6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
A unique, intimate portrait of singer-songwriter Leon Russell and his work environment.
Starring: Leon RussellMusic | 100% |
Documentary | 84% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.33:1
English: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Leon Russell died in 2016 after a long and incredibly notable (no pun intended) career where he performed as both a session musician, a singer- songwriter and a kind of top hatted bon vivant, at least as evidenced by his now iconic getup for Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour, and the subsequent concert film culled from it. Interestingly in that regard, I remember reading a rather touching remembrance of Russell after his death done by someone who had produced some early sessions where Russell was the piano player (I simply can’t remember who said this, sorry) where the producer talked about what a natty dresser Russell was, showing up in a suit and tie for a rock session, with his hair neatly trimmed and (if I’m remembering correctly) without his later legendary beard. Russell is considerably less formally attired and also considerably more hirsute in A Poem is a Naked Person, a documentary shot by Les Blank circa 1972-75 which was never officially released at the time of its completion due to what was evidently a pretty serious falling out between Russell and Blank. Blank pre-deceased Russell by about three years, but that was enough time for Blank’s son Harrod to get in touch with Russell and try to persuade him to let bygones be bygones and to finally allow the film to see the light of day. As Russell (a sweet if tart curmudgeon as evidenced by a supplement with Harrod) states, one of his issues with the piece is that it seemed to be more about Les Blank than about Russell himself, and some may feel that that is still the case, as Blank, as was his wont, wasn’t content to simply document the life and times of one individual musician, and instead branches out on a whole host of arguably irrelevant sidebars.
A Poem is a Naked Person is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of the Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. Criterion's insert contains the following information on the transfer:
A Poem is a Naked Person is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. On widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right of the image to maintain the proper screen format. This new digital transfer was recreated in 2K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director film scanner from the original 16mm reversal check print.This is a generally very nice, organic looking presentation of the documentary, though there are rather wide variances in clarity, detail levels and grain structure, as can perhaps be made out by looking through the screenshots accompanying this review. I suspect some of these variances had to do with the length of the shoot and perhaps even different stocks, lenses and shooting conditions, but there are passing moments here that are considerably rougher looking than the bulk of the presentation (see screenshots 13 and 18 for a couple of examples). The source element probably also contributes to a palette that can tend to look slightly wan or even skewed a bit toward pinkish tones at times, though outdoor material in particular pops rather well, all things considered (look at the bright reds and blues in screenshot 5). While the grainfield is a bit grittier looking at select moments, there are no real compression issues that I noticed.
A Poem is a Naked Person features an LPCM Mono track. Criterion's insert contains the following information on the soundtrack:
The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from a 16mm monaural mixed magnetic stripe track. Clicks, thumps, hiss, hum, and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD and iZotope RX4.While the mono track is obviously inherently narrow, fidelity is surprisingly full bodied throughout, including everything from outdoor interviews, where some sweet countryside ambient environmental sounds provide background noises, or some the musical moments, where balances are good and there are no issues with regard to distortion or dropouts. There is quite a bit of "talking head" material here, for those who may be approaching this thinking it's a concert film, and as such the mono track provides more than adequate support.
- Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:41)
- Extended Trailer (1080p; 2:56)
- Alternate, Unused Trailer (1080p; 2:01)
A Poem is a Naked Person is another completely unique offering from Blank, a kind of provocateur in the music documentary field, who here may have "poked" the wrong "bear", so to speak, at least as evidenced by how long it took this film to receive an official, authorized release. The documentary does admittedly have some extraneous material, but even that is often peculiarly fascinating. The Russell footage is magnetic, though, and reveals an artist at the height of his powers. Technical merits are generally solid, and the supplemental package very appealing. Highly recommended.
1999
1981
1967
LCD Soundsystem
2012
2019
1984
2022
1970
1967
1959
2008
1984
1978
1973
1982
2016
1988
Remastered
1968
2002
2021