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Slideshow

PREVIOUSLY PLAYED

COCKSUCKER BLUES

9:50pm

Wednesday, July 20 and Thursday, July 21
Absolutely 2 screenings ONLY!

BOTH SHOWS SOLD OUT!
A standby line will form the night of each show.

Directed by Robert Frank and Danny Seymour

Robert Frank’s legendary COCKSUCKER BLUES, commissioned by The Rolling Stones as a record of their 1972 North American tour in the wake of the release of Exile on Main Street, has been unreleased for over 40 years. Its vérité approach and emphasis on the band’s raunchy exploits and the grind of touring impeded theatrical release. But the Stones dazzle in live performances of “Brown Sugar,” “All Down the Line,” “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and more. Our screenings are presented in association with the premiere of Laura Israel’s documentary on Robert Frank, DON’T BLINK—ROBERT FRANK. Digital.

USA • 1972 • 93 minutes

Reviews

“THE BEST ROLLING STONES MOVIE YOU’VE NEVER SEEN. Gritty, tedious, funny, nauseating, thrilling and merciless: COCKSUCKER BLUES…may be the most complete rock & roll documentary ever made. It is also the greatest Stones film most of their fans have never seen – at least not seen right, in a full-size theater with blow-you-back sound (when it counts, in the concert scenes), surrounded by a gasping, nervously chuckling audience… The Stones in 1972 were magnificently raw and feral, at the peak of their era with (Mick) Taylor, and the music comes like a rush of blood to the head.”
– David Fricke, Rolling Stone
 
“THE LOST CHORD OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST ROCK AND ROLL BAND. A ragged travelogue of debauchery and despair…a hell of a film, in every sense of the phrase. It shares in the verite trappings of GIMME SHELTER, but if the Maysles’ preferred aesthetic was ‘direct cinema,’ Frank’s is more like indirect cinema: impressionistic, collagist, morally and emotionally destabilizing… A riveting portrayal of beauty in decay…Raw, disturbed, equal parts quotidian and sublime, a completely honest depiction of a band on the road and a harrowing document of artistic triumph crashing into personal hell… In a particularly stunning scene Stevie Wonder joins the band onstage for a medley of ‘Uptight (Everything’s Alright)’ and ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ as the camera scrambles about, bottling a moment more intoxicating than every substance backstage combined.”

– Jack Hamilton, Slate

Film Forum