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A revealing cinema verité portrait of the former Velvet Underground musician, John Cale, in creative collaboration with Brian Eno. Director Rob Nilsson follows them to Moscow, London and Wales for the recording of a new album, “Words for the Dying”, built around four Dylan Thomas poems.
This is not your typical "making of" documentary. Once in Moscow, Nilsson discovered that Eno wanted no part of the filming. The film becomes a clash of wills as Nilsson tries to cajole Eno back into the project. It is a subtle internecine battle, the camera crew tiptoeing through a minefield of bursting egos.
| Catalog Number: MC-845 |
Type: Feature |
Genre: Documentary |
| Copyright: 1990 |
Length: 81 Minutes |
Format:
DVD Region: 0 (All) |
| TV System: NTSC |
ISBN: |
UPC: 880198084590 |
| Label: Provocateur |
Notes: DVD Extras:
• Interview with Rob Nilsson
• Foreword by J. Poet
• Featurette – Direct Action Cinem
This title is available in Europe for Wholesale - List Prices: £16.99 / 24.95€
This is a microcinema exclusive title.
Wholesale Purchasing:
Program MC-845 is available for wholesale from Microcinema DVD. Contact info[at]microcinema.com or call at +1-415-447-9750
Exhibition:
Program MC-845 may be licensed for Exhibition.
2008-09-23 Earplug
By Steve Marchese
John Cale's creative process can be as puzzling to other artists as it is to his audience; whether as a catalyst for the Velvet Underground or as a celebrated producer and solo artist, he's often leaped blindfolded into the deep end. To be released on September 30, the new Words for the Dying DVD offers a revealing cinema-verité portrait of Cale in collaboration with equally enigmatic producer Brian Eno, exploring the forces that propel and prolong the creative process. In the film, the pair prepares to record "The Falkland Suite," the work at the core of Cale's 1989 album Words for the Dying.
Given its limited run when released in the early '90s, Words for the Dying had gone largely unseen until Provocateur Pictures and Microcinema International teamed up to distribute the picture on DVD. Instead of a typical, "making-of" movie, director Rob Nilsson — a winner of both the Camera d'Or from Cannes and the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance — fashions the narrative as a character study, following the collaborators across Moscow, London, and Wales while struggling with Eno's increasing reluctance to take part in the film. For Cale, meanwhile, the film proves an experience as enlightening and frustrating as the creative process itself.
| 2008-06-19 Bay Guardian
By Dennis Harvey
WORDS FOR THE DYING is a great documentary. One need only compare it to the superficially similar Phil Joaneau’s US: RATTLE AND HUM to see how far under the skin Nilsson has gotten. This fine movie deserves a place beside D.A. Pennebaker’s DON’T LOOK BACK about Dylan and the unreleased Stones film COCKSUCKER BLUES as brilliantly accurate life-of-rock musician portraitures.
| 2008-06-19 Melody Maker Magazine
By
Whatever you think of THE FALKLANDS SUITE itself, the resulting film, shot in grainy black and white, is gloriously compelling; witty, charming and intense at the same time. It will be running at London’s ICA for a week from Monday, February 26, in a double bill with IMAGINARY LANDSCAPES, an equally fascinating short film.
From the outset, American director Rob Nilsson was beset with obstacles. Firstly, even in the age of perestroika, Western film crews are regarded with some suspicion by the authorities. But this is nothing compared to the suspicion with which they are regarded by Brian Eno. Cale had given the go-ahead for Nilsson and his crew to follow him and Eno to Russia and into the studio. Evidently, however, no one had thought to forewarn the man who re-invented U2. When he found out, the reaction was one of purest horror- “I thought we were going to make a record, not a bloody movie. Cale looked like he was going to be sick.
In a final interview at the end of the recording, Nilsson asked his adversary, “After all the battles you and I had, do you think there’s any chance that this could turn out to be an interesting film in the end?” Long pause. “I don’t really see how…” He was wrong, of course.
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