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Les Blank: Always for Pleasure



An uncompromisingly independent filmmaker, Les Blank made documentaries for nearly fifty years, elegantly disappearing with his camera into cultural spots rarely seen on-screen—mostly on the peripheries of the United States, but also occasionally abroad. Seemingly off-the-cuff yet poetically constructed, these films are humane, sometimes wry, always engaging tributes to musicians, food, and all sorts of regionally specific delights. This collector's set provides a diverse survey of Les Blank's vast output, including the warmly funny The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins, about the legendary Texas musician; Always for Pleasure, which captures the vivacious spirit of New Orleans; Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers, a hilarious celebration of the pungent, flavorful "stinking rose" of the title; and eleven other unexpected features, plus eight of Blank's short films.

Films Include The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins (1968); God Respects Us When We Work, but Loves Us When We Dance (1968); Spend It All (1971); A Well Spent Life (1971); Dry Wood (1973); Hot Pepper (1973); Always for Pleasure (1978); Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980); Sprout Wings and Fly (1983); In Heaven There Is No Beer? (1984); Gap-Toothed Women (1987); Yum, Yum, Yum (1990); The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists (1994); Sworn to the Drum (1995)

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 2K digital restorations of all fourteen films, with uncompressed monaural or stereo soundtracks on the Blu-rays
• Excerpt from Les Blank: A Quiet Revelation, a film project by Harrod Blank and Gina Leibrecht
• New interviews with Blank's sons, Harrod and Beau; Blank documentary subject Gerald Gaxiola (a.k.a. the Maestro); Blank's friends and collaborators Skip Gerson, Maureen Gosling, Taylor Hackford, Werner Herzog, Susan Kell, Tom Luddy, David Silberberg, and Chris Simon; and chef and author Alice Waters
• Related shorts by Blank: The Sun's Gonna Shine (1968), More Fess (1978), Julie: Old Time Tales of the Blue Ridge (1991), My Old Fiddle: A Visit with Tommy Jarrell in the Blue Ridge (1994), and The Maestro Rides Again (2005)
• Two outtake performances from The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins
• PLUS: An essay by film scholar Andrew Horton

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I wonder what the distinction between the shorts that are officially in the set and the shorts that comprise the extras might be? Maybe they couldn't get the latter in HD?

It feels churlish to complain about Burden of Dreams not being on such an already-packed set, but I'm gonna go ahead and churl anyway

For what it's worth, both Burden of Dreams and Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe are on the BFI's Herzog Blu-ray set.

Also, with releases like this, I can maybe live without Eclipse.

swo17 wrote:Also, with releases like this, I can maybe live without Eclipse.

Petition to ban swo from the forum

Well, I should have prefaced my comment by saying that I always assumed a Les Blank set would be one of the next Eclipse editions. If we're essentially still getting the Eclipse series, but on Blu-ray in the mainline, that's what I would call progress. Just so long as titles that aren't HD-ready don't languish forever on Hulu.

This is easily the month's most exciting non-upgrade, for sure, don't get me wrong. But I miss Eclipse and it looks like we're about to get the oft threatened One Eclipse Year this year as no Eclipse set has ever been released in December. Oh well, one less category to tally up at the end of the year

Wait, November 25-- I think it's going to miss the BN sale deadline. I knew Criterion would ruin this somehow!

domino harvey wrote:Wait, November 25-- I think it's going to miss the BN sale deadline. I knew Criterion would ruin this somehow!

Last November's B&N sale was extended through the whole month.

I'm delighted about everything regarding this set except the price. Seems a bit puzzling, but I'll take this extravagant treatment over the longstanding consensus that this stuff was heading for an Eclipse set.

Anybody got a list of the films' running times? It'll be a fun distraction to figure out how they all fit together across three BD50s.

Pricey, but these films are worth it. I never expected an eventual Blank release would be this rich. The price may be entirely down to licensing. They'd presumably have to pay for each film, not just say, "Screw you, we can fit six of these films on a disc, so we're only going to pay you 1/6 of the asking price per film."

Yaanu wrote:Anybody got a list of the films' running times? It'll be a fun distraction to figure out how they all fit together across three BD50s.

The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins - 32
God Respects Us When We Work, But Loves Us When We Dance - 20
Spend It All - 43
A Well Spent Life - 44
Dry Wood - 37
Hot Pepper - 55
Always for Pleasure - 58
Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers - 51
Sprout Wings and Fly - 31
In Heaven There Is No Beer? - 49
Gap-Toothed Women - 31
Yum, Yum, Yum! A Taste of Cajun and Creole Cooking - 31
The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists - 53
Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella - 35

And the shorts:

The Sun's Gonna Shine - 10
Mr. Charlie, Your Rollin' Mill Is Burnin' Down - ?
Lightnin' Les - ?
More Fess - ?
Julie: Old Time Tales of the Blue Ridge - 12
My Old Fiddle: A Visit with Tommy Jarrell in the Blue Ridge - 18
The Maestro Rides Again - 29

? = These films aren't even listed on Les Blank's website!

Bando wrote:I'm delighted about everything regarding this set except the price. Seems a bit puzzling, but I'll take this extravagant treatment over the longstanding consensus that this stuff was heading for an Eclipse set.

