Todd Haynes is no stranger to music films, having already directed two about great rock musicians. In 1998, he directed Velvet Goldmine, a glamorous tale about a David Bowie-inspired glam-rock superstar named Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), and in 2007 he made I’m Not There, a semi-fictional film in which six actors portray Bob Dylan throughout different stages of his life and career. But Haynes’s newest work, simply titled The Velvet Underground, centering on the titular 1960s proto-punk and avant-garde rock band, marks his first foray into feature documentary-making — and it does not disappoint.
Haynes is not interested in telling a dry summary of the group or giving another typical romanticized sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll documentary. Instead, he chronicles the band’s journey right from the beginning and takes a deep dive into its formation, particularly tracking founding members Lou Reed and John Cale, two polar opposite people in terms of background whose paths crossed regardless in New York City, which was the epicenter of the flourishing Andy Warhol-era underground art scene. Cale first appears in archive footage, where he is seen as a contestant on the game show I’ve Got a Secret. In split-screen, which is frequently used throughout a majority of the film, Reed and Cale’s stories are told as Warhol’s Screen Tests — in which subjects stare into the camera for a few minutes without blinking — play at length. Haynes rarely fills the entire frame with just one shot, instead favoring split-screens, off-center compositions, and collages of up to 16 shots to create visual juxtapositions and an immersive work that refuses to be limited by the traditional forms of cinema. A dazzling scrapbook of moving images is created with a rich collection of photographs, home movies, a stunning collection of archive footage, and experimental film and recordings courtesy of Warhol, who was known to always document everything.
The Velvets combined rock ‘n’ roll with avant-garde influences to form a sound that was distinctly their own, and completely different from the popular hippie sounds that were known to dominate the era. The band was a product of Warhol’s Factory, and the pop artist played an integral role in their work, serving as their manager for a duration of their career, providing them with a platform, and introducing Nico’s voice into the mix, despite the band not liking her at first because she couldn’t hold pitch.
No documentary is truly complete without interviews from eyewitnesses, and the Velvet Underground is filled with talking heads that were close to the group, including pioneering filmmaker Jonas Mekas (to whom the film is dedicated), film critic Amy Taubin, Reed’s sister Merrill Reed Weiner, singer Jackson Browne, Modern Lovers founder and Velvets fan Jonathan Richman, filmmaker John Waters, and surviving band members Cale and Maureen Tucker. However, the film is clearly Cale’s from the start, as he finally gets the opportunity to have the spotlight all for himself in a way that he never could when in the group with Reed.
It’s difficult to imagine any director more well-suited at exploring this particular subject than Haynes, who truly understands music like no other filmmaker, as demonstrated by his body of work. With The Velvet Underground, Haynes succeeds at crafting a loving tribute to one of the greatest rock bands to ever exist, all the while capturing their spirit in the process. He paints a beautiful and hypnotic portrait not only of the influential group, but also of the era and avant-garde artists that helped shape them into who they were.
