Director: Les Blank
MPAA Rating: NR
Run Time: 90 min.
Back in 1974, experimental documentarian Les Blank created his first feature-length film, A Poem is a Naked Person, in which he was tasked with following around singer-songwriter and folk icon Leon Russell as he performed in his studio and on stage.
Russell never allowed the film a theatrical release and only permitted it to be screened for charity with private audiences. As such, many were never able to see film until recently, when Russell and the son of the now-deceased Les Blank, Harrold Blank, negotiated a deal to get it released in theaters and subsequently put out on Criterion.
The film is decidedly less experimental than the majority of his later works, but it’s far more complex than a simple rock-doc, as one who’s familiar with Blank would probably expect. Yes, it does show a significant amount of footage from Russell’s performances, but it also envelops the viewer into his eccentric little Oklahoma universe. The film, which now acts as a wonderful time capsule into ’70s counterculture, shows off Blank’s early predilection for Americana, interspersing seemingly random slices of life within Russell’s music and philosophies.
One scene shows artist Jim Franklin collecting scorpions out of a drained pool before painting a huge and impressive mural on it, and another features a sky diver failing at eating a glass, only to make a second attempt a few scenes later and then succeed.
As cobbled together and disconnected as these elements sound, Blank paints an intimate picture of Russell’s world, and in turn, helps us better understand the artist by engrossing us in the environment and people around him, focusing as much on the context as the subject himself. It’s an interesting technique the filmmaker would employ many times over in his career and one that works quite well within this film.
Not all of these asides entirely worked for me, however; there’s an extended close-up sequence involving a snake eating a live chick that’s rather unpleasant and a scene involving a girl singing “Joy to the World/Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog” that is equally unpleasant. Fortunately, there’s so much else going on in the film it’s easy not to dwell on these scenes.
Being that this is essentially a music doc, you may be wondering how much music is in here and is it any good. Well, if you’re a fan of Leon Russell’s work, you’ll find a lot to latch onto here, as there are a decent amount of live performances and studio sessions to enjoy, along with several other impromptu bits thrown in for good measure. In one scene Russell even acts as a wedding musician, playing piano during a very strange-looking ceremony.
For fans of Les Blank’s films, it’s great that they will finally get to see this lost treasure, but even for someone like myself who isn’t familiar with his entire catalogue of work, it’s a fascinating and satisfying journey into a time and place that I will never get to see.
