Chances are pretty good that, some possible BBC4 venture aside, “Wild Combination” will be the only Arthur Russell documentary to be made in my lifetime. And while I am thankful that a good one exists, I can’t help but feel that a few of this story’s chapters, the very ones that make Arthur an underappreciated giant of late 20th century music, were given short shrift by filmmaker Matt Wolf. To be sure, it’s not like Wolf gets anything wrong, and his endless access to Arthur’s very-Midwestern parents and to Arthur’s longtime partner Tom Lee provides some emotional anecdotes that you’d be hard-pressed to find in most bio-docs. (The story Arthur’s father Chuck tells of his last conversation with his son, is just straight-up gut-wrenching.) But there’s also the very real sense that Wolf is learning the story — and the music guiding it — as he’s making the film; and this makes for a missed opportunity in the narrative of a cellist-composer born and raised in Iowa, who came of age on a Buddhist commune in San Francisco, relocated to mid-‘70s New York where he played conduit between the downtown minimalist music scene, the early art-punk scene, and the gay disco scene, became a great (semi-) reclusive obsessive composer/songwriter, and died of AIDS in 1992.
Generally speaking, “Wild Combination”s deepest flaw is how little play the disco side of Arthur’s legacy gets. This, in turn, opens up a whole can of worms – in terms of both the film’s construction and the tale it wants to tell. His dance recordings as Dinosaur L (“Go Bang!”) and Loose Joints (“Is it All Over My Face?”) provided the closest thing to “hits” that Arthur would see during his lifetime, something a couple of the film’s interviews say was incredibly important to him. Yet one of those songs/projects is not even mentioned in the film (a Loose Joints flyer is shown). Almost no discussion is given to Arthur’s interaction with New York’s genre-bending (and gender-bending) club culture of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s; and when noted, it gets neatly compartmentalized. Yet, isn’t this one of the combinations — “serious musician” and “disco savant” — that purports to be among the title’s ‘Wild’ inferences?
Not only does the film skim disco’s aspects as a prime gay subculture that must have been attractive to Arthur, it does not discuss the innovations (musical, social, technological) that all played parts in the composer’s psyche, as well as the influence it had on it. And considering that among the doc’s inherent disadvantages is the ratio of audio to video evidence – thousands of hours of music vs. next-to no film — a further exploration of this world would have allowed far more interview portraits of Arthur than are provided, since quite a few of New York disco’s co-conspirators are still kicking it live. (Instead, as commentary, we get Jens Lenkman talking about Arthur’s music; frankly, how fucking indie-rock-centric!) (It could have also cut-down on the impressionistic, abstract close-ups that litter the film’s b-roll, and which made me kinda queasy. Very pretty at times, but – damn…)
(Aside: Some minor insight into the film-maker’s disco/not disco decision was given by Wolf at the Q&A that followed last Thursday’s 9pm screening, when he spoke of not wanting those passages to be portrayed in the shadow of the hedonistic Studio 54 cliché. His explanation made it seem like he himself entered the film-making process under the spell of such cultural biases. That’s too bad – ‘cause those biases show through, and continue to under-estimate the power and repercussions of New York’s great disco story.)
But maybe going too deeply “there” would have restricted Wolf’s access to what are essentially the film’s ringers: Mr. and Mrs. Russell, Lee, and the audio/video archive. He certainly leans on the former to tell the human side of Arthur’s story with incredible gentleness and love; while allowing the latter to provide some taped evidence further magnifying Arthur’s genius — especially, a mid-‘70s black & white video of him performing a solo voice and cello tune called “Eli” that sounds remarkably like a lost Neutral Milk Hotel song about 20 years ahead of its time. (Apparently, the next bit of unreleased Arthur Russell music is set to present him as a folk-pop-minded traditionalist, yet another disparate side to an incredibly complex and fertile musical mind.)
So, yes, getting the human side of Arthur – warts and all – is incredibly fascinating for anyone who has already developed an emotional attachment to his music. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. That said, you can’t help but walk away from “Wild Combination” thinking that there’s more to it. And – filmed footage or not – you’d be right to presume so
This piece was written by our friend and contributor Piotr Orlov, who can be found over at Newly Lost Edge (ideas developed and vetted during a post-screening kvetch with Mike Rubin).”Arthur Russell” Trailer
