The film is an intimate look at Young’s stage show, recorded in a small theater in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, on mostly hand-held cameras. “We did a home movie in a way,” said Demme to a Saturday afternoon crowd in Austin’s Paramount Theatre. “We did it all ourselves.”
The Oscar-award winning director (Silence Of The Lambs, Philadelphia) said the film was a “reaction” to his 2006 Neil Young concert doc Heart Of Gold.
Whereas Heart Of Gold was a meticulous tangle of editing and forethought, Trunk Show was filmed on a whim, aiming to find truth and heart with a more spontaneous approach.
We didn’t plan anything. This was the easiest film in the world to make.
Jonathan Demme
Over a dozen Young tracks were shot in high-definition and a few were given a more expressionist, grainy feel. A warts-and-all approach catches all the ephemera Young spread across the stage for this tour (telephones, a tiny guitar shop, a pirate flag), as well as the heating pipes, stage lights, wires, cameramen and industrial fans helping power the Tower Theatre gig. A look backstage even catches a doctor looking at one of Young’s troublesome fingernails.
The SXSW audience at the premiere applauded the film’s songs — especially the classic “Cinnamon Girl” and a 20-minute version of 2007’s “No Hidden Path.” When an audience member asked Demme what he envisions for a possible third movie in a Neil Young trilogy, he responded. “It’s gonna be outdoors… I could be so lucky.”
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