L ifestyle /C ulture
‘Velvet Underground’ Withstands Test of Time
FI L M
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
BEFORE LOU
REED proclaimed, “My God is rock ’n’
roll,” the Velvet Underground
frontman was a Jewish boy who
grew up in Freeport, Long Island,
with Russian refugee grandpar-
ents. He was born Lewis Allan
Reed — though his grandpar-
ents changed their family name
from “Rabinowitz” to “Reed.”
The boy with a love for the
“Murray the K” radio show grew
into an amateur musician who
played — and got arrested —
at gay bars, who became the
leader of the iconic rock ’n’ roll
band the Velvet Underground
with the help of pop artist Andy
Warhol and New York’s finest
anti-establishment creatives.

“The Velvet Underground,”
produced and directed by
Jewish filmmaker Todd Haynes,
unravels the story of Reed and
his eccentric cohort of avant-
garde artists, cementing the
titular band as one that will live
on long after its dissolution and
the deaths of its members. The
documentary will be available
on AppleTV+ on Oct. 15
Haynes’ film — his first
documentary, but not his first
film to draw inspiration from
Reed — is a mosaic of video
clips and photographs: Reed as
a baby, New York in the ’60s, a
precious collection of 2018 inter-
views with Velvet Underground
band members and their peers.

The sheer volume of Haynes’
archive is impressive, yet the
curation of clips and photos
somehow manage to be greater
than the sum of their parts.

Haynes doesn’t shy away
from Reed’s notoriety as abrasive
and petulant, but rather tries to
provide an explanation for it.

Reed was socially anxious
and underwent electroconvul-
sive therapy at the request of his
parents, who suspected him of
having “homosexual urges.” He
began using drugs in high school.

He dropped out of New
York University after one-and-
a-half semesters, transferring
to Syracuse University, where
friends say he developed an
at-times bitter personality.

Early bandmates recall Reed
punching drum sets if they
missed a note or beat; Reed,
who died in 2013, demanded
perfection. Yet time seemed to tame Reed
a bit, as did the synergy between
bandmates Moe Tucker, Sterling
Morrison and John Cale. Their
improvisations pushed the
boundaries of what rock ’n’ roll
— and music — could entail.

The Velvet Underground was
unique, but Reed wanted to be
cemented as a rock star, a feat
which couldn’t have been made
possible without Warhol, the
band’s producer, who, in the
band’s early days, would sit silently
in the studio, session after session.

Warhol recruited German
actress and model Nico, whose
“ghostly” beauty and elegance
foiled the band’s untidy sound
and aesthetic.

Without Warhol’s signa-
ture pop-art banana on the
debut album’s cover, the Velvet
Underground would likely not
have experienced the stardom
they did.

Conversely, when Warhol and
Reed’s relationship soured and
Nico left to pursue an indepen-
dent musical career, the Velvet
Underground’s sound and
synergism faltered, though the
band continued creating music
together for several more years.

Though the
Velvet Underground was revived in the
1990s, the zeitgeist of the 1960s
that helped create the band’s
renown was long gone.

In its prime playing as
part of Warhol’s Plastic
From left: Moe Tucker, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Lou Reed
from archival photography in a split-screen frame
Courtesy of AppleTV+
Exploding Inevitable, the Velvet
Underground would have images
of polka dots and scenes from
Warhol’s reels projected behind it
during performances, prompting
sensory overload for the audience.

Haynes employs a similar
technique to his documentary:
Over the narration of Cale,
Tucker and musician and Velvet
Underground protege Jonathan
Richman, among other artists of
the time, Haynes fills the screen
with swirling geometric shapes
and musical performances and
footage sped up or slowed down.

To some, the indulgent use
of archival footage may seem
excessive, distracting from the
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documentary’s narrative. To
Haynes, it’s emblematic of the
1960s epoch.

“Painters, musicians,
filmmakers — they were not so
much interested in telling narra-
tive stories,” said Jonas Mekas, a
Lithuanian-American avant-garde
filmmaker, in the film. “The poetic
aspect of cinema brought cinema
to the level of the other parts.”
Throughout the film, Haynes
makes his fascination with the
passing of time clear.

The story of Reed and the
Velvet Underground digresses at
one point to explain the evoca-
tive 1963 “Kiss” film by Warhol.

The 50-minute silent film is
broken up into three-and-a-half-
minute segments, each of a pair
of people of various genders and
races kissing each other. The
film is shown at 16 frames per
second, slower than the speed
of the subjects while they were
being filmed.

“The people in those images
are breathing, and their hearts are
beating in a different time frame
than yours is when you watch it,”
film critic Amy Taubin said.

And as if he were a ghost, Reed’s
voice appears and disappears
throughout the documentary,
coloring the black-and-white
footage with his commentary,
bringing archival clips — and the
musician behind them — to life. l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM