Monday, October 1, 2012

Director and producer of restored 'Charlie Is My Darling' talk about the movie...

Director and producer of restored 'Charlie Is My Darling' talk about the movie


"Charlie Is My Darling - Ireland 1965," the documentary film about the Rolling Stones' first tour of Ireland, has long been a bootleg, but the official release of the restored film has a lot of uncovered footage that was never previously released, say the filmmakers.
Peter Whitehead directed, photographed and edited the 1965 version of the movie, while Andrew Loog Oldham (the Rolling Stones' manager at the time) was also a producer of the film.
The 2012 restored version of the movie was directed by Mick Gochanour and produced by Robin Klein.
On September 14, 2012, the New York Film Festival and ABKCO presented an advance screening of the film to journalists at the Walter Reade Theatre in New York City. I was one of the lucky people in attendance. The media screening took place at the Walter Reade Theatre, where the movie's other New York Film Festival screenings will be held.
Check out the official trailer for "Charlie Is My Darling - Ireland 1965."
As previously reported, "Charlie Is My Darling - Ireland 1965" will have its world premiere at the New York Film Festival on September 29, 2012, at 7 p.m. Eastern Time. An encore screening will take place on October 3, 2012, at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Tickets went on sale on September 9, 2012. Oldham is scheduled to do a Q&A after the September 29 screening
In addition, "Charlie Is My Darling" will have a public screening on October 5, 2012, at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. The screening will be followed by a Steve Van Zandt-moderated Q&A with Oldham.
The movie's U.S. TV premiere will be on a network, date and time to be announced, but it should be in the autumn of 2012.
On November 6, 2012, ABKCO will release the movie in these three formats:
  • DVD
  • Blu-ray
  • Super deluxe box set that will include a DVD, Blu-ray, 2 CDs and a vinyl LP.
ABKCO has announced that the director's cut of the movie, the producer's cut of the movie and the 2012 version of the movie will be available in all of these formats.
(Click here for my review of "Charlie Is My Darling - Ireland 1865" and details of what's on the movie's soundtrack, DVD, Blu-ray and super deluxe box set.)
After the advance media screening on September 14, 2012, Gochanour and Klein participated in a press conference. Here is what they said when they answered questions from a moderator and members of the audience:
How did the original 1965 commission of the film come about?
Klein: In 1965, as you know, the Beatles had just done "A Hard Day's Night," so Andrew [Loog Oldham] thought, "OK, the Stones, now the Stones have to do a film." And in order to get the Stones being comfortable in front of the camera, they commissioned Peter Whitehead, who had just shot "Wholly Communion," to spend two days on the road with them, I think for £2,000, and go to Dublin and Belfast, and film the boys on the road ... They didn't know what they were going to do with it at the time. It was just to have them in front of the camera.
It seems as if "Charlie Is My Darling" has been more of a rumored film than a known film in the last 47 years. What was its fate at the time? Why has it been so hard to see it?
Klein: Well, it's been on the bootleg market for a while. I think when the Stones realized ... This was [filmed] in September [1965], and they fly directly to L.A. to record "Get Off of My Cloud," and they get right back into touring. And then their focus shifted right back into music. Like other Stones films, like "Rock and Roll Circus," it got shelved. And you know, Jagger always looks forward, and the Stones always look forward. And once the time had passed, the time had passed.
Mick, in addition to the restoration, were there any content changes, such as scenes added or taken out?
Gochanour: Oh, yeah. I'd say about 60 percent of this film is entirely new footage that we didn't know existed until we started we started investigating the restoration of the original films.
Klein: For instance, the "sitting on the fence" scene.
Gochanour: The "sitting on the fence" scene, the kids following them.
Klein: The press conference.
Gochanour: Yeah, there's quite a bit. Most of the performance was raw footage.
Klein: The performances, if I might add, didn't exist. Mick [Gochanour] and our editor Nathan Punwar sat there with silent footage, knowing this was shot on ...
Gochanour: An Eclair [camera].
Klein: An Eclair. Thank you. So they run very sort little clips. And this is [a] one-camera shoot.
Gochanour: And no sound.
