No one would say Pete Townshend has led an unexamined life up to this point, be it on film or in memoirs or anyone else. Yet he remains an endless enough source of fascination that fans of the Who leaped to attention when word got out that a preeminent music-documentary filmmaking team was at work on the movie that is finally arriving in festivals now as “Pete Townshend: Behind Blue Eyes.” While it’s a fairly comprehensive introduction to Townshend and his band for those who may not be total Who-heads, the film will be welcomed by the hardcore, not just for providing some heretofore unseen footage, but for interviews with the rock genius and past associates that may provide further answers to a core question the faithful continue to have for Townshend: Well, who the fuck are you? The film was well-received in its world premiere over the weekend at the Telluride Film Festival, where fest friend and part-time Telluride resident Frank Marshall has first brought many of his music docs over the years.
Marshall co-directed this one with Nigel Sinclair, whom Who fans will remember for his 2007 Who dod, “Amazing Journey.” They were complementary forces on this one, with Sinclair having first been approached to do a doc centering on Townshend’s legendarily unfinished “Lifehouse” project, before he brought in Marshall, who was not a Who lifer but made up for lost time on this project. Serving as a producer, writer and interviewer was Cassidy Hartmann. The three of them had previously worked together on docs about the Bee Gees, Beach Boys and Fleetwood Mac (and in various combinations on many other projects), so they provided one another some pure-and-easy, complementary chemistry, perhaps in the same way that Townshend and fellow interview subject Roger Daltrey always have, if that comparison isn’t a stretch too far.
Variety met with Marshall, Sinclair and Hartmann in a house in town over the weekend to discuss the film, which they kept under wraps — even to distributors, whom they began entertaining at the same time as mountain audiences were getting their first glimpse Friday. Fair warning: The Who is one of my favorite subjects to talk about. Marshall: Well, it became my favorite subject too.
But my dad was a guitar player [prominent jazz guitarist and producer Jack Marshall], and so I grew up in a guitar family. And in the ’70s, I was not a big fan of Pete’s, because he destroyed guitars! But I now understand why.
And I was happy to go on this journey with Cassidy and Nigel because, as you see in the movie, fascinating guy. So is it probably fair to say that you, Nigel, are the biggest Who fan here, among the three of you? Sinclair: I suppose I am, because, I mean, in 1967 at Cambridge University, I was buying the “Quick One” album.
We’d heard all the singles; they defined pop culture in the ’60s. But the “Quick One” album, which he did as a mini-opera, I remember listening to that and thinking, “This is amazing.” So I would say I’ve doggedly followed the Who all my life, and eventually had the privilege to come to know Roger in 1988. Nigel, in 2007, you did a more straightforward documentary on the group, “Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who.” So obviously recently you felt there was something to be done more tightly focused on Pete?
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