Tonight at the ArcLight Sherman Oaks I caught a sneak preview of the documentary Young@Heart. It's the first film in the American Film Institute's annual music documentary series, which runs for about six weeks every spring (besides being first-run movie houses, the two ArcLights also double as the home bases for AFI). The music doc series is generally a mixture of new and old. For instance, check out this spring's lineup. After Young@Heart, you've got stuff like the Beatles film Help! (1965), Jonathan Demme's Neil Young: Heart of Gold (2006), Stepping Razor: Red X (1992), Joy Division (2007), an untitled doc about the Red Hot Chili Peppers (2007), and even Purple Rain (1984) for Pete's sake. Okay, these aren't all music docs in the strict sense of the term, but you get the idea.
AFI's been doing the music doc festival every year since the ArcLight Hollywood opened in the spring of '02, but I have to confess that tonight was my first time in attendance. I'm not much of a music doc person. I rented Rattle and Hum in high school when I was going through my U2 phase. And in '99 I caught Stop Making Sense on the big screen as part of its 15th anniversary rerelease, but those are the exceptions. I'm not much of a doc person in general. As you may have noticed, the vast majority of movie posts on this blog are for fiction films. The moon doc I caught last month, The Wonder of It All, is the only other one I've posted about. So all those titles I ticked off above? I will most likely not be going to those.
When I saw they were showing a sneak of Young@Heart, though, I couldn't resist. I've seen the trailer for this a couple times over the last couple months, and both times I was rolling on my Jersey-bred ass. I couldn't resist the chance to see it. As a bonus, the Englishman who made it, Stephen Walker, was in attendance afterward for a Q&A. Poor chap's on a three-week 14-city tour right now, God bless 'im.
Far from disappointing me (you know how trailers can sometimes get you jacked up for a five-alarm letdown, right? Godzilla remake, anyone?), Young@Heart is not only the best film I've seen this year, it's easily one of the best films I've seen, like, ever. It starts out as sort of a gimmicky one-joke wonder, but over the course of two hours, while still maintaining lightness and humor, it evolves into something profound, laden with meaning.
'Kay so here's the gist of it, right? It takes place in Northampton, Massachusetts in the spring of 2006. Filmmaker Stephen Walker, who also narrates the film, documents this chorus of about 
two dozen senior citizens who form a choir called, you guessed it, Young@Heart. The average age of this group? Eighty. Supported by the National Endowment of the Arts, the choir is led by a fiftysomething former nursing home employee named Bob Cilman and his fortysomething assistant Diane Porcella (twice during the Q&A Stephen described Diane as "the glue who holds it all together"). What they do is, they tour the U.S. as well as Europe, singing very modern rock songs that you couldn't imagine coming out of the mouths of the World War II generation. You've got stuff like "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" by the Clash, "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees, "I Wanna Be Sedated" by the Ramones, "Yes We Can Can" by Allen Toussaint, "Purple Haze" by Jimi Hendrix, "Fix You" by Coldplay, "I Got You (I Feel Good)" by James Brown and, most hilariously, "Schizophrenia" by Sonic Youth. They've done quite well for themselves at this point. One recent tour, Road to Nowhere, took them to places like London and Berlin and even Oslo, where they performed for the king and queen of Norway.
two dozen senior citizens who form a choir called, you guessed it, Young@Heart. The average age of this group? Eighty. Supported by the National Endowment of the Arts, the choir is led by a fiftysomething former nursing home employee named Bob Cilman and his fortysomething assistant Diane Porcella (twice during the Q&A Stephen described Diane as "the glue who holds it all together"). What they do is, they tour the U.S. as well as Europe, singing very modern rock songs that you couldn't imagine coming out of the mouths of the World War II generation. You've got stuff like "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" by the Clash, "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees, "I Wanna Be Sedated" by the Ramones, "Yes We Can Can" by Allen Toussaint, "Purple Haze" by Jimi Hendrix, "Fix You" by Coldplay, "I Got You (I Feel Good)" by James Brown and, most hilariously, "Schizophrenia" by Sonic Youth. They've done quite well for themselves at this point. One recent tour, Road to Nowhere, took them to places like London and Berlin and even Oslo, where they performed for the king and queen of Norway.The movie follows the group as they prepare for a new concert called Alive and Well. The first show will be given at the local Academy of Music theater in Northampton on Saturday, May 13. 
We start at the beginning of the seven-week rehearsal process and end with that show. Bob Cilman shows up and has a whole bunch of new songs he wants to throw at them. Over that first week or so, and based on how well these cats can handle these songs, Bob whittles down the list of songs to something like six or seven. Part of the reason it's so funny watching them sing all this stuff is not just 'cause these songs are the last thing you'd expect them to listen to in their spare time, it's because, well, they admit themselves that these songs ARE the last thing they'd listen to. In a montage of solo interviews early on, just about all of them say they listen to nothing but classical music. One guy goes even further by raving about the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts he gets to watch every Saturday.
We start at the beginning of the seven-week rehearsal process and end with that show. Bob Cilman shows up and has a whole bunch of new songs he wants to throw at them. Over that first week or so, and based on how well these cats can handle these songs, Bob whittles down the list of songs to something like six or seven. Part of the reason it's so funny watching them sing all this stuff is not just 'cause these songs are the last thing you'd expect them to listen to in their spare time, it's because, well, they admit themselves that these songs ARE the last thing they'd listen to. In a montage of solo interviews early on, just about all of them say they listen to nothing but classical music. One guy goes even further by raving about the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts he gets to watch every Saturday.Here's a rundown of some of the peeps. You've got this one guy with thick glasses named Bob Salvini. Dude's had cancer, survived six bouts of chemo, which his doctors told him almost no one survives, and yet here he is, singing away. In fact, Bob has this uncanny ability to learn entire songs in an afternoon. You've also got this English gal named Irene. She's 92! For this concert 
she's charged with leading a rendition of "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" by the Clash, whom she mistakenly calls Crash. Eileen's hilarious 'cause she's such a flirt. When director Stephen Walker and crew are interviewing her in her house, she invites them all into her bedroom with a "Come on in, boys!" You've also got 85-year-old Dora, an African American who's no less than amazing. Check it out, she's got something like three...dozen!..grandchildren, as well as a bunch of great grandchildren. For Alive and Well, she's gotta do a duet of "I Got You (I Feel Good)" by the Godfather of Soul. Her duet partner's this white bald bespectacled guy named Stan. You really feel for Stan 'cause he's got this horrible spine problem which means his back's in, like, constant anguish. He and Dora soldier on, but they have a bear of a time nailing their ditty. Seriously, it adds a measure of suspense because they literally never get the song right until the night of the concert, on stage in front of zillions. Nothing like adrenaline to give you a kick in the pants, right? The entire group's gotta tackle "Yes We Can Can" by Allen Toussaint. Speaking of bears, this ditty has the word "can" no less than seventysomeodd times. They manage it, though. Eventually. Bob Cilman actually gets fed up at one point and wants to get rid of it, then decides otherwise at their urging. Dora, for her part and for all her complaining about how hard it is, nails it before most anyone else. One of the more touching pieces they do is a duet of Coldplay's "Fix You" by two former members of the choir who quit a few years ago 'cause of health reasons. One's this great big heavyset guy named 
Fred. Thing about Fred is, he's got a congestive heart issue that the doctors told him was gonna kill him a while back. He's now lived well beyond their predicted death date and has a fantastic sense of humor and great skill with words. He's also a natural tenor, hence Bob Cilman's bringing him back for one last go despite Fred's having to live with a dialysis machine. His duet partner for "Fix You" is this other barely-hanging-on guy named Joe Benoit. Like Bob Salvini, Joe's already visited death's door in a very real way. In fact, at one point his family brought in a priest for last rites for what turned out to be the scariest false alarm you could imagine. In the film you can see the man's frail and might just blow away with a strong enough gust of wind, but his love of singing and loyalty to the group make it an easy sell when Bob Cilman asks him back. And finally you've got my favorite member of the choir, 78-year-old ex-Marine named Steve Martin. Why is he my favorite? The gent has a zest for life that is quite simply contagious. He sings in the shower, has a hot young wife, and has this little old geezer doll in his living room standing on a platform that reads "Sexy Beast."
she's charged with leading a rendition of "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" by the Clash, whom she mistakenly calls Crash. Eileen's hilarious 'cause she's such a flirt. When director Stephen Walker and crew are interviewing her in her house, she invites them all into her bedroom with a "Come on in, boys!" You've also got 85-year-old Dora, an African American who's no less than amazing. Check it out, she's got something like three...dozen!..grandchildren, as well as a bunch of great grandchildren. For Alive and Well, she's gotta do a duet of "I Got You (I Feel Good)" by the Godfather of Soul. Her duet partner's this white bald bespectacled guy named Stan. You really feel for Stan 'cause he's got this horrible spine problem which means his back's in, like, constant anguish. He and Dora soldier on, but they have a bear of a time nailing their ditty. Seriously, it adds a measure of suspense because they literally never get the song right until the night of the concert, on stage in front of zillions. Nothing like adrenaline to give you a kick in the pants, right? The entire group's gotta tackle "Yes We Can Can" by Allen Toussaint. Speaking of bears, this ditty has the word "can" no less than seventysomeodd times. They manage it, though. Eventually. Bob Cilman actually gets fed up at one point and wants to get rid of it, then decides otherwise at their urging. Dora, for her part and for all her complaining about how hard it is, nails it before most anyone else. One of the more touching pieces they do is a duet of Coldplay's "Fix You" by two former members of the choir who quit a few years ago 'cause of health reasons. One's this great big heavyset guy named 
Fred. Thing about Fred is, he's got a congestive heart issue that the doctors told him was gonna kill him a while back. He's now lived well beyond their predicted death date and has a fantastic sense of humor and great skill with words. He's also a natural tenor, hence Bob Cilman's bringing him back for one last go despite Fred's having to live with a dialysis machine. His duet partner for "Fix You" is this other barely-hanging-on guy named Joe Benoit. Like Bob Salvini, Joe's already visited death's door in a very real way. In fact, at one point his family brought in a priest for last rites for what turned out to be the scariest false alarm you could imagine. In the film you can see the man's frail and might just blow away with a strong enough gust of wind, but his love of singing and loyalty to the group make it an easy sell when Bob Cilman asks him back. And finally you've got my favorite member of the choir, 78-year-old ex-Marine named Steve Martin. Why is he my favorite? The gent has a zest for life that is quite simply contagious. He sings in the shower, has a hot young wife, and has this little old geezer doll in his living room standing on a platform that reads "Sexy Beast."So that's the gist of it. We follow these cats for seven weeks, get to know them, watch them wrestle with these songs, and face hardships that have nothing to do with singing. Two of them
pass away during the last week of rehearsal. In fact, during the first weekend of May, with only one week to go before opening night and only one hour after they've learned of the passing of one of their own, the Young@Heart choir takes a field trip to the local penitentiary, the Hampshire County Jail and House of Corrections. You might think there'd be some tension here. I mean, no one ever says what these hulks have been locked away for, but we can imagine. Plus, the gang is still reeling from a recent death. And yet, not only does everything go off without a hitch, but this is probably one of the most inspirational scenes of the whole flick. For long stretches during the performance, the director leaves his camera trained on the faces of the convicts, and you can almost see the emotional sea change wash over them.
pass away during the last week of rehearsal. In fact, during the first weekend of May, with only one week to go before opening night and only one hour after they've learned of the passing of one of their own, the Young@Heart choir takes a field trip to the local penitentiary, the Hampshire County Jail and House of Corrections. You might think there'd be some tension here. I mean, no one ever says what these hulks have been locked away for, but we can imagine. Plus, the gang is still reeling from a recent death. And yet, not only does everything go off without a hitch, but this is probably one of the most inspirational scenes of the whole flick. For long stretches during the performance, the director leaves his camera trained on the faces of the convicts, and you can almost see the emotional sea change wash over them.Scattered throughout the documentary are music videos that Stephen Walker shot himself. During the Q&A afterward he said they were partly for smoke and mirror effect to handle the passage of the seven weeks. Whatever. I wasn't worried about how he handled the weeks going by, nor did he really need any deeper meaning for them. The videos are fun. They also emphasize how these songs take on a whole different meaning with the choir. Seriously, scroll back up and look at those song titles again. When being song by folks like the Ramones, the Bee Gees, Sonic Youth and the like, they mean one thing, but when you hear the lyrics from mouths of octogenarians, they mean something totally different. The most glaring example would be "Stayin' Alive." Stephen uses that for one of the videos, and one of the people singing is Fred, that guy on dialysis. Seeing him sing "Stayin' Alive," well, you'll never look at that song the same way again.
The first thing Stephen talked about after the show was how this whole party got started. He'd just finished writing a book. Steve's a nonfiction writer as well as a nonfiction filmmaker. His publications include Shockwave: Countdown to Hiroshima and King of Cannes: Madness, Mayhem, and the Movies. So anyway, he'd just finished another book, he was tired of writing, and he wanted to make a movie. Makes sense, right? So he and his wife Sally George, who's also 
his producer, were sitting in the kitchen one night, mulling over project ideas. They came up with nothing. Not long after, Sally came home one night with tickets to this show that had just come to London. You guessed it, it was this senior citizen choir from good ol' Northampton, Mass. called Young@Heart, on a tour called Road to Nowhere. Steve said that at the time he couldn't imagine getting even the teensiest amount of enjoyment out of that, but he went along anyway. It was him, Sally, and their 13-year-old daughter Kitty. So they go, and of course he loved it. He and Sally decided they wanted their next film to be about these codgers. Only problem was, no less than 20 (!) production companies had the same idea. So after the show, right? Steve and Sally are having a chat with Bob Cilman's assistant Diane Porcella about why they should be the ones to make the film and how much they adored the chorus and yada yada yada. So then Diane turns to their daughter Kitty and is like, "So hey Kitty. What did you think of the show?" And Kitty told her point blank that she positively hated it. Steve, suffice it to say, became ashen faced with terror that Diane was about to reject their offer so she could talk to the next bidder. But no. Diane was like, if Kitty was comfortable enough around her folks to be so blatantly honest, then people in general must have no problem opening up to them. So that's how they nailed the deal, all thanks to their daughter having a miserable time.
his producer, were sitting in the kitchen one night, mulling over project ideas. They came up with nothing. Not long after, Sally came home one night with tickets to this show that had just come to London. You guessed it, it was this senior citizen choir from good ol' Northampton, Mass. called Young@Heart, on a tour called Road to Nowhere. Steve said that at the time he couldn't imagine getting even the teensiest amount of enjoyment out of that, but he went along anyway. It was him, Sally, and their 13-year-old daughter Kitty. So they go, and of course he loved it. He and Sally decided they wanted their next film to be about these codgers. Only problem was, no less than 20 (!) production companies had the same idea. So after the show, right? Steve and Sally are having a chat with Bob Cilman's assistant Diane Porcella about why they should be the ones to make the film and how much they adored the chorus and yada yada yada. So then Diane turns to their daughter Kitty and is like, "So hey Kitty. What did you think of the show?" And Kitty told her point blank that she positively hated it. Steve, suffice it to say, became ashen faced with terror that Diane was about to reject their offer so she could talk to the next bidder. But no. Diane was like, if Kitty was comfortable enough around her folks to be so blatantly honest, then people in general must have no problem opening up to them. So that's how they nailed the deal, all thanks to their daughter having a miserable time.The thing is, though, this was only meant to be a TV documentary for Channel 4 in the UK. It
aired on Channel 4 in late 2006, and the response was no less than overwhelming. Channel 4's e-mail server crashed due to all the messages that poured in afterward. So Sally was like, "Ya know, Steve, why don't we try releasing this as a feature?" Steve went back to his editor Peter Dale, and the two of them re-cut it. One part of it involved remixing the sound in 5.1 so it would play better in theaters, but they also went back through all those endless hours of raw footage to find more stuff to put in. And poor Peter Dale. Really. Wanna know how tough this was for him? Steve and Sally's plan was to submit it to the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival. Steve didn't elaborate, but the deadline must've been ultra tight. During the last stages of editing, when they were closing in on their final cut, Pete was up for I'm not sure how many hours, or even days, straight. Steve said that literally after they locked the final cut, Pete collapsed from exhaustion and had to be taken away in an ambulance. You believe that shit? Imagine how awful it would've been if he went through that and they still missed the festival deadline. But no, they got it into the festival, and Fox Searchlight wasted no time in scooping it up.
aired on Channel 4 in late 2006, and the response was no less than overwhelming. Channel 4's e-mail server crashed due to all the messages that poured in afterward. So Sally was like, "Ya know, Steve, why don't we try releasing this as a feature?" Steve went back to his editor Peter Dale, and the two of them re-cut it. One part of it involved remixing the sound in 5.1 so it would play better in theaters, but they also went back through all those endless hours of raw footage to find more stuff to put in. And poor Peter Dale. Really. Wanna know how tough this was for him? Steve and Sally's plan was to submit it to the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival. Steve didn't elaborate, but the deadline must've been ultra tight. During the last stages of editing, when they were closing in on their final cut, Pete was up for I'm not sure how many hours, or even days, straight. Steve said that literally after they locked the final cut, Pete collapsed from exhaustion and had to be taken away in an ambulance. You believe that shit? Imagine how awful it would've been if he went through that and they still missed the festival deadline. But no, they got it into the festival, and Fox Searchlight wasted no time in scooping it up.Pete's collapse wasn't the only post-production drama. Steve couldn't say enough about what a monster headache it was to get clearances for the songs. In the end, you don't get to hear much at all of "Purple Haze" 'cause Jimi Hendrix's estate demanded something like $3,000...per 
second! Not everyone gave them a hard time. Coldplay pretty much gave them "Fix You" for nothing. That's interesting, 'cause they use the same publishing company that U2 uses, and U2 was impossible. Steve described a really touching scene where one of the two who passes away sings a great rendition of the song "One" from U2's 1991 album Achtung Baby. This happened very shortly before this guy passed away. So naturally Steve tried to get in touch with Bono for clearance. Never happened. Bono didn't say no, he just never responded. At tonight's screening there happened to be two gals in the audience who work at this publishing company. They sympathized with Steve and said they weren't surprised at all that Bono would never answer. Steve said he wrote innumerable letters and waited up to the last second before he had to lock the final cut, out of some remote possibility that Bono would give him a yes. Now just think about poor Pete, trying to stay awake. Coldplay, though, was so cool about it that Steve said there was a possibility their lead singer Chris Martin would do a duet of "Fix You" with Fred.
second! Not everyone gave them a hard time. Coldplay pretty much gave them "Fix You" for nothing. That's interesting, 'cause they use the same publishing company that U2 uses, and U2 was impossible. Steve described a really touching scene where one of the two who passes away sings a great rendition of the song "One" from U2's 1991 album Achtung Baby. This happened very shortly before this guy passed away. So naturally Steve tried to get in touch with Bono for clearance. Never happened. Bono didn't say no, he just never responded. At tonight's screening there happened to be two gals in the audience who work at this publishing company. They sympathized with Steve and said they weren't surprised at all that Bono would never answer. Steve said he wrote innumerable letters and waited up to the last second before he had to lock the final cut, out of some remote possibility that Bono would give him a yes. Now just think about poor Pete, trying to stay awake. Coldplay, though, was so cool about it that Steve said there was a possibility their lead singer Chris Martin would do a duet of "Fix You" with Fred.Steve also talked a bit about Bob Cilman. Back in the seventies and early eighties, he was working as a movie projectionist in Northampton. Problem was, projectionists don't get benefits like health insurance. That's the only reason he took the gig at a local nursing home called Salvo House, 'cause of the insurance. He worked in the Salvo House meal center. In 1982, after hearing one or two of the resident gals sing old standards, he decided a whole bunch of them should form a choir. Thus was born Young@Heart. For the first few years all they sung were the standards, songs they grew up with. But then, around 1985 or so, this one gal stands up and does a rendition of Manfred Mann's "Do Wah Diddy Diddy." As Steve says, "She brought the whole house down." That's what lit the spark in Bob Cilman's brain to have them start singing newer stuff.
Remember Steve Martin? The 78-year-old ex-Marine I mentioned above, who's got the hot 
young wife and the sexy beast doll? Well, just to show you that even toughies can be softies, when he was at the film's premiere, the movie didn't even get to start before he dissolved into Niagra Falls. What happened was, the Fox Searchlight logo came on, and that famous 20th Century Fox music played. They've pretty much been playing the same intro music forever. It made Steve Martin think of his childhood during the Depression. He was a big moviegoer as a youngster, and he vividly remembers always seeing the 20th Century Fox intro before the movies started. And now here he was, starring in a movie himself with that same intro.
young wife and the sexy beast doll? Well, just to show you that even toughies can be softies, when he was at the film's premiere, the movie didn't even get to start before he dissolved into Niagra Falls. What happened was, the Fox Searchlight logo came on, and that famous 20th Century Fox music played. They've pretty much been playing the same intro music forever. It made Steve Martin think of his childhood during the Depression. He was a big moviegoer as a youngster, and he vividly remembers always seeing the 20th Century Fox intro before the movies started. And now here he was, starring in a movie himself with that same intro.
