Those who admire Reed will find that Schnabel's film allows the music to speak for itself against its rather messy background.
Comment
07/25/08
Rate This Movie
Lou Reed's Berlin (2008)
76 %
Reviews Counted: 29 Fresh: 22 Rotten:7 Average Rating: 6.3/10
Consensus:
Julian Schnabel expertly captures the dark melancholy of Lou Reed's misunderstood concept album in this moving concert documentary.
Rated: Not Rated
Theatrical Release: Jul 18, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: Over 30 years after the release of Lou Reed's rock opera BERLIN, the legendary Velvet Underground singer took the album to the stage for the first time in a series of 2006 concerts. There to record the one-of-a-kind event was director Julian Schnabel (THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY), who... [More]
Genre: Musical & Performing Arts
Starring: Lou Reed, Antony, Sharon Jones, Emmanuelle Seigner
Reviews
It's Reed's gruff and tuneless delivery that challenges one's enjoyment.
07/25/08
Reed, who's looking more and more like a Bond villain, comes close to smiling at one point, although the chances are you won't.
07/25/08
Reed's unmistakable lilting groan has real pain in it, hinting at a real but undisclosed personal story behind the music.
07/25/08
An entirely watchable concert movie, providing depressing songs are your thing.
07/25/08
Performed live, the haunting material finds new life ... Schnabel has created an incredibly artistic experience out of the concert with many moments that will give you goosebumps.
07/20/08
A well made concert film that will, nevertheless, fail to satisfy Reed's many dedicated fans.
07/18/08
Once again a concert documentary allows those of us unable to have witnessed a monumental event to see it seemingly exactly as it took place.
07/18/08
It's direly beautiful, sometimes spine-tingling and, yes, gloomy as purgatory.
07/18/08
Reed's dour, bombastic song-suite about the lives of the drug-addicted and downtrodden steadily acquired cult cachet over the decades, peaking with its staging as a complete-album concert in 2006, which Lou Reed's Berlin documents.
07/18/08
Top Critic
Who could have guessed that nearly 35 years after its release, Lou Reed's once-reviled concept album Berlin would inspire a sold-out concert, shot with loving awe by Julian Schnabel?
07/18/08
Top Critic
Your enjoyment will hinge entirely on whether you think the album is a masterpiece or a bore.
07/18/08
Top Critic Top Critic
In Julian Schnabel’s grimly majestic concert film Lou Reed’s Berlin, Mr. Reed wears the deadpan smirk of a Zen master who has endured punishing Buddhist training.
07/18/08
Top Critic
Schnabel and Kuras know their subject enough to know how to frame him: with space, darkness, and unyielding cool.
07/17/08
For Reed fans -- for rock fans -- the movie is an essential document of a noteworthy event.
07/17/08
This luminously shot concert movie reveals that Berlin is far from the lost masterpiece the movie wants it to be.
07/17/08
Top CriticPictures
News
Critics Consensus: The Dark Knight Is One Of The Year's Best-Reviewed
posted by Tim Ryan July 17, 2008
This week, we've got the Caped Crusader (The Dark Knight, starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger), ABBA aficionados...
posted by Tim Ryan July 17, 2008
This week, we've got the Caped Crusader (The Dark Knight, starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger), ABBA aficionados...
Around the Network
• Lou Reed's Berlin at Rotten Tomatoes
IGN RSS Feeds