The Velvet Underground
Emerging from the primordial soup of glamour, gutter sleaze, and feverish creativity that was New York’s 1960s underground culture, the Velvet Underground redefined music with its at once raw and exalted blend of experimentation and art-damaged rock and roll. In his kaleidoscopic documentary The Velvet Underground, Todd Haynes vividly evokes the band’s incandescent world: the creative origins of the twin visionaries Lou Reed and John Cale, Andy Warhol’s fabled Factory, and the explosive tension between pop and the avant-garde that propelled the group and ultimately consumed it. Never-before-seen performances, interviews, rare recordings, and mind-blowing transmissions from the era’s experimental cinema scene come together in an ecstatic swirl of sound and image that is to the traditional music documentary what the Velvets were to rock: utterly revolutionary.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- 4K digital master, approved by director Todd Haynes and cinematographer Ed Lachman, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack
- Alternate stereo soundtrack
- Audio commentary featuring Haynes and editors Affonso Gonçalves and Adam Kurnitz
- Outtakes of interviews shot for the film with musician Jonathan Richman, filmmaker Jonas Mekas, and actor Mary Woronov
- Haynes and musicians John Cale and Maureen Tucker in conversation with writer Jenn Pelly in 2021
- Complete versions of some of the avant-garde films excerpted in the movie
- Teaser
- Optional annotations identifying the avant-garde films seen in the movie
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: A 2021 essay by critic Greil Marcus
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- 4K digital master, approved by director Todd Haynes and cinematographer Ed Lachman, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack
- Alternate stereo soundtrack
- Audio commentary featuring Haynes and editors Affonso Gonçalves and Adam Kurnitz
- Outtakes of interviews shot for the film with musician Jonathan Richman, filmmaker Jonas Mekas, and actor Mary Woronov
- Haynes and musicians John Cale and Maureen Tucker in conversation with writer Jenn Pelly in 2021
- Complete versions of some of the avant-garde films excerpted in the movie
- Teaser
- Optional annotations identifying the avant-garde films seen in the movie
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: A 2021 essay by critic Greil Marcus
Cast
- Lou Reed
- John Cale
- Sterling Morrison
- Maureen Tucker
- Nico
- Doug Yule
- Jonas Mekas
- Merrill Reed-Weiner
- Allan Hyman
- Henry Flynt
- La Monte Young
- Marian Zazeela
- Richard Mishkin
- Shelley Corwin
- Danny Fields
- Amy Taubin
- Terry Philips
- Martha Morrison
- Mary Woronov
- Jackson Browne
- Jonathan Richman
- John Waters
- Joseph Freeman
- Delmore Schwartz
- Tony Conrad
- Billy Name
- David Bowie
Credits
- Director
- Todd Haynes
- Produced by
- Todd Haynes
- Produced by
- Christine Vachon
- Produced by
- Julie Goldman
- Produced by
- Christopher Clements
- Produced by
- Carolyn Hepburn
- Produced by
- David Blackman
- Executive producer
- Danny Bennett
- Executive producer
- Pamela Koffler
- Executive producer
- John Sloss
- Edited by
- Affonso Gonçalves
- Edited by
- Adam Kurnitz
- Cinematography by
- Ed Lachman
- Archival producer
- Wyatt Stone
- Archival producer
- Bryan O’Keefe
- Music supervision by
- Randall Poster
- Coproducer
- Josh Braun
- Coproducer
- Dan Braun
- Coproducer
- Esther Robinson
- Line producer
- Marissa Torres Ericson
- Associate producer
- J. Daniel Torres
- Sound design
- Leslie Shatz
- Music coordinator
- Milena Erke
- Music editor
- Jahn Sood
A scene from The Velvet Underground
