MFAH Film Restorations & Revivals: CS Blues

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents the Restorations & Revivals film series. Enjoy these classics from world cinema on the big screen in Brown Auditorium Theater!

CS Blues

Director Robert Frank and Danny Seymour
Released 1972
Country USA
Running Time 93 minutes
Format Digital, Color

Pleased with Robert Frank’s photographs for the cover of their 1972 album Exile on Main St., the Rolling Stones invited him to document their next U.S. tour. Frank and his collaborator, Danny Seymour, created a portrait of life on the road favoring behind-the-scenes moments over onstage performances.

The resulting documentary—Cocksucker Blues—portrays the band as partying musicians at the height of their career.

Because of artistic differences between the band and filmmaker, restrictions on the film’s release allow only a few screenings annually.

“A ragged travelogue of debauchery and despair . . . a hell of a film, in every sense of the phrase. It shares in the verité trappings of Gimme Shelter, but if [directors Albert and David] Maysles’s preferred aesthetic was ‘direct cinema,’ Frank’s is more like indirect cinema: impressionistic, collagist, morally and emotionally destabilizing.” —Slate

See what the New Yorker said about the film’s recent booking.

Check out Variety’s take on the film.