Lou Reed's Berlin (2008) Synopsis:
Staging Berlin has been discussed for over 30 years and in December of 2006 it became a reality. Berlin was said to be one of the most depressing albums ever made and as it was brought to life it was far from dismal. Using the divided city of Berlin as its backdrop the story of Caroline and her lovers is told through the emotive and provocative words of Lou Reed. With performers like Fernando Saunders, Antony, Steve Hunter, Rob Wassermann, Rupert Christie and Sharon Jones, a seven piece orchestra and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus all working to create a captivating and enveloping world, Lou Reed is able to take the audience with him as he bares witness to Caroline’s self-destruction. Julian’s set design create the backdrop of a hotel with greenish walls and with Lola Schnabel's films displaying the beauty and tragedy of the narrator’s leading lady (played by Emmanuelle Seigner) the experience is devastating and beautiful.
Lou Reed's Berlin (2008) Movie Review:
Right now your car, your ipod, or even your head is likely filled with music that you know by heart and connect to deeply and passionately. For millions of people, these albums include Hotel California, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Rumors, Born to Run, The Stranger, and multiple albums created by The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd and The Beatles.
These albums are filled with the songs you’ve listened to while falling in love, making love, and falling out of love time and time again, Or, maybe you just listened to them in college as background music to the experiences you would seldom admit to but would never regret.
This is just a small part of what makes these albums become the soundtrack of our lives.
In recent years, Oscar-winning filmmakers such as Jonathan Demme and Martin Scorsese have created cinematic mix-tapes of Neil Young (“Heart of Gold”), Bob Dylan (“No Direction Home”), and The Rolling Stones (“Shine a Light”). These films have shown us the importance of these artists and why these filmmakers care so profoundly about their subjects. Within these pursuits, the filmmakers managed to deepen the connection between the artist, the audience, and the music.
Between the release of his Oscar-nominated films “Before Night Falls” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”, for which he received a Best Director nomination, director and painter Julian Schnabel decided to show audiences what he said at the beginning of the film was “a part of the soundtrack of my life”.
The beginning of the film states:
Lou Reed recorded the album Berlin in 1973.
It was a commercial failure.
Over the next 33 years, he never performed the album live.
For five nights in December 2006 at St. Ann’s Warehouse Brooklyn,
Lou Reed performed his masterwork about love’s dark sisters;
Jealously, rage and loss.
- Julian Schnabel
The film “Berlin” includes Schnabel’s introduction of the concert, followed by Reed and his band performing the album in its entirety. The album feels less like a “Rock Opera”, a la “Tommy” or “The Wall”. The structure of “Berlin” feels most akin to Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, American Idiot, or any of the classic Moody Blues albums.
Berlin is a concept album, and its concepts are richly and deeply felt. As the album takes place in Berlin during the cold war, the songs are set against a backdrop and governmental and societal oppression that sets the backdrop for the ensuing love triangle that includes the narrator and Caroline.
Lyrically, the album expands on the narrator’s humble beginnings, Caroline’s prostitution, and her struggle to keep her children.
Visually, the concert and film include a backdrop of scenes shot said for concert and film which feature actress Emmanuelle Seigner (the ex-wife in the famous beach scenes in “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly). These scenes are reminiscent of an experimental avant garde Andy Warhol film from the late sixties. Many of the shots look like paintings, and knowing Schnabel’s background as a painter that’s not a surprise, and knowing his other films that might be expected. These scenes do more to convey the art, truth, beauty, and emotion of the album than the album does itself. That’s what makes it truly clear how much the album means to Schnabel, as well as what an amazing and versitle director Schnabel truly is.
It’s not to say that the music is not of a high quality, but it’s easy to see why for thirty-five years it’s legacy has fallen short of those appreciated by the albums listed above.
In any given point in the album, it seems that the music or the lyrics are truly spectacular, yet the other seems only mediocre. The album, as presented in the film, is built on it’s unique spirit, characters, and the ideologies of it’s time, characters, writer, and place.
Although it may be hard to find an audience deeply invested in the material, Schnabel is, which is what makes for a great film.
After playing the album, Reed and a stripped down version if his band play “Candy”, “Rock Minuet”, and “Sweet Jane”. Although nothing should have been removed from this film, it’s one of the few I’ve ever seen that I’ve wished was thirty minutes longer. I enjoyed the encores so much, I wish there had been a few more Reed and Velvet Underground classics. At least those songs survived so well that they don’t have to be rediscovered just so they can be found on vinyl or cd.
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Lou Reed's Berlin (2008) review written by: Jackson Truax
7th September, 2008 
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