The World premiere of the film Pete Townshend: Behind Blue Eyes took place at the Telluride Film Festival over Labor Day weekend!
The new 102 minute documentary was featured on the first day of the festival with a special screening on Friday September 4, followed by a Q&A with the film's creative team, co-directors Frank Marshall and Nigel Sinclair (producer of the 2007 documentary Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who), and producer/writer Cassidy Hartmann. A couple of additional screenings played Sunday night and Monday afternoon.
The film covers Pete's artistic life and musical career, with the main focus centering around his lost project Lifehouse and the transitional years of The Who following Tommy in the late 60's and early 70's. According to a press release: "Pete Townshend: Behind Blue Eyes is an in-depth exploration of how the legendary guitarist turned The Who into one of the most boundary-pushing bands of a generation. However, at the height of that success, Townshend faced a personal crisis that threatened to destroy the band—and himself. Out of that tumultuous period came 'Lifehouse,' a science-fiction rock opera that sent him on a journey of self-discovery that reshaped rock history. This intimate documentary uncovers a pivotal chapter in rock history, revealing how one man's struggle became a powerful catalyst for creative transformation."
Pete Townshend sat down for a seven hour interview with Cassidy Hartmann to chat about his life, which provides the backbone of the documentary. His story is interspersed with new comments from Roger Daltrey, former crew members, friends, and other musicians, along with a great collection of archival film clips, including concert footage, early interviews, and some never-before-seen material, such as The Who sitting around Rogers house debating their future after Tommy that was filmed at Holmhurst Manor in 1970.
The Telluride Film Festival is the unofficial kickoff of the North American fall awards and the start of the film festival season. Pete Townshend: Behind Blue Eyes will make it's way to other film fests later this year, including the Mill Valley Film Festival in California on Oct 4, and the Hamptons Film Festival in New York on Oct 10-11.
Many thanks to Bob McHugh for sending us his review of the film screening of Pete Townshend: Behind Blue Eyes at Telluride!
Review by Bob McHugh
Pete Townshend once mentioned that he thinks there are only about 400 hardcore WHO fans in the world. I certainly qualify as one of those folks, and I was lucky enough to attend a screening of the new documentary, "Pete Townshend: Behind Blue Eyes," at the Telluride Film Festival this past weekend.
Given that the film played in three small venues, total attendance was likely around 400 people, so I feel very lucky indeed. I have read the trade paper reviews, here is my review from the perspective of an obsessive Who fan, with some background on the film festival and Telluride in general.
My short review would be that I absolutely loved the film! It also evoked an emotional response from me though. That would be somewhat natural for any hardcore WHO fan. I lived in Telluride for over three decades, and I still live nearby, It is a very special place and will always be my home, so seeing one of the first screenings there was extra special for me.
I'm a live music junkie. Telluride is quite isolated. Denver is a 6+ hour drive away. I have driven to Denver and some of the other large cities in the Southwest hundreds of times over the years for concerts, and jumped on planes dozens and dozens of times to go to see The Who and several other of my favorite musicians. Even though I have seen hundreds of concerts elsewhere over the years, I have seen even more in Telluride itself. It is a bit of a live music mecca because of the summer music festivals in Telluride Town Park. Telluride and the park are situated in a Box Canyon, in the San Juan Mountains. The setting is absolutely stunning! I have seen many of my musical heroes there including Neil Young, The Allman Brothers Band, Robert Plant, Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead members, Elvis Costello, David Byrne, Hot Tuna, Joe Cocker, John Prine. I could go on and on. In my opinion, Telluride Town Park and Red Rocks are the two most beautiful venues in North America. I have seen over 300 concerts combined at those two venues. So if you're a live music fan, put them both on your list.
