Les Blank: Always for Pleasure
Directed by Les Blank et al
various/USA
The Criterion Collection Spine #737
First viewing/FilmStruck
I try not to make a big deal about the camera, to let it get between me and them. I’ve seen a lot of cameramen go in and treat the subjects like so many guinea pigs. I think the people pick up on my very protective feelings toward them, and they aren’t self-conscious about what they do or say, and they try to show the inner light about themselves that I find so attractive.
This won’t be a regular review. I enjoyed Burden of Dreams so much that I decided to give Les Blank’s other documentary films a try. Most if not all of these films are available online only from FilmStruck so I had to get them while I had the chance.
Burden of Dreams could not be more different than most of Blank’s documentaries. In general he focuses on rural American folk life, music, and cooking. These are real people doing real things – enjoying themselves to the max and not giving a damn about the cameras. The affection between Blank and his subjects is palpable. They are happy films and yet there is a certain sadness that some of these traditions are disappearing as we watch. The films are also beautiful to look at.
Here are capsule descriptions for the films I watched:
A Well-Spent Life (1971) – The life and music of Texas blues guitarist Maurice Lipscomb.
Yum, Yum, Yum! A Taste of Cajun and Creole Cuisine (1990) – Title is self-explanatory. Not restaurant food but real food. If you watch on an empty stomach, be prepared to raid the icebox!
Hot Pepper (1973) – Life and music of Clifton Chenier, King of the Zydedo, Creole music popular in New Orleans and environs.
Dry Wood (1973) – Companion piece to Hot Pepper. Chenier is/was a professional musician. This film explores the Zydeco music played by people living in the Mississippi Delta and their folkways.
Sprout Wings and Fly (1983) – Life and music of fiddler Tommy Jarrell and his Old-Time Appalachian tunes.
A Poem Is a Naked Person (1974) – Covers two years on the road with rock star Leon Russell. Russell, who financed film, barred public release until after Blank’s death. It’s a fine film but more a “Les Blank film” than a film centering on Russell. Nonetheless he plays a lot and well.
Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980) – Self-explanatory title. Young Errol Morris was complaining to Herzog that he wanted to make a movie but had no money. Herzog told him he needed not money, but guts. One result was Morris’s critically-acclaimed documentary about pet cemeteries, Gates of Heaven. The other was this film.
Gap-Toothed Women (1987) – Celebration of beautiful gap-toothed women and the historical lore on this dental phenomenon. Evolves into a meditation on standards of beauty.
The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists (1994) – A working stiff quits his job to devote himself to his art, which he refuses to put a price on.
Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella (1995) – Self-explanatory. Aguabella is the chief proponent of Afro-Cuban conga drumming.
God Respects Us When We Work But He Loves Us When We Dance (1968) – Covers the 1967 Love-In at Los Angeles’s Elisian Fields. Like Woodstock without big stars on stage.
Always for Pleasure (1978) – Loving film about local folks having fun in New Orleans – at funerals, street parades, Mardi Gras, and St. Patrick’s Day.
The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins (1969) – Tribute to the Texas blues legend, his life and times.
In Heaven There Is No Beer? (1984) – That’s why we drink ours here! Documentary about American polka afficionados.
