Berlin (2007)

Director:

Julian Schnabel

Release Date:

7 March 2008 (Finland)

Genre:

Documentary | Music

Plot:

Lou Reed's 2006 live concert performance of his 1973 concept album "Berlin", filmed over five nights at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York. |

Cast

Lou Reed	...	Himself
Fernando Saunders	...	Himself
Sharon Jones	...	Herself
Antony Hegarty	...	Himself (as Antony)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Brooklyn Youth Chorus	...	Themselves
Steve Hunter	...	Himself
Emmanuelle Seigner	...	Caroline
Tony Thunder Smith	...	Himself
Rob Wasserman	...	Himself

Directed by
Julian Schnabel

Produced by
Gwen Bialic	....	line producer
Stanley F. Buchthal	....	executive producer
Maya Hoffmann	....	executive producer
Jon Kilik	....	producer
Ann Ruark	....	co-producer
Tom Sarig	....	producer

Original Music by
Lou Reed

Cinematography by
Ellen Kuras

Film Editing by
Benjamin Flaherty

Production Management
John Merchant	....	unit manager
Daniel Wagner	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
David Fischer	....	second assistant director
Jesse Nye	....	first assistant director

Sound Department
Bryan Dembinski	....	sound recordist
John Harris	....	sound
Tony Volante	....	sound re-recording mixer

Camera and Electrical Department
Sebastián Almeida	....	assistant camera
Carlos Omar Guerra	....	camera operator
James Klayer	....	camera loader
Ellen Kuras	....	camera operator
Charles Libin	....	camera operator
John C. Nadeau	....	gaffer
Craig Pecchia	....	assistant camera
Declan Quinn	....	camera operator
Christopher Raymond	....	assistant camera
Brandon Sumner	....	assistant camera
Dana Turken	....	camera loader
Rebecca Venezia	....	second assistant camera: "a" camera

Editorial Department
Joe Gawler	....	digital intermediate colorist
Florence Holdeman	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Hal Willner	....	music producer

Other crew
Mary Cybulski	....	script supervisor
Alexander Hammer	....	office assistant
Mariah Breitel Hembree	....	post script services (as Mariah Breitel)
John Merchant	....	assistant to post-production coordinator
Patrick Sarni	....	office assistant
Atilla Salih Yücer	....	key production assistant

Thanks
Jonathan Bell	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Waterboy Productions

Distributors

• Benelux Film Distribution (2008) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Longride (2008) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Maximum Film Distribution (2008) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Third Rail Releasing (2008) (USA) (theatrical)
• VAP (2008) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2008) (Germany) (DVD)
• Scanbox Entertainment (2008) (Finland) (all media)
• Video Film Express (2008) (Netherlands) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Dolby Laboratories  sound mix
• Kallista Marketing & PR  festival publicity

Also Known As:

"Lou Reed's Berlin" - Australia (DVD title), New Zealand (English title) (DVD title), USA (promotional title)
"Lou Reed: Berlin" - Japan (English title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for brief language

Runtime:

Canada:85 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

USA | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:14A | Singapore:PG | Finland:S | USA:PG-13 | Sweden:Btl | Japan:PG-12 | Portugal:M/6 | Australia:PG | New Zealand:PG

Filming Locations:

St. Ann's Warehouse - 38 Water Street, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Waterboy Productions

A Bit Boring Really.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was one of my favourite films of last year, Lou Reed's Berlin is an amazing album, so imagine my excitement when I hear the director of 'Diving Bell' Julian Schnabel is set to make a film of the concert that Lou is performing at St.Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, New York. So can the visionary director make the 1973 concept album into a decent film? Can the musicians replicate the record on stage? Let me answer the second question first. The band fronted by Lou are all great musicians and with the addition of Anthony (of Anthony and the Johnsons) they do come as close as they can without upsetting any children (rumour has it that the children's cries on 'Kids' are real as they were told their parents were dead, locked in a cupboard and recorded through the door). Which is all well and good but does it make for good viewing? Well to be honest no, as much as I like the music and the director's style it comes across as boring and pretentious. Lou is hardly the most animated man and when he's not looking like Jerry Springer he resembles an embarrassing Geography teacher fronting a band of lab technicians. With very little to work with from the band Julian instead plumps for using projections, colour filters and out of focus shots, which is fine to start with but after half an hour or so my attention span was already waning and there was still nearly an hour to go. With 'Diving Bell' Julian managed to make a whole film about a guy who can only blink with one eye, so maybe he thought he could conjure up something from nothing here but sadly for all his talents he cant and despite all involved the film falls flat. Die hard fans will probably lap it up but don't expect anyone to suddenly start worshipping at the church of Reed if they haven't before. The film has a great soundtrack though so I recommend just putting that on while you do the ironing or something, that way you get the great songs without the tedious visuals. A disappointing shame considering.