Todd Haynes's Velvet Underground Documentary Premieres at Cannes 2021

Todd Haynes's documentary 'The Velvet Underground' premiered at the 74th Cannes Film Festival, marking his return to the Croisette after 'Carol' (2015) and 'Wonderstruck' (2017). The film features interviews with key figures, unseen live footage, and a rich collection of Andy Warhol's films. It includes performances of songs like 'Heroin,' 'Venus in Furs,' and 'Sunday Morning.' The documentary is distributed worldwide by Apple, while Universal Music Group conceived the project and approached Haynes. Haynes stated he set rules to focus on unseen material and used avant-garde film language to evoke the band's New York art scene of the 1960s. The film explores the Velvet Underground's collaboration with Warhol, including the Exploding Plastic Inevitable Show (1966) and the iconic banana album cover designed by Warhol, which originally had a peelable sticker revealing pink flesh. The review notes the documentary is slow and linear, lacking a personal touch, and targets a culturally knowledgeable audience.