[ThisWeek] Neil Young: Heart of Gold at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre

[thisweek at kenworthy.org]

This week at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre...

Neil Young: Heart of Gold (PG)
Thursday, Friday & Saturday, May 11, 12 &13
7:00 PM
Sunday, May 14
4:30 & 7:00 PM
$5/adult, $2/child 12 or younger
KFS pass accepted for Sunday movies
(See Review below)
* * *

Next week at the Kenworthy-

Match Point (R)
Thursday & Friday, May 18 & 19
7:00 PM
Sunday, May 21
4:10 & 7:00 PM

2nd annual
Rendezvous Talent Showcase
Saturday, May 20
7:00 PM
$10 at the door

Rendezvous will highlight 6 bands in a showcase format to be considered as
one of the three warm-up bands at the Rendezvous concerts.  Bands will be
selected by 1) audience vote (vote with your ticket) 2) audience monetary
donations (vote with dollars) and 3) by the Rendezvous Board of Directors. 

Featured Bands:  Eric Anderson, Bare Wires, Full Circle, Beth Pederson,
Shook Twins, Steptoe

Part fundraiser,  and all fun!
* * *

Also in May at the Kenworthy-

Inside Man (R)
May 25-27, 7:00 PM
May 28, 4:05 & 7:00 PM

Coming in June: Boys of Baraka; Children¹s Matinee series: Dreamer; Cheaper
by the Dozen 2; Wallace & Gromit

Regular movie prices:  $5/adult, $2/child 12 or younger
KFS series pass prices:  $30/10 films, $75/30 films. KFS pass good only for
Sunday movies.

For more information on movies, events, rental rates, and/or to download a
schedule, visit our website at www.kenworthy.org
* * *
This week¹s review-

Neil Young: Heart of Gold

Directed by Jonathan Demme
Rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). It's as clean as a whistle.
Running time: 1 hour, 43 minutes

As reviewed by Manohla Dargis writing for the New York Times

When the curtain opens, Neil Young is standing onstage, his face full of
years. Dressed in a gray western suit, with a plainsman's hat and a
well-used acoustic guitar, he looks like an old-time cowboy crooner, but
somehow scruffier. The hair curling over his collar seems greasy and the way
he ducks his head you might think he hadn't spent much time indoors; he
probably needs to knock the dust off his boots before he enters the parlor.
It's a fanciful fiction, this gent with the hat, the suit and the aw-shucks
reserve, and part of the beautiful story Jonathan Demme tells in his concert
film "Neil Young: Heart of Gold."

Mr. Demme shot the film over the course of two concerts recorded in
Nashville's storied Ryman Auditorium, original home of the Grand Ole Opry.
The first half of the film includes 9 of the 10 songs from Mr. Young's most
recent album, "Prairie Wind" (Mr. Demme saved one song for the DVD); the
second features 10 titles from his songbook, a number of which were first
recorded in Nashville. Although this part of the film ‹ this set, really ‹
begins with "I Am a Child," which he recorded with his former band Buffalo
Springfield, many of the other titles in this section ‹ "Old Man," "Old
King" and "The Old Laughing Lady" ‹ suggest that Mr. Young, who turned 60 in
November, is in a ruminative state of mind.

The film provides no real back story about the production, but in interviews
Mr. Young has said that the idea for it arose out of a phone conversation he
had with Mr. Demme. The director explained that he had a year off and asked
Mr. Young what he was up to. As it happens, the musician had just finished
"Prairie Wind," which he had begun recording right after discovering that he
had to undergo surgery for a brain aneurysm. He cut some of the songs in
Nashville, had the surgery (twice) and then finished the recording.

