Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got
Description
Details
Director(s): Brigitte Berman
Starring: Artie Shaw, Helen Forrest, Mel Tormé, Evelyn Keyes
Release Year: 1985
Runtime: 115 min
Aspect Ratio(s): 16:9, 1.29:1
Language(s): ENG- English
Sound: Mono
Subtitles: English
Format: Blu-ray
Disc Info: Region A Blu-ray
Restoration: 4K picture restoration by Patrick Duchesne, Frank Biasi, and Jim Fleming at Picture Shop (Toronto).
Genre: Documentary
SKU: FMC-011 SLIP
Bonus Content
Trailers / Videos
Label Bio
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- JK35mm MemberJoshua K.Verified Buyer3 days agoRated 5 out of 5 starsEssential viewing for jazz fans...
If Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got was only a hagiographic clip show extolling the virtues of the title clarinetist, it would still be worthwhile. Shaw is one of the titans in his field; his Big Band efforts are still as vital and engaging as they were almost 100 years ago. However, filmmaker Brigitte Berman structures her documentary around a then-new interview with Shaw, and...well, he's a far pricklier and more interesting subject than you might suspect. A truly great portrait of a difficult man who's also a great musician.
- BD35mm MemberBilly-Jack D.Verified Buyer8 months agoRated 5 out of 5 starsBrilliant documentary
Love the artwork on this release. Oscar winner and one I’d never seen before. Fantastic musical accompaniment
- TR16mm MemberTravis R.Verified Buyer9 months agoRated 5 out of 5 starsGreat documentary
A great documentary about a good musician and a fascinating person. Not a film I’d typically associate with VS - like, at all. But I applaud them for giving this film some recognition.
- AP35mm MemberAaron P.Verified Buyer9 months agoRated 4 out of 5 starsArtie Shaw
Nice release
- JC16mm MemberJACK C.Verified Buyer9 months agoRated 4 out of 5 starsReally fascinating imperfect documentary on a unique American artist
The refreshing aspect of this documentary about the innovative Clarinetist and band leader Artie Shaw is how the director doesn't try to steer him in any direction in particular or to make him look or sound like he has finesse. That isn't Artie Shaw, certainly at this later stage of his life, and director Brigitte Berman, armed with a cornucopia of archival images and footage from the period and throughout his career, shows him as craggy and opinionated as he was then.
In truth, a lot of what he says makes sense, even when he sounds to be a little insulting (ie the highlight or one of them at least is his episode circa 1939 where he called teens who did the Jitterbug "morons" - he had a pretty good reason in context, but it would have been hard to communicate that in a headline). There is some heady and impressive points of history as well to take in, like during the second World War when Shaw and his band played for one of the great warships, but that isn't the main draw: what hooks us in is that this is about the needs and desires of an artist versus commercial expectations, and how that can lead to constant anxiety.
I do wonder if there were points Berman did steer the conversation or answers and we didn't see it so much, but I doubt it. The presentation via the narration is a little dry, and it may cover some parts I personally wanted to know more about (ie his marriage to Lana Turner seems to be hand-waved away, not to mention Ava Gardner), but that is my only main…
