[go: up one dir, main page]

    Release calendarTop 250 moviesMost popular moviesBrowse movies by genreTop box officeShowtimes & ticketsMovie newsIndia movie spotlight
    What's on TV & streamingTop 250 TV showsMost popular TV showsBrowse TV shows by genreTV news
    What to watchLatest trailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily entertainment guideIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsEmmysSan Diego Comic-ConSummer Watch GuideToronto Int'l Film FestivalSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll events
    Born todayMost popular celebsCelebrity news
    Help centerContributor zonePolls
For industry professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Watchlist
Sign in
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • FAQ
IMDbPro

The Velvet Underground

  • 2021
  • R
  • 2h 1m
IMDb RATING
7.3/10
5.9K
YOUR RATING
The Velvet Underground (2021)
The Velvet Underground created a new sound that changed the world of music, cementing its place as one of rock and roll's most revered bands. Directed with the era's avant-garde spirit by Todd Haynes, this kaleidoscopic oral history combines exclusive interviews with dazzling archival footage.
Play trailer2:16
1 Video
13 Photos
DocumentaryMusic

The Velvet Underground explores the multiple threads that converged to bring together one of the most influential bands in rock and roll.The Velvet Underground explores the multiple threads that converged to bring together one of the most influential bands in rock and roll.The Velvet Underground explores the multiple threads that converged to bring together one of the most influential bands in rock and roll.

  • Director
    • Todd Haynes
  • Writer
    • Todd Haynes
  • Stars
    • The Velvet Underground
    • John Cale
    • Lou Reed
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.3/10
    5.9K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Todd Haynes
    • Writer
      • Todd Haynes
    • Stars
      • The Velvet Underground
      • John Cale
      • Lou Reed
    • 56User reviews
    • 72Critic reviews
    • 87Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 3 wins & 35 nominations total

    Videos1

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:16
    Official Trailer

    Photos13

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    + 7
    View Poster

    Top cast54

    Edit
    The Velvet Underground
    The Velvet Underground
    • Themselves
    • (archive footage)
    John Cale
    John Cale
    • Self - Songwriter, Musician & Producer
    Lou Reed
    Lou Reed
    • Self - Songwriter, Musician & Author
    • (archive footage)
    Henry Flynt
    Henry Flynt
    • Self - Composer, Musician, Philosopher & Writer
    La Monte Young
    La Monte Young
    • Self - Composer, Musician, Writer & Founder of Theatre of Eternal Music & the Dream Syndicate
    Marian Zazeela
    Marian Zazeela
    • Self - Artist, Musician & of Theatre of Eternal Music & the Dream Syndicate
    Allan Hyman
    Allan Hyman
    • Self - High School & College Friend…
    Merrill Reed Weiner
    Merrill Reed Weiner
    • Self - Sister of Lou Reed
    Richard Mishkin
    Richard Mishkin
    • Self - College Friend & Bandmate of Lou Reed
    Shelly Corwin
    Shelly Corwin
    • Self - Lou Reed's College Girlfriend
    Danny Fields
    Danny Fields
    • Self - Music Manager & Publicist
    Jonas Mekas
    Jonas Mekas
    • Self - Filmmaker, Artist & Founder of Anthology Film Archives
    Amy Taubin
    Amy Taubin
    • Self - Actress & Visitor to the Factory
    Terry Phillips
    Terry Phillips
    • Self - Musician & Executive at Pickwick Records
    Sterling Morrison
    Sterling Morrison
    • Self - Musician
    • (archive footage)
    Martha Morrison
    Martha Morrison
    • Self - Wife of Sterling Morrison
    Maureen Tucker
    Maureen Tucker
    • Self - Songwriter & Musician
    Mary Woronov
    Mary Woronov
    • Self - Warhol Superstar, Actress & Author
    • Director
      • Todd Haynes
    • Writer
      • Todd Haynes
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews56

    7.35.9K
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10

    Featured reviews

    9Screen_O_Genic

    Peel Slowly and See

    One of the notable and important documentaries of recent times "The Velvet Underground" is a long overdue tribute to the great band and its incalculable influence on popular culture and artistic history. Utilizing a somewhat experimental slant in relating the group's fabled history this somewhat sedate and sombre academic take begins with the band members' origins and their path to legend. Chronicling their start from a garage band to the innovatory course they took that set them brilliantly apart from the rest and their fateful meeting with Andy Warhol onto the end of their career the film is a pretty compelling feast of art and music. Priceless footage of the band and interviews with people who played a part in the band's legend provide the information on what made the band tick. Considering The Velvets influence and importance it's a sorely lacking flaw that so many artists were not featured and interviewed in this doc. Having Jonathan Richman and a voice interview of a long dead David Bowie as the few luminaries featured is pitiful to say the least and diminishes/minimalizes on why the band is so important and why they will always matter. The lack of liveliness and a sense of fun and verve kill the sense of Rock n' Roll which is what this film is and should really be about. While the definitive Rockumentary on the mythical band has yet to be done this should be a good treat that'll have fans satisfied. A memorial to a time, a city and artists this is an aesthetic paean to perhaps the greatest and most influential Rock band in history.
    7svendaly

    Peel quickly and don't see

    Oddly limited in scope. I knew it was a standalone two hour job but found myself doubting that- given the first half was given to pre-band. This was of course fascinating.

