Film catches the early Stones

Peter Whitehead's rarely seen documentary will be shown at 21c
By Jeffrey Lee Puckett • [email protected] • December 12, 2008
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20081212/SCENE04/812120359/1011/SCENE

In 1965, director Peter Whitehead accompanied the Rolling Stones on a three-day tour of Ireland, shooting entirely in the cinema verite style, which perfectly captured the young band's rawness and vitality.

Whitehead, D.A. Pennebaker and the Maysles brothers, Albert and David, were busy developing the language of the rock 'n' roll documentary at the time. The Maysles had filmed The Beatles on a 1964 swing through America ("What's Happening! The Beatles in America") and Pennebaker traveled with Bob Dylan through England in '65, making "Don't Look Back."

Where Pennebaker's take on cinema verite perfectly combined the style's naturalistic approach with a more or less linear narrative, Whitehead was more of a purist intent on communicating energy, feeling and emotion while staying out of the way -- or at least appearing to.

The resulting documentary, "Charlie is My Darling," is a kinetic, almost free-form experience. There isn't a story except the one revealed by the images and personalities: a not-yet-sophisticated Mick Jagger reveling in the chaos he creates at performances; Brian Jones vacillating between fragile and egotistical; a candid Charlie Watts simultaneously charming and melancholic.

After "Charlie is My Darling" debuted on the BBC in 1966, it virtually disappeared except when resurrected by groups such as the Louisville Film Society, which is showing a 16mm print of the movie Tuesday in Gallery 2 at 21c Museum Hotel, 700 W. Main St. (7 and 9 p.m., free). The film is fascinating, although it can challenge your attention span, but that isn't the reason it's so rarely seen.

"It just never had a theatrical release because of rights issues," said Tracy Heightchew of the LFS. "I don't think the band's lawyers signed off on it, hence the poor bootleg VHS (tapes) that were being circulated in the '80s.

"The film is also interesting for its depiction of Ireland at that time as well as the insight into the Stones."

The film's interviews are its heart. Watts is especially riveting. When he's asked "Why did you take up music?" a pained look transforms his normally tranquil expression. "Well, this is it, you see, I didn't really take up … I didn't look upon it as music. I just took up the drums."

The conflicts between what he was and what he wanted to be seem to run so deep that it's a wonder he has survived more than 40 years with the band. He sounds as if he's ready to quit. Jagger and Keith Richards, on the other hand, are total goofs while imitating Elvis and riffing on English poets, hormonal lads poised to take on the world.

Years ago I saw "A Hard Day's Night" in this old retro theatre and they played "Charlie Is My Darling" before it.

I got a copy of this years ago on VHS, very poor quality, but one of the first films of The Stones being interviewed in dept, & one of the few of Brian being interviewed, what got me when I first saw it, was the riots in Ireland, when the fans took over the stage while The Stones were playing, being attacked by all these guys, I guess that was normal back then, except for the poor quality I got, a good film.

As Keith once said, if you Gerry & The pacemakers on the same bill, the screaming would be unbelieveable, so The Stones had their chair of screaming, but a great topic to being up sioux.