Junker-2

I rather enjoyed the first 45 minutes of "Beloved." Ludivine Sagnier, one of my favorite actresses, plays a 1960s French woman who is confused by love. I was still with the story as the years passed and Sagnier matures into Catherine Deneuve, in a nifty bit of casting. However as the story shifts to that of daughter Vera, it all becomes a bit too morose for me. Vera for some reason becomes obsessed with a man who cannot love her back. It's hard for us to see any reason for this obsession. It simply appears the young woman is eager to destroy her life.

There are very strong echoes here of the Truffaut film "The Story of Adele H." Truffaut, however, was well aware he was filming the story of a woman's descent into madness and hell. In "Beloved," director Christophe Honoré takes a similar story but shoots it in a very different light. He seems to think there is something so very romantic about desperately loving someone who cannot possibly love you back.

Honoré throws in everything but the kitchen sink here, covering topics from Aids to 9/11. But, at around 2 hours and 20 minutes, it's all too much for such a morose topic. I probably should have turned it off after those first 45 minutes.

(I am reviewing the U.S. home version of this which is a bit over 2 hours...not the 184 minutes listed here. I am guessing the extra time includes some of the extras.)

Let me start out by stating the obvious: If you are a fan of The Hollies you will not only wish to view this documentary, you will wish to add it to your DVD collection. It is a well made, revealing look into one of the very best of the British Invasion groups. There are extensive interviews with Allan Clarke, Graham Nash, Tony Hicks and Bobby Elliot and some wonderful behind the scenes looks at the group working together. In fact, the scene of them recording "On a Carousel" at Abbey Road Studios alone is worth the price of the DVD.

I was left, however, slightly disappointed with the film and I believe it's because it really shouldn't have had "1963-1975" in the title but rather only "1963-1968." That's because this documentary, like many other looks back at The Hollies, seems to want to end things with the departure of Nash in 1968. The post-Nash years here are given very short shrift.

It is quite meaningful to me that ten months after Nash left and was replaced by Terry Sylvester, The Hollies had their biggest hit with "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother." In fact, that song plus "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress" and "The Air That I Breathe" are probably my three favorite Hollies songs. All came after Nash left. What exactly does that say?

Nash and Clarke were best friends from the age of six, and it's obvious in this documentary that Clarke was stung by the departure of Nash and never really warmed up to replacement Sylvester. Curiously and significantly, there is no interview with Sylvester in this documentary. Again, what exactly does that say?

Hopefully what it says is this: The ultimate documentary of The Hollies story from 1963 to 1968 has been made. But the window (so to speak) has been left open for the story from 1969 and beyond to yet be made.