Berlin

Director: Julian Schnabel
Year Released: 2007
Rating: 2.0

Schnabel convinces good bud Lou Reed to take his maligned record Berlin out on tour and to do his part, Julian designs the set, gets daughter Lola to make some video art (with Polanski's wife Emmanuelle Seigner) and films the whole performance in a Brooklyn venue for posterity. You will have to excuse me for not thinking it an extraordinary record and for not finding the boy-meets-girl, girl-is-actually-a-drug-addict-and-dies to be terribly sympathetic - Schnabel, on the other hand, claims it's one of his favorite records so I guess this is a lot of wish fulfillment on his part in seeing it performed live. Also lacking is any commentary by Reed on how an album can be disparaged at one point in time and rejuvenated a quarter of a century later to fanfare - or done some kind of 'big picture' art analysis - but that's clearly asking too much as Reed isn't a chatty guy and Schnabel doesn't feel like prodding. If Lou ever decides - for whatever reason - to take his New York album back on the road, I'll be pre-ordering tickets.