GROUP PORTRAIT
THE VELVET UNDERGROUND I Todd Haynes deep dives into the seminal ’60s band…
Todd Haynes may have explored glam rock in his 1998 movie Velvet Goldmine, then dug into the different facets of Bob Dylan in 2007’s groundbreaking I’m Not There. But when it came to exploring The Velvet Underground, he was always dead set on making a documentary – not least because ’60s pop art sensation Andy Warhol, who became their manager, captured the band on film. “Why would you ever want to try to replicate those images? When, instead, I can introduce them to the world,” says Haynes. “Because this work doesn’t get seen that much.”
Chronicling the band’s formation in 1964 through to its demise in the early 1970s, Haynes’ doc The Velvet Underground makes full use of this Warhol-shot footage, along with some stunning archive that recreates New York of the period. “I think there’s about 45 minutes of just Warhol [footage] alone in the film,” says Haynes, who even uses splitscreen elements to show Reed and fellow band members, including Welshman John Cale, framed in B&W close-up via Warhol’s trusty Super 8 camera.
There are, of course, fresh and hugely entertaining interviews with Cale and drummer Moe Tucker, not to mention others who were on the scene, from
filmmaker John Waters to critic Amy Taubin. Reed died in 2013, although his famously prickly nature might not exactly have made Haynes’ task any easier were he still alive. “People are like, ‘What would you have said to Lou Reed if he was around?’ And I’m sort of like, ‘Wow, I’m so glad I dodged that bullet!’”
What can’t be discounted, though, is the influence the Velvets had. As producer Brian Eno famously notes, the band’s first album The Velvet Underground & Nico “only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band”. “What I particularly love about that comment by Eno… what it really describes is that this band inspired creative production, this band inspired artists,” elaborates Haynes. “And that’s what I felt when I first heard it, I felt it made me want to make something and it made it seem possible to do that.”
While Haynes’ career in ‘making things’ stretches back to the ’80s, The Velvet Underground is also his first-ever doc – one that he embraces with all the experimental zeal you might expect from him. “It was incredibly fulfilling, but I think it was so much to do with this particular subject, and the fact we were using these raw materials from this particular time and place,” he says. “I made a decision to not let the oral history be the dominant experience you leave the film with. The images and music really guide us through the experience.” JM
ETA | 15 OCTOBER / THE VELVET UNDERGROUND COMES OUT IN SELECT CINEMAS AND ON APPLE TV+ NEXT MONTH.