For writer-director John Scheinfeld, the success of his documentary “Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him)?" has been a long time coming. The film has been getting tons of critical raves in screenings around the country and was just released on DVD.
Scheinfeld said in a recent phone interview he first thought about making the film when he was in college.
“Well, I’ve been a fan of Harry's music since my college days,” he said. “I did a morning radio show at Overland College on WOBC-FM (88.7) in the ‘70s. There was no playlist and we could play what we wanted. I was looking through the cupboard and found ‘Pandemonium Shadow Show,’” which was Nilsson’s first album on RCA. He played it on the air.
“When I pulled ‘Pandemonium,’ I liked the cover and saw there was a song called ‘You Can't Do That.’ That's the track I put on first. It’s an amazingly creative use of Beatle song titles.”
Scheinfeld says he subsequently found more of Nilsson’s work and he was hooked.
“It wasn’t until many years later when the attorney to the Nilsson estate reached out to me and asked me if I was interested in doing a film about Harry. The more I read about Harry the more compelling story it became. We started out (on the film) in 2004. We worked on it on and off over a two-year period.”
He says the family was very cooperative. “The family was great to work with from the beginning, very supportive of what we wanted to do. It’s a fully realized in-depth portrait, warts and all. Una, his wife, was amazing. She very early on allowed me to rummage through her house and her basement looking for audio-visual material. We found a lot of really cool stuff.”
The film has a lot of current interviews from people like Yoko Ono, Micky Dolenz, Randy Newman and Van Dyke Parks and various friends of Harry, but Ringo Starr, one of Harry’s very close friends, is only seen in vintage footage.
“We got terrific cooperation from Ringo and his people. They gave us his name and likeness, recordings and excerpts from the film ‘Son of Dracula.’” We tried multiple times to get him to sit for an interview. What came back was it was too emotional for him. There are three people he does not speak about in public: John Lennon, George Harrison and Harry Nilsson. We would have liked to have him, but we respected his decision,” Scheinfeld says.
There is, however, a marvelous scene of Nilsson and Ringo with some animated footage that the film was allowed to use. “I found a piece of film at Una's house where Harry and Ringo are jumping around among animated stuff. It’s a really rare piece of film and there's no sound.”
As it turns out, Nilsson and Starr were talking about doing a cartoon series with Hanna Barbera with the two of them going live action against animated footage.
“Nothing ever happened with it, but we found this film and we were able to use it,” he says.
There are a couple of other things in the film that are intriguing. One is a photograph of John and Paul together . “It’s a Polaroid that was found in 2005 at Una's house. I was just staggered by this photograph. I had always bought into this myth that this was a time that Paul and John weren't talking to each other.”
Another is a rare Harry Nilsson song. “In the Harry meeting Una section of the film, there's a song that no one's ever heard before. We found the demo and we used part of it. It's about how his life is changed because this person in his life. It’s from 1968 when Harry first went to meet the Beatles during the recording of the White Album. He and john bonded. They playfully challenged each other to write a song with the same title.”
Lennon came up with the title "You Are Here,' which later became the title of a Lennon art exhibit. “Harry got back to America and raced into the studio to demo it.” The song includes the words “you are here, here you are.” Scheinfeld says there are 30-50 seconds of it in the film.
The first cut of the film was three hours long. “We kept pruning it, molding it and shaping it. A lot fell by the wayside.”
“Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him)?” premiered at the 2006 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. “The film festival had heard about it and wanted to show it. We got great great notices from Variety, Hollywood Reporter and Leonard Maltin.”
However, problems with the use of Nilsson’s recordings developed in 2007 and delayed its full release. “We were all set to put it out in 2007 and ran into some unexpected difficulties with master recordings,” Scheinfeld says. “We had 61 bits and pieces of Nilsson songs in the film. Most of them were owned by Sony. We had asked for them gratis and they said, 'What does that mean? 'They never said yes or no. It wasn't until last year that a new president came in, gave us his support and we got what we wanted.
"We went back in the editing room with editor Peter Lynch, did the final mix and prepared for theatrical release this fall. At the same time, we went back to the material and we finished 90 plus minutes of bonus material and that's what's on the DVD.”
One of the things that was added was an alternate ending. “For longest time, we had a different ending and it didn't seem to fit Harry. One day, when I was shaving, I remembered a story that Mark Hudson told. We built the new ending from that. The original ending is a bonus feature. That is set to Harry's beautiful song, “Remember.”
One of the reasons he says the film works is because he interviewed people who actually knew Nilsson. “I didn't want to talk to rock journalists or writer or second or third-hand observers of the ‘Harry ride’,” which is a phrase used by Micky Dolenz in the film to describe life with Harry. “I wanted to talk to people who knew him or speak with legitimacy,” says Schienfeld.
Dolenz, asked about his relationship with Nilsson, says “He was a long time very dear friend.”
The filmmakers also made use of some audio that Nilsson himself made to tell his own story. “We discovered harry had been recording his memories for an autobiography. There’s about three hours of material. Harry in his own voice. I think that makes a big difference to the intimacy of this film.”
For now, Scheinfeld is hopeful for big things from the film, maybe even an Oscar. “I don't like to jinx anything, but that would be wonderful. We missed the Oscars this year. We'll be eligible in 2011. I'm really proud of this film. I’m so touched that people have watched it and were moved by it.”
(Note: On Nov. 19, the movie will be shown at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. Scheinfeld, producer David Leaf and others from the film will be in attendance.
Additional screenings are also planned around the country:
- 11/15: Alamo - Austin, TX
- 11/19: Grammy Museum, Los Angeles, CA.
- 12/9: George Eastman House - Rochester, NY
- 12/25-29: Grand Theatre - Ellsworth, ME
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Comments
This is now available on Netflix. A beautiful labor of love that every Beatles/Nilsson fan should see. Thank you, John...
A amazing part of life is discovery, Your film has allowed me to see some of Harry's life I Missed. My mother for her own reasons left me in NY when she moved to Calf in the early 50's Harry found his way home and the rest is history, as for me It took 26 years to find my Mother & Brother. By then he was becomming the icon of music that the world remebers. He had not become to big to welcome me home and become my big brother once again. I will always be proud of the music but I always bost about the Man he was, his acomplishments, and the family, It was touching and brought me to tears to see the film and visit with Harry, Mom Cousin Doug and Harry's children. I now have a family album thanks to your Film, My Mom used to say everyone should have a little Jade Box. I just got mine. Much Success Drake
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