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Townes Van Zandt - Be Here to Love Me review
:. Director: Margaret Brown
:. Genre: Documentary
:. Running Time: 1:39
:. Year: 2005
:. Country: USA
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A mythic figure from the folk/country scene, Townes Van Zandt spent most of his life fighting his demons — alcohol, drugs and everything he could ingurgitate. Despite being considered a brilliant songwriter by his peers, his career remained from the most part confidential, except for a late hit and indirect success through covers of his songs — Willie Nelson's take on "Pancho and Lefty" most notably.
First-time director Margaret Brown draws a respectful portrait of a crazed genius through a series of interviews and archive footage. From leaving his family to go on a lonely hitch-hiking trip throughout the US, to jumping from a balcony or living the trailer-trash life after having hit the charts, Van Zandt perfectly fit the image of the tormented artist and, despite being a lovable being, his erratic and egoistic figure profoundly affected the people who loved him.
While not very flattering, these facets of his character are counter-balanced with the praises from respected artists such as Steve Earle, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson & Emmylou Harris, who all agree on his influence and talent as a songwriter. Clips from various performances are here to prove their sayings, and in the end, you can't help falling under the charm of this talented musician but extremely flawed human being.
Pretty safe and standardized, Brown's documentarily approach seems confusing at times, as her non-linear use of archive footage twists the autobiographical timeline. She never really gets involved either at a personal level to give her point of view on this rather complex portrait but the subjectivity of the ensemble provides a pretty informative look at the somewhat obscure life of this not-very-known artist.
The DVD features additional footage of Van Zandt, including a performance in a hotel room, as well as a clip of Jesus Manson hippie of the moment, Devendra Banhart, playing one of his songs. I was, however, left more perplexed by the presence of another rendition by Van Zandt's own son. To be frank, who cares about his son singing his dad's tunes in a saloon, with some biker dude sitting next to him? The only thing I can think of, is that they might have tried to create a sense of heritage — through blood and musically with Banhart — but if that's the case, it's far from being conclusive.
Fred Thom
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