
Songs for Drella
Ed Lachman / US, 1990 / 60 min.
A stunning recording of a live performance by Lou Reed and John Cale of their Songs for Drella album in 1990. In a stripped-down stage setting, their homage to Andy Warhol’s life becomes a narrative in image, verse, and music.

Twenty years after Lou Reed and John Cale broke up in the Velvet Underground, they briefly reunited to record the album Songs for Drella and play a few concerts of their co-written songs. They would never perform together again or play the album’s original material. Songs for Drella is an honest exploration of the life, dreams, aspirations and fears of the band’s mentor and manager Andy Warhol, captured on camera with deep visual intimacy in this concert film.
Its director Ed Lachman, perhaps best known as a director photography for his international art house work, filmed this richly observed, immersive performance in the rhyme of the music. The beautiful 4K restoration becomes a classic work in itself, to be appreciated over and over again. As Lou Reed sings in “Images”: I love multiplicity of screenings / things born anew display new meanings / I think images are worth repeating and repeating and repeating.
After the screening there will be a Q&A with director Ed Lachman, led by Eye on Sound programmer Thijs Havens..
Details
Director
Ed Lachman
Production year
1990
Country
US
Length
60 min.
Language
English
Format
DCP
Part of
IDFA 2021
Documentary lovers, keep November 17 to 28 free in your calendar. The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam presents its 34th edition in cinemas throughout Amsterdam, including several special programs in Eye.

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