| January 27th, 2006 04:46 AM |
|
|
| Ten Thousand Motels |
Neil Young: Heart of Gold
By Duane Byrge
Hollywood reporter/Jan 25
PARK CITY -- Rock troubadour Neil Young takes center stage in Nashville in the wake of life-threatening brain surgery. He survived, and in this documentation of his two-night "Prairie Wind" concert last year, he triumphs. This smart, aesthetically understated concert film from Jonathan Demme will transport Young's legions of baby boomer fans back to the future, as 1969 re-invents itself in 2005 for Young.
Paramount Classics will reap, if not necessarily gold, at least laudably bronze with this select-site release. On Paramount Home Entertainment's video, Young geriatrics can recall those protesting days of yesteryear and the singer's tours with Buffalo Springfield, CSN&Y and solo.
Admittedly, you can't lump we graying '60s folk into one boxoffice plot: Don't expect the Lynyrd Skynyrd fans to have any more time for Young's song sermonizing than they did back in "Sweet Home Alabama" or those of us who gravitated more solidly to the Stones when Keith Richards dismissed "Ohio" as "very topical." Different songs for the same throngs, as Billboard might opine.
In this homey assembly, Young gathers his musical loved ones (Emmylou Harris among them) to the grand ole stage of Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. Confidently hunched under his wide-brim hat, Young strums a family message. Pattering away about "empty-nesting" and his 21-year-old daughter, Young rambles with a gentle assurance, emblematic of his new music, which was inspired by the awful news of a brain aneurysm. Prior to surgery last year, Young composed in a flurry, but his new music is the stuff of strength and assurance, not of panic.
A mix of the new with the old, the concert not surprisingly kicks in with the "oldies" midsection, not paunchy but still cut and vibrant: "Heart of Gold," "Old Man." Perhaps best is Young's tribute to the old guitar he plays that was originally owned by Hank Williams. In a sobering solo in the cleared-out concert hall, Young shows he's a fitting caretaker for the instrument.
In perfect harmony with Young's music, Demme's direction is clear and straightforward, serving the music and the artistry.
NEIL YOUNG: HEART OF GOLD
Paramount Classics and Paramount Home Enterainment in association with Shangri La Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Jonathan Demme
Producers: Jonathan Demme, Ilona Herzberg
Executive producer: Bernard Shakey, Elliot Rabinowitz, Gary Goetzman
Director of photography: Ellen Kuras
Production designer: Michael Zansky
Music by: Neil Young
Editor: Andy Keir
MPAA rating: PG
Running time -- 103 minutes
|
| January 27th, 2006 09:26 AM |
|
|
| Lazy Bones |
Neil Young shows no rust
Heart of Gold opens at Sundance
By KEVIN WILLIAMSON -- Calgary Sun
PARK CITY, Utah -- As the song says, there comes a time.
For longtime friends Neil Young and Jonathan Demme that time was last year, when the rock legend and Oscar-winning filmmaker found themselves each at a crossroads.
Young had just recorded his melodic, country-flavoured Prairie Wind album, which he created while dealing with a potentially lethal brain aneurysm.
Demme, the director of The Silence of the Lambs, had just finished The Manchurian Candidate remake and felt like taking a break from feature-film making.
Young recalls with a smile, "Jonathan called to say he was taking a year off to make a film. It was kind of funny."
Their collaboration, Neil Young: Heart of Gold, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
It was shot for two nights last summer at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium and features the world premiere of Young's Prairie Wind.
Young, who at 60 still commands a stage, is joined by such longtime compatriots as Emmylou Harris, Young's wife Pegi, on backup vocals, and keyboardist Spooner Oldham.
As Young and Demme -- who met when Young contributed the song Philadelphia to the soundtrack of Demme's 1993 drama -- told a question-and-answer session at the Filmmaker's Lodge here on Main Street, the intention was not to make a traditional concert film, but rather Young's "dream concert."
"The film only looks like a concert film," Young says.
Indeed, Demme avoids the usual concert film trappings -- he never cuts to the crowd or outside the Ryman.
Demme also saw Heart of Gold as a chance to take country music "out of the barn ... There really hasn't been a loving, respectful film like this."
Not that the film turned out entirely like Demme first intended. Originally, he wanted to visualize Young's lyrics by having the Canadian icon performing in front of a blue screen; images reflective of the songs would then he superimposed behind Young. Then, as the two spoke more and more about the project, Demme realized he didn't need effects.
"Neil's songs would evoke those images."
Images that for Young were intensely personal.
For one, the singer's father had recently died after suffering from dementia. "Those of us who have parents know what I'm talking about -- there's this thing that happens. And this was my second parent, so suddenly I was at the top of the tree looking at the sky rather than looking up and seeing my mom or dad."
And there was the health crisis which threatened his life.
"I was in New York for a function and there was a problem with my vision. I identified it myself as not from my eye but from my brain."
He was diagnosed with an aneurysm and scheduled for surgery to remove it. He immediately began writing the songs for Prairie Wind, thinking that "I'm not really worried, but on the other hand, I'm not sure what I'm going to be like after (the surgery). So I wanted to square up a few things in my life."
He wrote and recorded the songs quickly. "It went pretty fast. They were on top of one another. I couldn't remember the one from yesterday because I was already writing the one for tomorrow."
In Heart of Gold, the first half of the movie is comprised of material from Prairie Wind. For the second half, Young performs such classics as Harvest Moon, Comes A Time, The Needle and the Damage Done and Old Man.
With their concert collaboration set for limited release next month, Young and Demme are now contemplating another documentary together, this one exploring The Bridge School Concerts. The acoustic music festival, which Young and his wife have hosted for nearly 20 years, benefits the Bridge School in San Francisco, which develops new technologies to assist in the education of disabled children.
Young, one of the founders of Farm Aid, also wants to assist New Orleans. "I just want to go there and start playing clubs and stay there until the place is crawling with people."
|
| January 27th, 2006 12:35 PM |
|
|
| Saint Sway |
cant wait!!!
when does this open?
|
| January 27th, 2006 12:54 PM |
|
|
| glencar |
Limited release next month... |
| January 27th, 2006 03:33 PM |
|
|
| FPM C10 |
Can't wait to see it. "Year of the Horse" by Jim Jarmusch is also a great Neil Young concert film, shot mostly in glorious Super 8. |
| January 27th, 2006 04:32 PM |
|
|
| Sir Stonesalot |
I thought Weld was pretty great. Neil's version of "Blowin' In The Wind" is exceptional. And, of course, Rust Never Sleeps is one of the best concert films ever made...
I'm sure this won't get into a theatre anywhere near me...when is the DVD due out? |
| January 27th, 2006 08:37 PM |
|
|
| Left Shoe Shuffle |
More barn! |
| January 27th, 2006 08:45 PM |
|
|
| nanatod |
Neil Young has definitely been on a mission this year. We saw his set at Farm Aid in Tinley Park, and even though I had seen him a half-dozen times before, I don't recall seeing him or anyone else playing with the intensity and determination he had this fall. That particular version of "Southern Man" probably still reverberates today with all the people who saw him perform it live. |
| January 29th, 2006 05:30 PM |
|
|
| Lazy Bones |
quote:
nanatod wrote:
That particular version of "Southern Man" probably still reverberates today with all the people who saw him perform it live.
I remember seeing Neil do Cortez The Killer on an August night almost 10 years ago. To this day, it remains one of the greatest songs - by anyone - I've ever seen performed.
God bless him! |
|
