Product Details

• Actors: John Cale
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Kultur Video
• DVD Release Date: November 21, 2006
• Run Time: 59 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000JGWCZQ
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #97,323 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

JOHN CALE: An exploration of the life and work of one of the most influential and enigmatic figures in music

John Cale is best known as the founding member of one of the most important rock bands of all time – The Velvet Underground – and in a wide-ranging solo career since the band’s demise, Cale has created blistering rock music, classical and avant-garde compositions, notable film scores and has produced albums by Iggy Pop, Patti Smith and Squeeze. In this fascinating interview, Cale returns to Garnant in Wales where he grew up and began a promising career as a classical musician, before abandoning it all for the allure of New York in the 1960s. This documentary includes an exclusive interview with Lou Reed, with whom Cale has enjoyed a volatile but highly productive relationship over thirty years, and archive footage from the Velvet Underground years.

Contributors include Lou Reed, Andy Warhol, La Monte Young, Billy Name, Chris Morrison, Victor Bockris, Moe Tucker, Ed Wubbe, Chris Spedding.

Subtitles: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A disappointment that could have been great, February 21, 2007

By	Charles A. Miller (Baltimore, Maryland U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

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The music is great, as is some of the information provided, but what a strange way to present it all. Rather than reviewing the career of John Cale in a chronological, or any rational fashion for that matter, this film jumps all over the place. And quite disappointingly, excessively fixates on certain periods while pretty much ignoring the bulk of his solo career altogether. This might be okay for those who already know the story, but those new to John Cale's work will need a scorecard to understand what is going on. Meanwhile for those already familiar with the story from reading some of the biographies out there, nothing really new or insightful is presented here.

As expected, there is considerable time devoted to The Velvet Underground period. But as wonderful as that band was, isn't this supposed to be about John Cale? Way too much time was spent on this phase of his career, especially considering the fact that so little original film actually exists from those days. This, in tandem with the fact there is already a plethora of documentaries available on the Velvets, makes this portion of the film rather duplicative.

After this sequence, the film jumps back in time to Mr. Cale's early years in Wales. Very interesting indeed, but shouldn't this have been the starting point? A considerable amount of time is devoted to this relatively non-musical portion of John Cale's life. This would have been fine if this film were at least 90 minutes long, but as it stands at a mere 59 minutes, the time would have better spent on Mr. Cale's actual solo music career. This whole overly-long sequence appears to have been inserted as a way to explain the psychology behind the killing of the chicken on stage incident as it graphically depicts a slaugherhouse scene that John Cale was exposed to in his youth. What does this have to do with his musical career?

Indeed, the biggest complaint about this film is the lack of documentation regarding John Cale's solo career overall. It is virtually ignored here. It actually finishes with The Velvet Underground reunion concerts, which again makes one wonder if you're watching a John Cale documentary or one on the Velvets.

When the box says "An exploration of the life and work of one of the most influential and enigmatic figures in music" one would expect to get a big dose of the how and why John Cale is as described in the quote. As previously mentioned however, the majority of this film is devoted to his childhood and The Velvet Underground and in a rather disjoined fashion at that.

Perhaps someday the meat of his very influential solo career will be covered, but not here. I would still recommend this movie to completists and those, like myself, who cannot get enough of Mr. Cale's work, but not to newcomers.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars merely good, could've been great, April 7, 2007

By	T. Scarillo "music snob" (Studio City, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a hard-core Cale fan, I totally agree with Charles Miller's review of this product (make sure you read it) - this COULD'VE been great; instead, it's merely good. I was amazed that Cale's tenure at Warner Brothers as a staff producer, the Paris 1919 album, his production of Modern Lovers, and virtually his entire post-Island/pre-Drella output was completely ignored. There is a gross-out sequence in the doc, during the Wales segment involving a slaughterhouse, that i also could've lived without - it's not for the squeamish. It makes the chicken-chopping incident seem almost tame by comparison.....

For background, this documentary was done by the BBC, in 1998, around the time that the "What's Welsh for Zen" book was being written (with Victor Bockris). I HIGHLY recommend that book as it goes VERY in-depth on Cale's life and work, in first person. There is a lot of good-to-great footage in this documentary, and they got Lou Reed to sit for an interview (which is important, since neither Reed nor Cale are on the Velvet Underground Under Review DVD), but i really felt it only scratched the surface, and didn't fully convey just how edgy, versatile, and what a true original Cale really is.

4.0 out of 5 stars Not enough of Cale...., December 11, 2007

By	Lost Johnny (China) - See all my reviews

The other reviewers have made pertinent comments on this documentary.

I watched with rapt attention and it was over only too soon!

I thoroughly enjoyed it but it seemed far too short and whole significant parts of Cale's career were missed out. What about his collaborations with Terry Riley, Brian Eno (who appeared fleetingly) and others? The Stooges and Patti Smith were included, but what about Cale's other work as a producer-- Jonathan Richman or many others? "Paris 1919", for many Cale's finest album, didn't feature.

On the plus side, there were good interviews with the likes of Chris Spedding, Lamont Young, Moe Tucker and the ever moody Lou Reed. The apart about the Nico ballet was interesting. It was fascinating to see the part of wales where John Cale grew up and see him play the organ.

John Cale himself came as an engaging character, fairly self effacing character (with a taste for garish clothes). I could have listened to a lot more from him.

Cale fans won't want to miss this DVD but don't expect too much.