I know I went off on a tangent there, but ya know how in WHO world we are happy for each other's company because we are with folks that get it? I think you have to get Telluride, to totally get where I'm coming from. I don't think I would have anywhere near the same emotional response, if I had seen a screening of this film in Denver, or any other city. The main reason that all the festivals in Telluride are so successful is the setting. I think everyone WHO is going to take the time to read this will get the actual film. It is very well done. You might have a similar emotional response though. It's about Pete. We love him! He and Roger have been on an Amazing Journey and the film does a great job of conveying that.
I've had a few previous WHO related experiences in Telluride. One was during the film festival. There are some free screenings at the Telluride Film Festival. The primary venue for those is Elks Park, in the middle of town. In 1995 the festival was honoring Murray Lerner. One night they screened his 1967 doc about The Newport Folk Festival, and a couple of nights later we got one of the first screenings of Message To Love, his film about the 1970 IOW festival. I remember a loud roar from the crowd in the park, when The WHO appeared early on in that film playing YMB. Speaking of Lerner. Wouldn't it be nice if all the surviving film footage of The WHO at IOW 1970 was released in the correct running order? That is what all of us want. One of the trade paper reviews about this new Pete film said that there was new outtake footage from the IOW. Not really. I think that the reviewer might have been referring to a snippet of Naked Eye that is in the BBE film. I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure we have all seen The WHO footage from IOW that is in this new film before. The other WHO related experience for me in Telluride, besides a WHO cover band at the free summer concert series, was seeing The Hillbenders play their bluegrass version of Tommy at The Sheridan Opera House in town, during the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 2016.
Right about now at least some of you out there reading this are shouting, "Get on with it McHugh" at their computer screens. You're right this is supposed to be a film review, but let me just tell you a little bit more about the film festival.
The Telluride Film Festival is one of the most renowned film festivals in the world. It is known for having North American and World Premieres of feature films and some documentaries. Over the years, a number of Oscar winners and many, many Oscar nominees have premiered at the Telluride Film festival. A lot of film industry folks come, a lot of film critics as well, and many of the films seal distribution deals. Passes are expensive and they sell out quickly. The film lineup and schedule isn't announced until the afternoon before the first day of the festival. Even when I lived in Telluride, I never paid attention to the lineup announcement. If I went to any films at all, it would be the free ones in Elks Park. There are also the "After The Film Festival" screenings, which are designed for locals, but anyone can go to them. A couple of the most popular films are screened each night, for several nights after the festival ends. I have seen a bunch of films after the festival over the years.
I'm gathering that not many of us knew there was a Pete Townshend film in production. Unfortunately, I didn't find out about the world premiere screening until it was already underway, and I was more than an hour away at the time. One of my closest friends, Jackie, works for the festival each year. She was so busy that she didn't get a chance to look at the festival program, until that first evening of the fest, and she immediately contacted me. Most of my other friends in town pay no attention to the lineup announcement at all, unless they are planning on going. It is unlikely that I would have gotten into that world premiere screening anyway. Passholders always get in first and then there are always a bunch of comps for the industry types at a premiere. I talked to several locals, WHO didn't have passes, and WHO tried to get into the world premiere screening of the BBE film. None of them were successful. There was a second screening on Sunday night that I might have gotten into, but I elected to roll the dice and see if the Pete film was going to be one of TBA films on Monday, Labor Day, A lot of festival attendees leave town on Monday, and it is by far the easiest day to get into a film screening, if you are not a pass holder. On Sunday evening the TBA lineup for Monday was released, and the Pete film was on there for an afternoon showing.
On Monday, I drove to Telluride, had an early brunch with some friends, went on a two hour hike, and got in the ticket buyer line for the Pete film at 2pm, for a 3:45 showing. As it turned out, I really didn't need to get there that early. I was the first one in line. I was decked out in my WHO Tommy RAH shows t-shirt from 2017, shorts and Teva sandals. Ya know, my normal WHO show attire. Several other locals eventually joined me in line. I knew most of them casually because everyone knows everyone around there. None of them knew I was such a big WHO fan, so that led to some interesting conversation. There really weren't that many pass holders in line, so we knew we were all getting in. We got in pretty early and I actually got a reasonably good seat. It cost me $40. Forty dollars for a movie! I told you it wasn't cheap. Totally worth it though.
