free for MMoCA members and anyone age 18 and younger. Ticket sales begin at 6:30 pm in the museum lobby.
The most timeless and influential band in American rock (and still the uncontested paragons of downtown NYC cool), The Velvet Underground receive a worthy and overdue tribute from Todd Haynes (Carol, Safe). Loaded with incredible vintage footage—much of it culled from Andy Warhol’s films—the documentary’s borders extend beyond the band to resurrect the 1960s New York art scene they emerged from. Borrowing Warhol’s contemporaneous mind-bending, multi-screen “exploded cinema” techniques, Haynes creates a kaleidoscopic viewing experience that must be experienced loud and on the big screen.
Google
Yahoo
Outlook
ical