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Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile (2004)

Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile (2004)

Music Documentary

Plus: Brian Wilson Presents Smile Live!

Release Date: 2004, October 5
Directors: David Leaf
Countries: United States of America
Production: Chautauqua Entertainment, LSL Productions, Showtime Networks
Cast: Jeff Bridges, George Martin, Elvis Costello, Hal Blaine, Andrew Loog Oldham, Brian Wilson, Carol Kaye, Tony Asher, Danny Hutton, Sylvie Simmons, Michael Vosse, Melinda Wilson

Overview:

This film tells (using modern day interviews and archival footage and sound tapes) the story of how in 1967, while his band The Beach Boys triumphantly toured abroad, Brian Wilson was trying to push the boundaries of conventional pop music with a new follow-up to the Beach Boys' cutting-edge mega-hit, Pet Sounds. The new album was to be called "SMiLE". SMiLE pushed the envelope both musically and lyrically, and was supposed to out-do the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper record. But Brian wasn't able to sell the project to his band-mates when they returned. The project was shelved and Wilson's well-documented decline into depression, drug abuse, recluseness, and obesity had begun. Thirty-odd years later, Wilson announced that in 2004, SMiLE would be performed live in its entirety in London. This film tells the story of a damaged but healing artist bringing his greatest work to light.

Keywords:

nervous breakdown drug use pop music record producer singer-songwriter self-destructive behavior american musician brian wilson