There are only a few permanent theaters in Telluride. One is the original theater, the Sheridan Opera House that I mentioned before. The biggest permanent one is the Palm Performing Arts Center, which doubles as the Telluride High School/Middle School auditorium. That seats about 800 people. The Pete film was in part of the high school cafeteria, which is just next door to The Palm. The majority of the venues used as theaters by The Telluride Film Fest are temporary, and the film fest spends over a month transforming them into state of the art movie theaters, complete with stadium seating and great sound systems. It is always a trip walking into one of those temporary venues, when you know what it l looks like normally.
I think TKAA film is always going to be the best film about The WHO. I think most WHO fans are naturally going to compare any new film about the band, or in this case a member of the band, to Jeff Stein's film. That film had an enormous impact on me and many fans of the band, WHO are about my age. TKAA film, in conjunction with the Quad film, helped create a whole new generation of WHO fans. I'm not sure if the band members realize what an impact TKAA film had. I'm about to turn 64. I first became aware of The WHO when the Tommy film came out. I bought Who's Next, MBBAB and Tommy at some point early in my high school years, but I really didn't fully get on the Magic Bus until TKAA film was released. I saw TKAA film the first week it came out in 79 and I was immediately hooked! I saw it about 10 times that summer and even went to a triple bill of Tommy, TKAA and Quad in Boston hours before my first WHO show there on December 16th, 1979. The visuals, especially the live stuff, is what grabbed me in TKAA film. And it was so funny as well!
Without disclosing too much about the actual content, here are my thoughts on "Pete Townshend: Behind Blue Eyes." As previously mentioned, I absolutely loved the film! Most of the old band and interview footage wasn't new to me, but I have a pretty large collection of video footage of WHO TV appearances and stuff like that. If you read any of the trade reviews, you know that there is some "long lost footage" from a band meeting at Roger's house. I enjoyed that, but it wasn't really mind blowing or anything. I learned some new things. I'm not going to say anything about WHO else is interviewed in the film, that hasn't been mentioned by the trade press. I found a couple of those interviews very interesting. The section on Pete's art school days is the best depiction of that period of Pete's life that I have ever seen on film. One of professional reviewers thinks the film is scattered. I wouldn't characterize it that way at all. TKAA is scattered and that gives it a lot of charm. This one is certainly more professional, for lack of a better description. It's no secret that there is a new Pete interview, and that holds the film together. But they use older interviews of Pete to help tell his story. The film keeps going back to the new Pete interview, much like TKAA film keeps going back to the Russell Harty Plus band interview.
This film is attempting to tell the story of Pete's creative life and it succeeds because Pete Townshend absolutely is the best interviewee in the history of rock, and he is the one telling his story. Yes, the film is a story about Pete, but you can't tell Pete's story without telling The WHO's story. There are plenty of clips of the band in action. I've seen all that before, but it was still a lot of fun! The film received a thunderous round of applause at its conclusion, so it clearly went over well with the rest of the audience. They promptly got up and left as the credits were rolling though. My friend Jackie had joined me for the screening, and we were the only ones in the room, WHO watched the credits. You have to watch the credits! The film really wasn't over yet.
As we walked out of the theater, three Telluride Film Festival interns approached me because they had seen my WHO t-shirt. College kids, twentysomethings. They wanted to know what I thought of the film. I told them that I loved it and told them all about my WHO fandom. They were so excited for me and told me that they absolutely loved the film as well. These are young people, WHO are really into film. They got it! Maybe they will become uber fans like I did all those years ago, when I first saw TKAA. That was validation for me that the film worked. It is a great companion piece to TKAA, and the other WHO films. There are a lot of similarities to TKAA especially, but this one covers some new ground in a clever way. I think you are all going to love it! How couldn't you? We're talking about Pete here!
