Viewed at 2015 Venice Film Festival.
"Janis, Little Girl Blue" directed by Amy Berg,
With Alex Gibney, himself an outstanding documentarian, acting as producer. Viewed at 2015 Venice Film Festival.
GREAT Doc about a great singer who died too young on the verge of salvation. Interviews with parents, sister, brother, surviving members of The Grateful Dead, Kris Kristofferson, and most surprisingly, Dick Cavett (1970).
In a year of many good documentaries, this was the best of all.
JANIS is a marvelous reconstruction of a tragic young life, the life of Janis Joplin, who sang the blues with such black feeling that even afro-Americans though she was black -- She died on October 4, 1970 in a Hollywood motel of an accidental heroin overdose at the age of 27 -- only two weeks after another rock legend, Jimi Hendrix, had also deleted himself in similar fashion --a drug O.D. at the age of 27!
The film traces her life from humble origins in the nondescript north Texas town of Port Arthur, constant humiliation by her schoolmates because of her awkward nonconformist personality and relatively plain looks, up through her rise to prominence as the lead singer of the acid/rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company --one of the leading San Francisco rock groups of the mid sixties -- reaching the pinnacle when she was recognized as the top white blues singer of the age, her difficulties dealing with fame, her loneliness in the midst of adoring crowds, her addiction to drugs and alcohol, and finally her tragic early death on the verge of even wider fame and general acceptance by the serious music world.
Needless to say, the Film is liberally spiced with clips of her amazing stage appearances, which is an added enrichment, but this is far from a mere excuse to present her songs -- far more a penetrating probe into the life of an extremely complex personality ---a true artist who became the victim of her own profound talent.
Myself, more or less a product of the psychedelic sixties, I left the vast Venice theater thoroughly emotionally drained and realizing I had just witnessed a remarkable film about a most remarkable life.
Alex, Budapest