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VIRGIL FILMS

MOVIE INFO

Director:
Stephen Kessler
Cast:
Paul Williams, Various
Writing Credits:
Stephen Kessler

Synopsis:
He won Grammys® and an Academy Award®; wrote many #1 songs; starred in a Brian DePalma movie; put out his own hit records and albums; was a guest on The Tonight Show fifty times; and is the president of ASCAP ... and you might not have heard of him. In the 1970's, Paul Williams was the singer / actor / songwriter that emotional, alienated teenage boys all over the world wanted to be, a sex symbol before MTV, when sex symbols could be 5"2 and sing songs about loneliness with the Muppets.

Box Office:
Opening Weekend
$6.116 thousand on 1 screens.
Domestic Gross
$37.649 thousand.

MPAA:
Rated PG-13

DVD DETAILS
Presentation:
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
None
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
None

Runtime: 86 min.
Price: $19.98
Release Date: 2/5/2013

Bonus:
• Five Live Performances


PURCHASE @ AMAZON.COM

EQUIPMENT
Panasonic 50" TH-50PZ77U 1080p Plasma Monitor; Sony STR-DG1200 7.1 Channel Receiver; Panasonic DMP-BD60K Blu-Ray Player using HDMI outputs; Michael Green Revolution Cinema 6i Speakers (all five); Kenwood 1050SW 150-watt Subwoofer.

RELATED REVIEWS

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Paul Williams: Still Alive (2011)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (March 12, 2013)

Those of us who grew up in the 1970s will remember Paul Williams, as the singer/songwriter was nearly omnipresent during much of that decade. He wrote or co-composed hits for Three Dog Night, Helen Reddy, and the Carpenters – among others – and became a sought-after concert performer, actor and talk show guest in his own right.

Then when the calendar flipped to 1980 – poof! Or at least that’s how it seemed. In truth, Williams continued to work pretty steadily over the decades, but his public profile slipped so far that one can be forgiven for the assumption that he’d gone into hiding or even died.

Which is where the 2011 documentary Paul Williams: Still Alive comes into the picture. The title reflects the notion that Williams firmly entered the “where are they now?” category years ago and seeks to remind us that he indeed remains “still alive”.

Narrated by director Stephen Kessler, the documentary tells us a little about Williams’ career and his “wilderness years” as well as what led Kessler to pursue Williams as a documentary subject. We get interview sessions with Williams as well as York Hotel assistant manager Gregory Bland and bandleader Chris Caswell. Kessler follows Williams over a span of years as the film tells us about his life and career.

Or more accurately, Still Alive tells us about the life and career of one Stephen Kessler. A weird form of meta-documentary, this one often devotes more time to Kessler’s musings about his own life and failing career than with Williams, and it shows us more of Williams “behind the scenes” than in front of the camera proper.

While this allows Still Alive to avoid documentary clichés, it doesn’t make the end result satisfying. Clearly Kessler wants to use the movie as his own journey, as he hopes the faded star will tell him how to deal with his own career failings. Because of this, we get a lot about Kessler’s inner thoughts, and we often branch from info about Williams’ life to go to less logical subjects such as Kessler’s fear of terrorism in the Philippines.

I get where Kessler eventually goes with this: Williams is more content as a “has-been” than he ever was as a major star. Great message, but couldn’t Kessler get to it in a less self-indulgent manner? While his willingness to look behind the curtain can occasionally feel refreshing, usually it comes across as Kessler’s attempts to make the movie about himself and not its title subject.

Which is fine, I guess, but remains frustrating to me. For one, it makes Williams look like little more than a pawn in Kessler’s combination of half-assed self-therapy and career revival plan, and for another, it takes away from tales of a fascinating life.

Kessler rarely knows how to leave well enough alone. Early in the film, Williams starts to tell a revealing story about his childhood when Kessler interrupts to push toward some unconnected – and not very interesting – alternate subject. Williams looks frustrated and the viewer will probably feel the same way. Kessler’s agenda seems clear only to the filmmaker himself, so the viewer is left to tag along with his quixotic journey and hope for some nuggets of quality material.

These do appear on occasion. For one, Still Alive features a virtual treasure trove of archival footage that Kessler obtained from Williams himself. I suspect the rights issues on this film were massive, but the clips are worth the effort, as we see a shockingly broad array of video from Williams’ career.

Unfortunately, we see so much more of Kessler than anything else that we get few insights into Williams. The nominal subject often comes across as an afterthought here, and that keeps Still Alive from becoming satisfying. Perhaps the film should’ve been called Stephen Kessler Uses His Idol to Come to Terms With His Own Issues, as that’d give us a much more accurate idea what to expect.


The DVD Grades: Picture C/ Audio C/ Bonus D

Paul Williams: Still Alive appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. This was a decent presentation but no better.

Sharpness usually seemed acceptable to good. The program consisted of a mix of archival materials, modern “talking head” interviews and on the fly location shots. The vast majority of the archival materials looked pretty awful. Even the professionally-shot video from the 70s tended to appear fairly ugly; none of the video footage ever seemed better than mediocre, and much of it was rough and bland.

As for the modern material, those bits could occasionally look a little rough and blocky, but they generally appeared reasonably accurate and concise. Mild issues connected to jagged edges and shimmering occurred, but no signs of edge enhancement could be found. Source flaws weren’t an issue, though some light digital artifacts gave the show a bit of a grainy look.

Colors were satisfactory. The program featured a natural palette, and the hues looked fine given the restrictions of the locations. Blacks were fairly dark and tight, and low-light shots seemed acceptably clear. While this was never a dynamic transfer, it remained perfectly watchable for a low-budget indie documentary.

I thought the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack of Still Alive was also acceptable. The soundfield had little going for it. Music showed decent stereo imaging, and a few effects spread out across the front. These were minor, though, and didn’t add much to the experience. That said, a documentary like this didn’t need a dynamic soundscape, so I didn’t mind the bland presentation.

Audio quality was fine. Speech sounded natural and concise, without edginess or other problems. Music seemed full and rich, and effects were decent; they didn’t demand much of the mix, but they appeared accurate enough. This was a serviceable soundtrack for a program of this sort.

In terms of extras, we get five live performances from Paul Williams and his band. We find renditions of “Won’t Last a Day”, “Rainy Days and Mondays”, “That’s Enough for Me”, “You and Me Against the World” and “Rainbow Connection”. The first two come from a 2008 Las Vegas club show, while the third stems from a 2007 sound check in the Philippines, and “Connection” is from the actual show. This “World” played at a 2008 Jupiter, Florida performance. I can’t say these do anything for me, but fans will probably enjoy them.

Rather than focus on its subject, Paul Williams: Still Alive becomes a self-indulgent journey into its director’s own neuroses. Along the way, some interesting moments emerge, but the filmmaker’s relentless push to make the flick about himself turns it into a tiresome, frustrating experience. The DVD provides acceptable picture and audio but lacks substantial bonus materials. I can’t recommend this flawed documentary.

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