Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.5

A Poem Is a Naked Person Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 10, 2019

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.

The recently reviewed Les Blank: Always for Pleasure presented fourteen of Blank's short(er) form documentaries, many focusing on folk musicians of various ilks, and it's interesting to contrast what worked in those pieces vis a vis what Russell may have had a problem with in this piece. As I repeatedly mentioned in many of the reviews of individual documentaries contined in Always for Pleasure, while Blank's ostensible focus in any given piece may be one or two primary musicians, there's a whole added aspect that is often evident that includes entire cultures and what I might describe as a depiction of what almost be termed a general kind of zeitgeist in many of these pieces which makes the documentaries at times less about individuals and more about "societies". When you're dealing with a lesser known fiddler from the Appalachians, for example, as Blank does in Sprout Wings and Fly, that may be all well and good, but an artist of Russell's stature may have understandably been miffed that a documentary supposedly about him goes off on so many tangents, even if many of them are undeniably related to Russell in some way.

Had Blank followed Russell around in the wild and woolly world of the Los Angeles rock scene, my hunch is he may have been less tempted to "stray" from Russell, since Blank seemed utterly unfazed by the "lifestyle of the rich and famous" and considerably more enamored of "everyday Joes". Unfortunately (for Russell) but arguably also fortunately (for many viewers), the film is decidedly more rural in focus, due to Russell's studio at the time being located in Oklahoma. That gives Blank the opportunity to explore the surrounding countryside and "get to know" some of the colorful locals. There are some truly odd moments in this film, including a horrifying snippet with a newborn chick and a hungry snake that struck me personally as not really being that necessary, even if Harrod Blank in an accompanying supplement tries to make the point that his father was probably subtextually referencing the way some record companies treat their artists. Other weirdnesses include longer sequences devoted to cult artist Jim Franklin attempting to "illustrate" Russell's pool (this particular aspect seemed to bother Russell quite a bit, for some reason).

Lest fans think that there's no Russell and/or no music in this documentary, there is of course, and in abundance. There are appealing excerpts from concerts and some great in studio footage, and various vignettes feature luminaries like Willie Nelson and George Jones. Russell often seems slightly bemused by his crazy life in some of the candid footage, but when he sits at a piano, he's all business, even if that business is rock 'n' roll.

A Poem Is a Naked Person Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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.

A Poem Is a Naked Person Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Harrod Blank and Leon Russell (1080p; 26:40) is a hugely enjoyable, no holds barred, conversation between the two. Leon doesn't shirk from getting into various things about Les that he wasn't too fond of, and Harrod manages to deal with all gracefully. There is a ton of interesting information about sidebars like Shelter Records included here.


• Les Blank (1080i; 8:40) is a fun Q&A session with Blank from a 2013 screening of A Poem is a Naked Person at Pixar. Blank died six weeks after this event.


• A Film's Forty Year Journey: The Making of A Poem is a Naked Person (1080p; 36:36) is another really well done piece charting this film's production and rather precarious trek to getting officially released.


• Out in the Woods (1080p; 12:59) is an interesting assortment of Super 8 footage shot by frequent Blank collaborator and editor Maureen Gosling, done at the time of the film's production.


• Trailers

  Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:41)

  
  

  Extended Trailer (1080p; 2:56)

  
  

  Alternate, Unused Trailer (1080p; 2:01)

Additionally there's an accordion style foldout insert featuring with an essay, pictures and information on the transfer.

A Poem Is a Naked Person Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.