My wife and I were at the MFA in Boston last night. The MFA School had its annual award gala and presented Julian Schnabel a Lifetime Achievement Award Medal followed by a painful 45 minute interview with the award recipient conducted by a museum person who was just too overwhelmed to know when to stop talking, a lovely dinner and the Boston premiere of his new documentary movie (Lou Reed’s) Berlin.
The surprise of the night was Berlin. I am a Schnabel fan. I know less about his art but I really liked his first movie Basquiat and his most recent movie The Diving Bell and the Butterfly which I consider one of the best movies I have ever seen.
Lou Reed’s Berlin is a different animal all together. It is great concert movie shot in a warehouse in Brooklyn over a period of 4 days on a makeshift stage designed by Schnabel in front of a live audiance.
An emotionless Lou Reed center stage with movie clips that mimic the mood of the song projected in the background on top of the painted Schnabel canvases and the powerful music of the album - overall it was a delightful sensory overload well worth watching.