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Reviews Counted:31
Fresh:24
Rotten:7
Average Rating:6.4/10
Consensus: Julian Schnabel expertly captures the dark melancholy of Lou Reed's misunderstood concept album in this moving concert documentary.
Theatrical Release:Jul 18, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: The curious tale of Lou Reed's 1973 album, BERLIN, is worthy of a documentary in itself. Its trajectory from critical and commercial failure to one of the most highly regarded records in his canon... [More]
Starring: Lou Reed, Antony, Sharon Jones, Emmanuelle Seigner
Director: Julian Schnabel
Schnabel's set design, onstage projections, and postproduction add a good deal of visual noise to Reed & company's aural variety, which reproduces the album with a mixture of professional exactitude and unpredictable cacophony.
Those who admire Reed will find that Schnabel's film allows the music to speak for itself against its rather messy background.
It's Reed's gruff and tuneless delivery that challenges one's enjoyment.
Reed, who's looking more and more like a Bond villain, comes close to smiling at one point, although the chances are you won't.
For devotees only, I'm guessing.
Reed's unmistakable lilting groan has real pain in it, hinting at a real but undisclosed personal story behind the music.
An entirely watchable concert movie, providing depressing songs are your thing.
If you don't like the music, there's nothing to see here.
If you love Lou Reed or even like Lou Reed a little, musically this film is worth your time and, unless you've got an amazing audio system at home, it should be experienced in a theatrical setting.
Performed live, the haunting material finds new life ... Schnabel has created an incredibly artistic experience out of the concert with many moments that will give you goosebumps.
A well made concert film that will, nevertheless, fail to satisfy Reed's many dedicated fans.
Once again a concert documentary allows those of us unable to have witnessed a monumental event to see it seemingly exactly as it took place.
It's direly beautiful, sometimes spine-tingling and, yes, gloomy as purgatory.
Reed's dour, bombastic song-suite about the lives of the drug-addicted and downtrodden steadily acquired cult cachet over the decades, peaking with its staging as a complete-album concert in 2006, which Lou Reed's Berlin documents.
Top CriticWho could have guessed that nearly 35 years after its release, Lou Reed's once-reviled concept album Berlin would inspire a sold-out concert, shot with loving awe by Julian Schnabel?
Top CriticYour enjoyment will hinge entirely on whether you think the album is a masterpiece or a bore.
Top CriticFor die-hard Reed fans, it's an invaluable document.
Top CriticIn Julian Schnabel’s grimly majestic concert film Lou Reed’s Berlin, Mr. Reed wears the deadpan smirk of a Zen master who has endured punishing Buddhist training.
Top CriticSchnabel and Kuras know their subject enough to know how to frame him: with space, darkness, and unyielding cool.
For Reed fans -- for rock fans -- the movie is an essential document of a noteworthy event.
July 17, 2008:
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