Berlin (2007)

Director:

Julian Schnabel

Release Date:

7 March 2008 (Finland)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Lou Reed's 2006 live concert performance of his 1973 concept album "Berlin", filmed over five nights at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York. |

Cast

Lou Reed	...	Himself
Fernando Saunders	...	Himself
Sharon Jones	...	Herself
Antony Hegarty	...	Himself (as Antony)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Brooklyn Youth Chorus	...	Themselves
Steve Hunter	...	Himself
Emmanuelle Seigner	...	Caroline
Tony Thunder Smith	...	Himself
Rob Wasserman	...	Himself

Also Known As:

Lou Reed's Berlin (Australia) (DVD title) (New Zealand: English title) (DVD title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for brief language.

Runtime:

Canada:85 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

USA | UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:14A | Singapore:PG | Finland:S | USA:PG-13 | Sweden:Btl | Japan:PG-12 | Portugal:M/6 | Australia:PG | New Zealand:PG

Filming Locations:

St. Ann's Warehouse - 38 Water Street, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Waterboy Productions

A Bit Boring Really.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was one of my favourite films of last year, Lou Reed's Berlin is an amazing album, so imagine my excitement when I hear the director of 'Diving Bell' Julian Schnabel is set to make a film of the concert that Lou is performing at St.Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, New York. So can the visionary director make the 1973 concept album into a decent film? Can the musicians replicate the record on stage? Let me answer the second question first. The band fronted by Lou are all great musicians and with the addition of Anthony (of Anthony and the Johnsons) they do come as close as they can without upsetting any children (rumour has it that the children's cries on 'Kids' are real as they were told their parents were dead, locked in a cupboard and recorded through the door). Which is all well and good but does it make for good viewing? Well to be honest no, as much as I like the music and the director's style it comes across as boring and pretentious. Lou is hardly the most animated man and when he's not looking like Jerry Springer he resembles an embarrassing Geography teacher fronting a band of lab technicians. With very little to work with from the band Julian instead plumps for using projections, colour filters and out of focus shots, which is fine to start with but after half an hour or so my attention span was already waning and there was still nearly an hour to go. With 'Diving Bell' Julian managed to make a whole film about a guy who can only blink with one eye, so maybe he thought he could conjure up something from nothing here but sadly for all his talents he cant and despite all involved the film falls flat. Die hard fans will probably lap it up but don't expect anyone to suddenly start worshipping at the church of Reed if they haven't before. The film has a great soundtrack though so I recommend just putting that on while you do the ironing or something, that way you get the great songs without the tedious visuals. A disappointing shame considering.