Same here, and getting it for half price or less at B&N will make it easily worth the cost.
In addition to the licensing expenses that zeds mentions, they may also be factoring in expected meager sales. Les Blank is a virtual unknown compared to the names that usually appear on a big Criterion set. This is presumably the reason the Frampton release was only one Blu-ray. They went much further with the Blank release, and the price has to reflect that.

Pricey, but these films are worth it. I never expected an eventual Blank release would be this rich. The price may be entirely down to licensing. They'd presumably have to pay for each film, not just say, "Screw you, we can fit six of these films on a disc, so we're only going to pay you 1/6 of the asking price per film."

Agreed. Anyone that has been going to Les Blank's website for ages knows how pricey these films were. I've been wanting to buy Marc and Ann , which is a sweet short film about Cajun musicians Marc Savoy and Ann Allen Savoy, for ages, but have been holding off since it's $30.00. This set is a lot more affordable than buying the simple VHS and DVD releases that Blank was selling.

I've bought plenty of regional music from Chris Strachwitz, Les Blank's buddy who he collaborated with on for the brilliant Chulas Fronteras and a few other films. Most of Blank's films and Strachwitz's music releases are very niche so I've gotten used to the high prices that come with their work.

Really think this collection is a great bargain compared to what were the original prices on this stuff. Blank's one of my all time favorite filmmakers so I'm thrilled that this is finally getting released. There are so many great regional musicians, from Mance Lipscomb to Narciso Martinez, that Blank has immortalized forever through his work.

I have to admit I'd never heard of Les Blank before (I know Burden of dreams, but didn't know he had directed it until I looked it up). Does he have a cult following among Criterion fans or something? I looked him up on IMDb and most of his movies have less than 100 votes (some have less than 10 votes), so I assume he doesn't have a large audience, does he?

knives wrote:Plus an additional seven.

I just noticed that the box description says that there will be eight short films included. Typo, or indication that there's one more film yet to be announced?

This is an amazing set. I am ecstatic that these did not end up on Eclipse (sorry Domino, but Swo has the better point here - Blu sets with limited special features top Eclipse). I do hope the booklet might be a bit meatier - something like the BFI which goes into great detail on every short film etc. Plus the price could probably be dropped to $80.

If the Les Blank website is correct, than the following are his films which are not on either this set or Burden of Dreams:

1960 – Running Around Like A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off
1961, 1962 – Strike! & And Freedom Came!?
1963-1964 – Pleasure Faire
1964 – Dizzy Gillespie
1967 – Christopher Tree
1969 – The Arch

1970 – Chicken Real
1974 – A Poem Is A Naked Person
1976 – Chulas Fronteras
1979 – Del Mero Corazon

1985 – Cigarette Blues
1986 – Huey Lewis And The News: Be-Fore!
1987 – Ziveli! Medicine for the Heart
1988 – A Blank Buffet
1988 – Ry Cooder Group ’88 in Santa Cruz
1989 – The Best of Blank
1989 - J’ai Été Au Bal / I Went to the Dance

1991 – Innocents Abroad
1991 – Marc & Ann
1991 – Puamana
1994 – Roots of Rhythm

2007 – All In This Tea
(In Progress) – Butch Anthony Film
(In Progress) – How To Smell A Rose: Ricky Leacock

I wonder if these will ever make their way to Criterion as well someday? Perhaps when that Les Blank documentary comes out, they can pair it with another set or more shorts/etc?

The Leon Russell and Ry Cooder films are blocked by their subjects, so they're not really in play. A Poem Is A Naked Person has been screened, but only in Blank's presence, so I guess it's now unviewable, unless Russell relents.

Chulas Fronteras and Del Mero Corazon are a natural pair and could form the backbone of a later release, as could J'ai ete au bal, along with more music movies, like Marc and Ann.

Innocents Abroad is great, but I don't know what it could naturally be compiled with.

J’ai Été Au Bal / I Went to the Dance was released on DVD by Arhoolie Records.

J’ai Été Au Bal / I Went to the Dance was released on DVD by Arhoolie Records.

Chulas Fronteras and Del Mero Corazon was also released on a great DVD by Arhoolie (one of the great music record labels ever). Both of these DVD's have some cool special features, including commentary tracks (for the films and deleted scenes) by Blank, Maureen Gosling, and Strachwitz, deleted/extended scenes, and lots of good information about the location shoots and musicians of these films.

Strachwitz is the one that owns these three films as he funded them, and hired Blank (and his crew that included Gosling) to create what he had in mind. I would love to see some Blu-ray upgrades but don't think he would license these films to Criterion Collection, but I will ask him if I get the chance to talk to him again.

For anyone that is interested and happens to be close to the SF east bay, Down Home Music Store in El Cerrito is Arhoolie Records. Besides being the greatest small record store on earth, Chris Strachwitz is often there and quite accessible. I don't make the pilgrimage out there nearly enough now, but may have make the trip again soon...

The special features for this set have been modified slightly. Lightnin' Les (1968) and Mr. Charlie, Your Rollin' Mill Is Burnin' Down (1968) have been removed and are now listed as "Two outtake performances from The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins". Interviews with Werner Herzog, Susan Kell and David Silberberg have also been added to the mix.

Later this week, I will be interviewing film editor Maureen Gosling, regarding this upcoming Criterion Collection Blu-ray release. She's molded great documentaries over many decades. If you have any questions, please let me know, and I'll include them in my notes.