Lou Reed recorded the album Berlin in 1973. It was a commercial failure. Over the next 33 years, he never performed the album live. For five nights in December 2006 at St. Ann's Warehouse Brooklyn, Lou Reed performed his masterwork about love's dark sisters: jealousy, rage and loss.
In Julian Schnabel's grimly majestic concert film Lou Reed's Berlin, Mr. Reed wears the deadpan smirk of a Zen master who has endured punishing Buddhist training.
– Stephen Holden,
New York Times,
18 Jul 2008
fresh:
For die-hard Reed fans, it's an invaluable document.
– Rafer Guzman,
Newsday,
18 Jul 2008
fresh:
Your enjoyment will hinge entirely on whether you think the album is a masterpiece or a bore.
– Kyle Smith,
New York Post,
18 Jul 2008
fresh:
Who could have guessed that nearly 35 years after its release, Lou Reed's once-reviled concept album Berlin would inspire a sold-out concert, shot with loving awe by Julian Schnabel?
– Elizabeth Weitzman,
New York Daily News,
18 Jul 2008
fresh:
Reed's dour, bombastic song-suite about the lives of the drug-addicted and downtrodden steadily acquired cult cachet over the decades, peaking with its staging as a complete-album concert in 2006, which Lou Reed's Berlin documents.