I seldom find myself in such a deep disagreement with the rating of the viewers at IMDb as with this documentary directed by Ray Muller (BTW, I would love to see his two documentaries on Leni Riefenstahl). Of course, seven viewers votes is not a good statistic sample, but then only an average of 5 for an almost perfect documentary on one of the greatest artists in the history of blues, the woman and the voice who changed the perception of people and audiences about who can sing the blues. Then I looked at the age information and I realized than only one of the seven voters was in the 45+ category, in other words he was five years old at least when Janis died. Yes, a two generations gap makes the difference. And yet
'Love, Janis' is inspired by the biographical book with the same name (including also Janis' letters to her family) written by her sister who is also interviewed in the film. In 50 minutes director Muller succeeds to bring the essential information about the young girl from Port Arthur, Texas, who rebelled against the environment and the mentality, discovered her immense talent, ran away to San Francisco, landed there at the pick of the beat and hippie revolutions, made her way in the music industry and conquered the picks of the tops and love of the audiences, fought the daemons of loneliness and personal crises, and eventually succumbed to an overdose of drugs and alcohol just when it looked like her career was getting back on track. Interviews with people like Dave Getz and Sam Andrew (who played with her in The Big Brother and Holding Company), photographer Bob Seidemann (who took her famous nude photographs), John B. Cooke her tour manager (who at that time was also working with Bob Dylan), and music critic Joel Selvin throw light on various moments of her life and career, and bring back with admiration and affection the image of a girl, a woman who lived and created with a rare intensity. The best way to describe her life and art is to say that she burned like a flame, consumed way too early. The only critic I can bring to the film is that there is too little music, but we do have other films, recordings and youTube for this.