    But we end up with a 20 minute breeze through the Doug Yule era and I adore those albums.

    No reformation covered either.

    Visuals wonderful - but bizarre sound mixing (at least for my experience anyway) which meant you couldn't hear the commentary over the music so I had to watch with subtitles on. Which gave an interesting experience in realising that "my" Velvets lyrics have subtle, distinct differences to those that are apparently true.
    8chris-h-3

    A lot of great archive footage and an enjoyable, well balanced film

    Very much enjoyed this, as a fan of the bands music, I'm not sure I learned much that I didn't know before but I loved seeing a lot of this archive footage and photographs, which I don't think have been seen before publicly.

    Its very much a celebration of the bands music and legacy and a few of the interviews made me laugh and the closing montage may have made me cry a little. What more can you ask from a film?

    I did find the Warhol style a little jarring at the beginning, with some of the flashing imagery, but it did calm down and seems fully appropriate to the subject and so much better than it being a dull series of interviews with talking heads... And while there were interviews with the remaining members of band and the scene they were all completely relevant, thankfully we didn't get a series of other fans or celebrities talking about the band and themselves. The film also did really well including those members who are no longer with us and it really felt that the whole band was featured and represented here.

    It is not an encyclopedic history of the band which some people perhaps wanted, I guess you'd need a six or eight hour miniseries to cover that, or you could just read one of the many books and biographys that exist. Like I say I love the bands music and the artists subsequent careers, I don't know how the film would play if you were not familiar with Warhol and the band already but for me it was a perfectly judged and very enjoyable two hours.
    8Pairic

    Great Music Social History.

    The Velvet Underground: Documentary about the band and their artistic/social milieu. Many interviews, some bitterness fro Lou reed: "Andy Warhol produced The Banana Album in the sense that he was live in the studio when it was made". But y0u also see them together when Warhol was dying, friends again. Split screen is used to good effect, often using a loop of John Cale or Reed blinking when more info/clips are on the other half. Moe Tucker the VU drummer and sometime singer didn't like hippies, the West Coast or Frank Zappa. Demo tapes of Venus In Furs and Waiting For My Man plus many other VU songs. Great Music Social History film. Directed by Todd Haynes. 8/10.
    8NickKnack68

    Informative

    Pieced together almost as strangely as the band itself, this doc features excellent profiles of each band member and those closest to them. Was nice to have insight from people like John Waters, and who knew Jackson Browne was once involved with something that didn't suck?

    Loved the early footage of Lou Reed and the band playing doo-wop.

    More like this

    Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues
    7.4
    Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues
    Beastie Boys Story
    7.7
    Beastie Boys Story
    Velvet Goldmine
    6.9
    Velvet Goldmine
    Le musée des merveilles
    6.2
    Le musée des merveilles
    Dottie Gets Spanked
    7.2
    Dottie Gets Spanked
    Six by Sondheim
    7.9
    Six by Sondheim
    Loin du paradis
    7.3
    Loin du paradis
    Moonage Daydream
    7.6
    Moonage Daydream
    I'm Not There
    6.8
    I'm Not There
    Safe
    7.1
    Safe
    Poison
    6.3
    Poison
    Sidney: son héritage
    7.8
    Sidney: son héritage

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      After Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison quit the band, it carried on for a time with Doug Yule becoming the frontman on vocals and guitar. Moe Tucker also stayed with the band after her return from parental leave and they were joined by a new bassist and keyboardist. This lineup toured the Loaded album around parts of North America and Europe in 1971. A fifth studio album was released for a UK record label under the Velvet Underground name: 1973's Squeeze. All members bar Doug Yule were sent back to the United States in 1972 and Yule recorded all parts except the drums by Deep Purple's Ian Paice, saxophone by someone called Malcolm and some unidentified female backing vocals. Recording the album as essentially a Doug Yule solo effort was at the instruction of manager Steve Seswick, who had earlier brought Yule to the band and had long pushed for the Velvets to adopt a more commercial style with Yule at its centre. Yule himself was displeased at Seswick's control of the process. While Yule had been a significant creative force, albeit secondary to Lou Reed, on the celebrated Loaded album, Squeeze is much-maligned. It received terrible reviews, though it has gained some appreciators over the years. It is typically considered a Velvets record in name only. At around the same time as the official Velvet Underground were being reduced to Seswick's Doug Yule project, Lou Reed, John Cale and Nico had also been in Europe for a reunion performance in Paris in 1972, which was bootlegged and eventually released under the name Le Bataclan '72. Footage from this reunion performance is included in this film.
    • Quotes

      Self - Songwriter, Musician & Producer: We tuned to the sixty-cycle hum of the refrigerator. The sixty-cycle hum of the refrigerator was to us the drone of Western civilization.

    • Connections
      Features Pierrette I (1924)
    • Soundtracks
      Heroin
      Written by Lou Reed

      Performed by The Velvet Underground

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    FAQ15

    • How long is The Velvet Underground?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 15, 2021 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Ban nhạc the Velvet Underground
    • Filming locations
      • New York City, New York, USA(main location)
    • Production companies
      • Motto Pictures
      • Killer Content
      • Digital One
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 2h 1m(121 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.78 : 1

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    Follow IMDb on social
    Get the IMDb App
    For Android and iOS
    Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • License IMDb Data
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc.