i didn’t work with him directly, but i’ve worked in capacities that orbited his. i can tell you this - he’s one of the laziest filmmakers ever.
i’ve heard (on good account) that he’s only on set for a couple of hours a day - at most - and that everything other than showing up, looking around and giving a few yes/no’s, and yelling “action”, it’s fully his support staff pulling any “woody allen” movie together. he rarely shoots more than two takes of anything, and it falls on his editing staff to cobble the best moments of anything usable into coherency. dropped audio, flubbed lines, continuity discrepancies - it’s all handled after the fact, and being that he uses top talent, it’s not like he can call anyone back in for re-shoots as they’re all off on to the next thing.
from what i can tell, he was more interested in keeping his “one feature a year” pace going than making anything of good quality. and he probably knew that once every five years or so, the new yorker or whatever would write a “he’s back!” article, no matter how meh the feature was.
Still a sucker for this stuff even now. Not sure how much cop the tune will be. Doesn’t look like Jeff Lynne is involved to make it sound like later period Oasis☹️ you never know…Get Back the TV series was ace though. May have to give it another watch.
Oh me too. The Beatles are my musical childhood - so many memories, all of them brilliant. I listen to Revolver every few weeks. I liked “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love” and this new one sounds like it’s going to make me cry!
Totally! I really liked Real Love although Lynne was hamstrung by the tech of the time. I remember growing up, my mum was always playing the red album and abbey road and that was my entry to music
Philip Norman is such a pillock. That article in the Gdn the other day was self-obsessed cringe. And now he slags off a track nobody has yet even heard!
Love that ‘He hasn’t heard it but…’ nothing like keeping an open mind.
They all used to write separately a lot then bring their songs to the rest to finish them. Of course it won’t be the same as when they did that then were all in the room collaborating but it’s still the four of them on there (just). Still interested to hear it, despite all the hype.
Ok initial impressions on the beatles track. It’s not bad but seems like they played too safe. It does sound very polished and melancholic and it is obv quite moving for the fans. But I dunno, also felt like a missed opportunity to really go wild though with studio wizardry or dramatic orchestral flourishes.
…Helter Skelter and that was it…
nothing like keeping an open mind.