There is a new French Beach Boys documentary available in the media library of the German-French channel "arte":
https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/112339-000-A/die-beach-boys-genie-und-wahnsinn/ Since the documentary is only available with German or French dubbing, I wanted to give you a short impression of it.
The announcement says that the documentary focuses on the years between 1966 and 1971 and the relationship between the Wilson brothers. Unfortunately, this is definitely not the case. The main part of the documentary once again deals with the typical topics: Hawthorne, Gershwin, Four Freshmen, Chuck Berry, formation of the band, early success, Murry, Brian's artistic progress, Brian's nervous breakdown, Wrecking Crew, Pet Sounds, Good Vibrations, Smile... and that's the first 40 minutes. That leaves only about 12 minutes for the rest. And then they say again that after Smile Brian retreated straight to his bedroom. I don't understand why it's still being portrayed that way. I suppose it's too tempting. Smiley Smile, Friends, Sunflower and Surf's Up are mentioned very briefly. Then a cut and a few minutes follow about Brian's comeback between 1999 and BWPS. Not a word about the other Beach Boys. The deaths of Dennis and Carl are not even mentioned.
But there are also many positive aspects. The selection of experts/witnesses is strong: Al, David, Marilyn, Don Randi, Stephen Kalinich, Alan Boyd, Probyn Gregory, Domenic Priore, Sean O'Hagan of the High Llamas plus two younger musicians and a French journalist, who don't contribute much new content but don't say anything wrong either. Apart from the fact that the one musician misquotes Cabinessence, but I don't want to be too petty about that either. In addition, interviews with Brian from the 90s were used.
It's a pity that Al and especially Stepen Kalinich don't get to speak more. I already found it very regrettable in Long Promised Road that Al only appears very briefly. The highlight of the documentary for me are Mariyln's contributions, who gets to speak quite a lot. She gives some very touching insights into how she experienced Brian's development.
The documentary was very well made from a technical view. Good choice of music, good editing and good archive material. There wasn't much new, but there were a couple of surprises. I really hope I'm not mistaken, but parts of the Smile footage I don't think I've ever seen before. A shot of Mike at the Fire sessions and additional footage of Brian in the half-shadow at the piano that Dennis (?) shot. There were also some nice shots of Brian from after 1999. I wonder if this is footage intended for the new documentary that has been talked about.
All in all, a well-done documentary, but also somehow a wasted opportunity. Those who know nothing about the Beach Boys get a good overview of the time until the collapse of Smile. Brian and his work are appreciated in a very positive way.
On the other hand, I wonder if there aren't already enough documentaries that do just that. How many times do we have to see the excerpt from the 1976 interview with Brian in which he talks about Fire? But let's be honest: we have demands that such a documentary can probably never fulfil. If you really want to see a documentary about the time after 1967, you should watch "Brian Wilson: Songwriter 1969 - 1982". It probably won't get any better in terms of content. A great documentary that I've watched many times, but probably bores the occasional Beach Boys listener.
My conclusion: A good documentary. If you don't have too high expectations, it is certainly very entertaining with moving moments.
Ah, I almost forgot: I had to laugh a bit that they used the cover art of soniclovenoize's 1967 mix for Smile. So the board was also represented in the documentary!
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