Those who welcome each of his new albums will probably feel as generously
disposed toward the film. Like the album, which features some of Mr. Young's
memorable colleagues ‹ the steel guitarist Ben Keith, the bass guitarist
Rick Rosas and Emmylou Harris, among others ‹ the film has the feel of a
family reunion. There are a lot of gray and white hairs amassed on that
stage, plenty of wrinkles and jowls too. Working with the cinematographer
Ellen Kuras and nine cameras, including one mounted on a Steadicam, Mr.
Demme doesn't shy away from the lines and the jowls; he gives them their
due. To watch these weathered faces exchanging practiced glances or
temporarily alone in a riff is greatly pleasurable, as well as a nice break
from pop culture's plastic unreality.

The camera tends to move only if Mr. Demme wants us to notice something,
like the worn-away varnish on Mr. Young's guitar; both the camera movements
and the editing take it nice and easy, like the songs. A shot of the full
moon over the Ryman before the concert is especially lovely, not only
because it alludes to one of Mr. Young's favorite images ("blue moon
sinking," "full moon risin'," "yellow moon," "silver moon," "unfulfilled
moon") but also because, I swear, it looks like a beacon.
 

As reviewed by Joel Selvin writing for the San Francisco Chronicle

Facing brain surgery for an aneurism, Neil Young went to Nashville and
recorded an album while he waited for his operation the following week.
"Prairie Wind," the resulting work, easily ranks among the 10 best albums in
the prolific career of the bard of La Honda.

Perhaps not surprisingly, mortality looms over songs such as "Painter,"
"Falling Off the Face of the Earth," "No Wonder." He dedicates "Prairie
Wind" to his father, who died shortly before the sessions, and "Here for
You" to his young adult daughter.

Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme ("The Silence of the Lambs"),
who made one of the greatest rock concert movies ever with the Talking
Heads' "Stop Making Sense," keeps the action focused on the stage of
Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, spiritual home of country music where the
Grand Ol Opry was broadcast every week for the first 60 years or so.

Young is backed in a largely acoustic performance by a large ensemble that,
at times, includes a full string section and the Memphis Horns of Stax/Volt
soul music fame. Emmylou Harris joins his wife, Pegi Young, on harmony
vocals and Young, for his part, plays a guitar that once belonged to Hank
Williams.

Outside of a couple of yellow painted backdrops on the Ryman stage that give
the film a golden glow and a set of cowboy stage outfits made especially for
the shoot, "Heart of Gold" is an unvarnished, no-frills concert documentary
that captures Young giving the warmhearted songs from the album -- plus a
handful of his well-known pieces in the film's second half -- his typically
soulful performance.


As reviewed by Sam Adams writing for the Philadelphia City Paper

Neil Young's Prairie Wind makes a better movie than it does an album.
Holding court at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, former home of the Grand Ole
Opry, Young makes his way through all but one of Prairie Wind's 10 songs, a
loosely focused suite whose intimations of mortality were prompted by a
brain aneurysm. 

Jonathan Demme, whose music films form a body of work equal to and even
surpassing his fiction films, holds tight on Young's deep-lined face,
amplifying the sense of solitude even though he's sometimes only one of
several dozen musicians on stage. The cutting is languorous, the settings
fairly sedate‹only a few backdrop changes and lighting effects bridge the
gap between years as the movie slides into its second extended-encore half.

But it turns out the reaper has always been Young's co-pilot; stretching
back as far as "Old Man" and "The Needle and the Damage Done," the run
through Young's back catalogue fitfully extends Prairie Wind's focus on the
harsh beauty of the natural order.

Heart of Gold doesn't feel like a swan song. It's just the latest step in
Young's journey, and we're along for the ride.


Film reviews researched and edited by Peter Haggart
* * *

Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre
508 S. Main Street, Moscow, Idaho
208-882-4127
Sign up for this weekly email on events and movies at the Kenworthy by
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PAMELA PALMER, Volunteer
Mailto:ppalmer at moscow.com
Film and Events Committee
Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre

http://www.kenworthy.org
To speak with a KPAC staff member,
call (208) 882-4127
Mailto:kpac at moscow.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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