Martin Scorsese is not just a great playwright; he is also an exceptional documentarian, especially when it comes to music. The Last Waltz, light a light, George Harrison: Living in the Material Worldand two Bob Dylan efforts, No Home Direction: Bob Dylan And Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story. Add to this impressive list now Personality Crisis: Just One Night. This dynamic and heartwarming non-fiction film chronicles the life and times of David Johansen, the groundbreaking and versatile frontman of the groundbreaking glam punk band The New York Dolls. Rock ‘n’ roll portraits are not that lively, introverted and agile.
Directed by David Tedeschi Personality Crisis: Just One Night (April 14 on Showtime) pays homage to his subject’s diverse career and personality without resorting to an archive clip upload. It revolves around Johansen’s January 2020 (70th birthday) at Café Carlyle in New York City, a flamboyant jazz cabaret with famous Marcel Vertès murals on stage and an audience with friends like Debbie Harry and Penny Arcade. Backed by The Boys in the Band (Keith Cotton on piano; Ray Grappone on drums; Richard Hammond on bass; Brian Koonin on guitar), Johansen mixes a collection of catalog hits and personal favorites with relaxed and lively cool. Wearing a black suit, a white shirt, and sunglasses—a body as slender as a goatee, a pompadour still with a wave-like crest, and one hand holding the microphone, the other hand crackling and waving to the rhythm—at once high-wire lively and sadly. soulful; an experienced poet in his own element.
Collaborating with the superb cinematographer Ellen Kuras, Scorsese and Tedeschi shoot this concert from a variety of largely static camera positions that provide complete coverage and immerse the audience in their private environment; Whether you look at Johansen up close or from afar in this enclosed space, Personality Crisis: Just One Night has the privacy of a private show. The editorial structure of the film (courtesy of Tedeschi) gives the material a silky, dance-like quality that aligns with Johansen swaying and rocking with the relaxed grace of an artist who has done it before and enjoying the opportunity to do it again. She’s been a live singer from the moment she started “Funky But Chic” and seems comfortable and happy to sing out loud tunes that mean so much to her for the rest of the night, and also to the legions of fans that have followed her through her unpredictable journey.
Heading this group is Morrissey, who admitted in his past interviews that he was the young head of the New York Dolls UK fan club. To him, a dangerous breath of fresh air in a “broken” pop music scene of the early ’70s, Dolls seemed like the “absolute answer to everything.” A ragtag rock band that dresses like a woman, takes hard drugs (which resulted in the untimely death of original drummer Billy Murcia), and writes obscene songs that Morrissey claims are all “hit singles” in disguise, they were the progenitors of modern New York punk. in a funny clip Late Night with Conan O’BrienIf one wants to be “reduced to a moment in time”, Johansen says, the birth of the movement can be traced back to an early Dolls show in Newcastle, where too much brown beer consumption led to a mass vomiting flood. by both musicians and participants.
According to Johansen, The Dolls’ pushing style and sound was driven by a desire to “break down those walls and throw a party,” and Scorsese and Tedeschi routinely convey this spirit by leaping between the past and the present; mid-song cuts that magically close the distance between the two. Johansen’s punk legacy is energetically displayed, but so is his fondness for ballads (“Heart of Gold”), blues (“Poor Boy Blues”) and swing, the last of which culminated in the 1987 Buster Poindexter. The smash single “Hot Hot Hot”, which he accepted (in one of his many interviews at home with his daughter/filmmaker Leah Hennessey) has become so popular that it’s now “the bane of my existence.” In various additional conversations (including when he hosted the eclectic radio show “Mansion of Fun”), he expresses his lifelong love for opera, and especially for Maria Callas; repairs in their house, enough to embarrass teenage Johansen.
Amongst the various issues of his concert, Johansen (both on stage and in previous interviews) said that during the heyday of Manhattan’s Lower East Side counterculture, St. He commemorates his early experiences growing up around Marks Place and at the Chelsea Hotel (with the likes of bohemian savvy Harry Smith). – a time and place that shaped it and then shaped it. Personality Crisis: Just One Night not chronologically ordered but never feels messy; There’s a beauty in Johansen’s ups and downs in tune with his speaking anecdotes. From his love of “clever comic” (which led him to the city’s Ridiculous Theater), his belief that music should have an entertaining, devotional element (because, as he puts it, it’s all about “play”), “Aesthetics and eroticism are the same coin.” “It’s two faces”, the singer’s artistic ethos and sense of humor shine through. Hair.
Johansen is a mix of many different influences and interests, and Scorsese and Tedeschi capture its complexity with sheer elegance. Personality Crisis: Just One Night a celebration of a unique voice that has helped define rock music for multiple generations, and while Johansen himself admits it’s comforting to know that, despite Dolls’ short tenure and lack of mainstream recognition, it’s comforting to know that he paved the way for the success of others, as with many of the singer’s best works, There is a slight melancholy in these transactions. This mix of high and low, exuberant and calm tempo is central to Johansen’s music and life, and he expertly sums both up as he DJs, “When there’s time, there’s grief… but we can choose.” to live in joy.”