Klein: And no sound. And poor Nathan had to sit there and read lips and try to figure out what song they were singing, and then see if he had enough footage to create an entire performance, and then see if we had audio that would match from that year, from that tour that would match that level of performance.
Gochanour: A lot of this was unmarked and different sort of elements that we were dealing with. Some of it was work print, negative that had never been processed. That's why when you see it, there are quality of different drills in it, but it's literally because there's negative, there is print that doesn't have negative, there are screening prints without any negative, with optical sounds. So we tried to get the best source for the content of that we could find.
Can you talk about any restoring of the sound in this movie?
Gochanour: There was some restoration to the sound. There were some eight-track recordings that were made by Glyn Johns, who appears in the film. He's a well-known engineer and producer, later after this [movie]. And they were pristine recordings, unbelievable. And we got a chance to use them for the first time, which were great.
Have any of the Stones seen the restoration of "Charlie Is My Darling"? What was their reaction?
Klein: The Stones have seen the restoration. They are on board and very supportive.
What about that scene in the movie with the family? What's the story behind that?
Klein: Andrew Oldham knows. I don't know. It's hysterical. It looks like they're having a good time. And if you notice, throughout the whole two days, they don't change clothing. They're performing in their street clothes, but they're a working band. That's what's so great about this. they are together.
If you notice, when they're sitting on the fence, Charlie [Watts] is sitting there really bored. He's holding his room key. He wants to leave. Keith [Richards] is drinking water. That's amazing. But they are a working band, and that's them trying to kill some time, I guess. Or trying to make interesting fodder for Peter to shoot, perhaps.
How did the Allen Klein estate and ABKCO deal with Andrew Loog Oldham in getting "Charlie Is My Darling" restored and released? How much control did Andrew Loog Oldham have? Were there any problems?
Klein: ABKCO is the distributor of this film, and Andrew shares the copyright on it, so there's no problem.
Can you talk about the process of getting the Stones to agree to release this film?
Klein: We all had agreed that "Charlie" would be a 50th anniversary release, so that was never an issue. The interesting part came when we discovered all the extra footage and realized it wasn't going to be the 35-minute version or the 49-minute version, that we had all this opportunity — because of technology, time and heart and the benefit of 50 years — to revisit and re-envision this time.
Gochanour: And also to preserve Peter Whitehead's and Andrew's original version.
Klein: At the same time, so those still exist.
Gochanour: Which was more of a cinéma vérité approach to what we're doing here, which is more narrative.
So what convinced Mick Jagger and the Stones to release "Charlie Is My Darling" now?
Klein: Well, it's obvious, isn't it? It's their first time [touring in Ireland], so I don't think it took any convincing.
What was Peter Whitehead's involvement in this whole process of restoring the movie?
Klein: We went to Peter. Peter's not well physically. He was very aware of what we wanted to do, that we wanted to do this. And unfortunately, he was physically unwell to come here to participate in the actual day-to-day cutting of it. We sent him versions, and he signed off. So he's totally behind us and so excited that it's finally getting the exposure it deserves.
Did you have to dub "Satisfaction" into the movie? Or was that the real performance from that show?
Gochanour: That's the real performance. There are all live performances. No overdubs. The real deal.
There were lots of references to the Beatles in this movie. Can you talk about the Rolling Stones' relationship with the Beatles at the time?
Klein: They were friends. They were competitors and friends. The Beatles were the Beatles. As somebody once said, "There was the music business, and then there were the Beatles."
Gochanour: [John] Lennon and [Paul] McCartney actully wrote the Stones' first [U.K. original] single ["I Wanna Be Your Man], and it was through Andrew that they got it.
Klein: So it was a comeptitive, friendly friendship.
How will "Charlie Is My Darling" be distributed commercially after its New York Film Festival premiere?
Klein: We'll be in stores on November 6 [in 2012]. It will be theatrical [in cinemas] and broadcast. We'll be on the BBC in London.
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