Blank Generation (1980)
                                                                           Dir. Uli Lommel

    Not really as much a music movie as it is a movie with music, Blank Generation is worth watching again. It’s basically a love story starring Richard Hell, but don’t let that turn you off. Being kind of obsessed with movies made in New York City in this particular time period helped me get really into the experience of watching this film again. I had seen it before about 10 years ago, but had a way bigger appreciation of it this time around. Despite some times when Richard Hell’s acting seems kinda wooden and forced, the performances in this movie are pretty great. The story is about a psycho French documentary filmmaker named Nada coming to New York to do a documentary on punk musician Bobby Bland (Hell). They end up sleeping together and fall in love. He’s just getting off the ground with his band (The Voidoids), and they’ve finally got a manager and a record deal. All seems well for a split second until Nada has a psychotic episode on the way to the beach and steals Billy’s car. The deranged couple play the push-pull game with each other until everything blurs into a cool-to-watch jumbled up mess. The footage of the city streets in this movie are priceless. You really wish you could build a time machine and go back to the New York of that era. Some people might disagree with me, but I’d call ‘em crazy. That shit looks awesome. You get to see actual live footage of The Voidoids 3 or 4 different times in this movie. That alone makes it worth seeing. The band is smokin’ and this footage proves that most of us were too young to see one of the raddest bands ever. Anyways, there’s this one amazing shot to look for when you watch this- it’s when the band is playing their gig in the bar. It’s this really great, slow walk through from the front to the back of CBGB’s. It’s parts like these that make this movie great. Anybody who likes movies that transport you to a bombed-out NYC will get way into this I think. If you like it, check out another movie with Hell from the same time period called Smithereens, it’s good too. Blank Generation is only available on VHS. Anchor Bay released a nice widescreen version. Check it out.

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End of an Ear
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