Words for the Dying
MC-845, 1990 microcinema exclusive $US 24.95 $US 50.00 Format: DVD, NTSC, Region 0 (All), European List Prices: £16.99 / 24.95€ License for theatrical exhibition |
NOTE: I wrote the following three weeks ago, and in retrospect, I was rather harsh. The more I thought about it (and re-watching it recently to get a good frame still for this article), this is really meant for fans that've been waiting for the original documentary to finally be made available as a cleaned up version on DVD. There are a ton of old movies and documentaries that are not available on DVD, so I applaud Provocateur for making this happen.
>>>
We don't normally get 'screener' DVD copies for review (I think the last one I got was for Negativland's DVD), so I was pretty excited to get Words for the Dying DVD.
Being an early adopter of the DVD format (I own over 2,000 DVDs), I do appreciate the higher visual and audio quality that DVD had over VHS. I am starting to get into Bluray (I also have a handful of HD-DVDs), so as far as movie snobbery goes, I'm up there. Keep this in mind when I talk about the poor visual and audio later.
First of all, for introductory purposes, both John Cale and Brian Eno are very accomplished musicians. Cale's history with the Velvet Underground, Eno is regarded by many as the "father of ambient music" and his work with Roxy Music. This DVD release, it seems to me, was for fans' services/demands. Documentary fans might also want to check this out but, to be honest, if you don't like music documentary, you should skip this one.
This documentary, by director Rob Nilsson, is about the recording of John Cale's album, also of the same name. Although the cover art clearly depicts and credits Brian Eno, it would seem whenever he's conscious of the camera's presence, he's either covering his face and/or giving the viewer the finger. He makes it known that he did not want to be part of the documentary (although he does appear with a formal interview at the very end of the album talking about the mix).
According to the DVD box, there are four parts to this documentary, revolving around four Dylan Thomas poems. However, watching it, it felt to me that there were only three parts (Cale in Moscow, in London, and Wales). Moscow and Wales are shot in black and white, which leads me to believe that either it's done for artistic reasons and/or the footage they had (with poor lighting) was unusable in color. Sometimes the poor audio and visual made it hard for me to watch on my high definition television. Maybe I'm just spoiled but, speaking for myself, I like seeing movies in color.
At the beginning of the documentary I had trouble understanding what was going on. Why were they going to see these various Moscow bands? I eventually concluded that they were talent, but there are random things like playing racquetball that I felt didn't belong in a music-making documentary. Overall, it felt like the journey of recording the album was really epic and squeezing all of that in an hour and a half documentary is quite an achievement.
For their defense, they did have 1987 film equipment (probably VHS recorders) and considering that the original 1990 is long out of print, having it re-released on quality DVD by Provocateur DVD is well worth your time if you are a fan of John Cale or Brian Eno. The DVD price listing is $24.95 but obviously you can find it at a cheaper online price. As a long-time DVD buyer, I can tell you that usually Deep Discount DVDs usually has the best prices ($16.47 includes free shipping).
>>>
We don't normally get 'screener' DVD copies for review (I think the last one I got was for Negativland's DVD), so I was pretty excited to get Words for the Dying DVD.
Being an early adopter of the DVD format (I own over 2,000 DVDs), I do appreciate the higher visual and audio quality that DVD had over VHS. I am starting to get into Bluray (I also have a handful of HD-DVDs), so as far as movie snobbery goes, I'm up there. Keep this in mind when I talk about the poor visual and audio later.
First of all, for introductory purposes, both John Cale and Brian Eno are very accomplished musicians. Cale's history with the Velvet Underground, Eno is regarded by many as the "father of ambient music" and his work with Roxy Music. This DVD release, it seems to me, was for fans' services/demands. Documentary fans might also want to check this out but, to be honest, if you don't like music documentary, you should skip this one.
This documentary, by director Rob Nilsson, is about the recording of John Cale's album, also of the same name. Although the cover art clearly depicts and credits Brian Eno, it would seem whenever he's conscious of the camera's presence, he's either covering his face and/or giving the viewer the finger. He makes it known that he did not want to be part of the documentary (although he does appear with a formal interview at the very end of the album talking about the mix).
According to the DVD box, there are four parts to this documentary, revolving around four Dylan Thomas poems. However, watching it, it felt to me that there were only three parts (Cale in Moscow, in London, and Wales). Moscow and Wales are shot in black and white, which leads me to believe that either it's done for artistic reasons and/or the footage they had (with poor lighting) was unusable in color. Sometimes the poor audio and visual made it hard for me to watch on my high definition television. Maybe I'm just spoiled but, speaking for myself, I like seeing movies in color.
At the beginning of the documentary I had trouble understanding what was going on. Why were they going to see these various Moscow bands? I eventually concluded that they were talent, but there are random things like playing racquetball that I felt didn't belong in a music-making documentary. Overall, it felt like the journey of recording the album was really epic and squeezing all of that in an hour and a half documentary is quite an achievement.
For their defense, they did have 1987 film equipment (probably VHS recorders) and considering that the original 1990 is long out of print, having it re-released on quality DVD by Provocateur DVD is well worth your time if you are a fan of John Cale or Brian Eno. The DVD price listing is $24.95 but obviously you can find it at a cheaper online price. As a long-time DVD buyer, I can tell you that usually Deep Discount DVDs usually has the best prices ($16.47 includes free shipping).
Recent Comments