Beatles is one of the most exhaustive documented bands of the 1900s, from TV series such as “The Beatles Anthology” and feature films such as Richard Lester‘S “A Hard Day’s Night” to documentaries by Albert and David Maysle, Ron HowardAnd Peter Jackson, among others. One would think that there was little left to explore, but the Disney+ documentary’s miracle+ “Beatles ’64“It is that it manages to feel completely fresh and new – largely by giving the viewer the visceral experience of what it was like to experience Beatle’s first visit to America through memory from people who were there.
A person who living remembers what it was like to first hear the Beatles music is Martin ScorseseWho produced “Beatles ’64” in the hope that it would convey the abundance that the band’s first visit to America inspired. “You have to understand, that was the end of the origin of Rock and Roll,” Scorsese told IndieWire. “You had Motown, you had Phil Spector and The Wall of Sound – which affected me a lot in” Mean Streets “and other movies – you had the girl groups and Smokey Robinson and there was still a lot going on, but (rock and roll) needed something new. And America also needed something new.”
This is because the country was, when the Beatles arrived in US beaches in February 1964, which is still from the murder of President John F. Kennedy, a tragedy that “Beatles ’64” uses as a structural device to give the band’s visitor context. “The devastation was unlike something that someone had experienced in our generation,” Scorsese said. “The country was ready for something new.” But as Scorsese points out, and the documentary shows, the Beatles originally met skepticism.
“They were appointed as a kind of weirdness because they had hair that was long, and the press couldn’t wait to attack them,” Scorsese said. “We didn’t take them as seriously. There was an attitude we all had about,” Yes, show us. “” Scorsese followed the press cover of the Beatles arrival and assumed they were just a “nonsense news” act – until he heard “I want to hold your hand” on the radio for the first time while he was ready to go to the class at NYU Film School.
“I heard the first beat and I was just standing there. I was late in class,” said Scorsese. “I listened and I admitted to myself:” It’s really good “, and as soon as I came to Nyu I told everyone:” This is not a ripoff – this is for real. “There was something gratifying about it, and I don’t think we can ever describe the uplifting effect of not only their musical ability, but writing and lyrics.
Scorsese, often producing partner Margaret lived and director David Germans Had access to extraordinary archive films shot by Albert and David Maysles that allowed them to give the audience a sense of the immediate impact that the Beatles had. Most of the Maysle images have barely been seen since it is managed, partly due to approval problems and partly because United artists did not want the material in general edition where it could dilute the speech “a hard day night.” Thanks to restoration work by Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post production, most pictures look like it was managed yesterday.
For Tedeschi, the key used to using Maysle’s images their talent as an interviewer. As good as all the backstage and concert films in the band itself are, what really conveys the magic at the moment is Tedeschi’s use of interviews that Mysles did with the group’s fans. “I was lucky enough to work with Al Mysles on (Scorsese’s Rolling Stones concert movie) ‘Shine a light’, Tedeschi told IndieWire.” Marty hired him to shoot behind the scenes. You would see him disarmed whoever he was with. ”
Tedeschi believes that Maysle’s talent to make interviewees feel calm is what really makes the images “Beatles ’64” had to work with Special. “It’s not surprising to me that they could catch the Beatles,” Tedeschi said. “What is surprising to me is how a 15-year-old girl on the street who has not had any media education is in any way calm and can project themselves and have great charisma.”
Scorsese was able to witness Mysles at work as early as the 1960s when he was at NYU and was looking for a job. “They made a transition from black and white to color, and they always used available light,” Scorsese said. “But you couldn’t do it with color at that time, so my job was to keep the lamp. Now the problem is that they are targeting without telling something, so you have to predict where al goes with the camera to give him some light. In a way it was an extraordinary master class in visual interpretation, to create narrative when nothing is arranged.”
“Beatles ’64” contains not only the Maysles material and other archive films, but new interviews conducted by lived, Scorsese and Tedeschi with topics from the two survivors Beatles (Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr) to fans who saw their first concerts – including director David Lynch in one of his last movie in one of his last movie in one of his last movie The filmmakers were stunned to learn that David Lynch as a young art student participated in the Beatles first American concert ever at Washington Coliseum – and that he had a different connection to the story they told.
“One thing he said it didn’t make the movie was pretty fascinating,” Tedeschi said. “As a boy scout, he had been an introductory at Kennedy’s inauguration. When it came to it, it was extraordinary how many were at the New York Carnegie Hall show, at Washington Coliseum and in Miami – many who went on to do fantastic things.”
Interviewing McCartney and Starr was a challenge for Scorsese and Tedeschi, who did not want to repeat old stories – no simple performance with celebrities as extensively interviewed as the Beatles. Fortunately, Tedeschi was able to talk to McCartney when Rock and Roller gathered a photographic exhibition dedicated to the Beatles in 1964. “The photographs jogged his memory and created a way to have a conversation more than just an interview,” said Tedeschi. When it comes to Starr, the filmmakers made him open by going through all the old clothes he held from that time.
Another way that “Beatles ’64” does enthusiasm for The Beatles Infectious is through the way in which Starr himself does not seem to have aged – as he goes through his old clothes and shows his old drum, he shows a youthful energy that does not differ from the much younger man we see in the archive films. In the short moments Scorsese shares with a star on the camera, he also seems to be younger -as if he comes back in contact with the NYU movie student who first fell in love with the band.
“It’s almost as if you can’t really believe that this time has passed,” Scorsese said of her experience of interviewing Starr. “I would have been another interviewer 30, 40 years ago. But after them and other great artists, from the stones to Dylan to the band to Van Morrison, you join for all this period of people who take these long artistic travels, and you change. And in some way you use the original excitement of joy in music and what the music means that the music means as an observation of an observation of
Scorsese and Tedeschi, who have been working together in different capacities for about 20 years now, are still burning not only for music but energetic by the challenge of finding a cinematic language to express their feelings. “The problem is how to say that, in other words, the visual story,” said Scorsese, noting that he and Tedeschi are struggling with that particular problem right now on their upcoming Robbie Robertson documentary.
“We shot the memory concert, and Dave gathers now,” Scorsese said. “We are smack in the middle of finding out what this is. We know it is a concert, but it must be something that takes us on a trip or gives us an experience where we can appreciate more where the music came from and how it affects people today.” According to Tedeschi, the challenge is to find a way to get the feelings he witnessed in the artists at the tribute concert on the screen in a way that is clear.
“We shot the tribute concert together with the rehearsals, and there were huge artists,” Tedeschi said. “Eric Clapton, van Morrison, Allison Russell … and it is very interesting to see the band’s music and Robbie’s music played by various artists, all of whom have been affected by the band and affected by it. We work to take that excitement and musicality and beauty into it and turn it into something more like a movie.”
“Beatles ’64” is currently flowing on Disney+.
