Interview: If You Should Survive to a Hundred and Five, You Can End Up ‘Young@Heart’

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CHICAGO – At the base of its premise as a documentary, “Young@Heart” seems like a can’t-miss proposition. Take a senior-citizen choral group and have them sing rock ‘n’ roll. But what really emerges is an essence and poignancy that goes beyond the black and white of just singing the rock songs. As the “Grateful Dead” once sang: “In every silver lining there is a touch of grey.”

Director of the “Young@Heart” chorus Bob Cilman. Photo credit: Brandy Eve Allen

HollywoodChicago.com recently interviewed three of the major components of “Young@Heart”. For starters, there’s the amazing persona and life of one of the key choral members: the 86-year-old Dora B. Morrow. Next, there’s eclectic choral director Bob Cilman. Finally, there’s the British director who brought all the elements together to create the whole picture: Stephen Walker.

“When I first saw them,” said director Walker, “and I start the movie with this, there was Eileen Hall. She’s a 92-year-old woman who tottered up to the microphone and belted out the opening lines of ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’ by The Clash. It occurred to me that she really was singing about life and death.”

“Young@Heart” chorus member Dora Morrow (center). Photo credit: Brandy Eve Allen

“What convinced me to do the film,” said choral director Cilman, “was Steve and his production team. They were willing to just do what we wanted them to do, which was to document the process of taking a rock song presented to the group from nothing to the final staging. That just felt right.”

And right it is. Through the film, we see the process of a particular set of pop and rock songs being prepared through rehearsal, through the tribulations and inevitabilities of the senior moments and finally to glorious conclusion.

“If you stop and look at rock ‘n’ roll,” said choral member Dora, “and if you learn the words of it, then you can really understand what it means. When we take it and learn the words, it’s a different song. The audience can get something out of those words.”

Walker added: “The more you listen to these songs, the more they take on other meanings because seniors are singing them. They sing ‘The Road to Nowhere’ by The Talking Heads and it means something totally different. When wonderful choral member Lenny – who’s 87 years old – sings ‘Purple Haze’ and forgets his lines, he’s now singing about dementia.”

“Young@Heart” choral director Bob Cilman in Chicago on March 27, 2008. Photo credit: Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

This is a different, radical departure in documentary style. Walker wanted a certain look and feel in the film and challenged himself to do something unique. He added: “This is a rock opera about old age. It’s about death, sickness, fun, loneliness and even sex, but it is filtered through familiar rock songs.”

The “Young@Heart” chorus. Photo credit: Timothy White

One surprising element within the film is standalone music videos – shot in an MTV style – with the choral members participating in the action. “I Wanna Be Sedated” by The Ramones is a particular highlight.

“I was interested in exploring the music video angle,” said Cilman. “It was cool to explore a medium that only has young people in it that old people don’t particularly watch and are never in.”

“What was hard about that,” said Walker, “was the challenge to make each song different and which point in the film we were going to feature them. They were deliberately shot during the editing process and are incredibly and carefully placed. If I put had put them in the wrong place, they would seem completely arbitrary and pointless.”

Though the presentation follows the group in a triumphant way, there is tragedy in the deaths of two members during filming including Bob Salvini.

RELATED IMAGE GALLERY View our full “Young@Heart” image gallery RELATED AUDIO Listen to our full audio interview with “Young@Heart” director Stephen Walker RELATED READING Read more film reviews from critic Patrick McDonald

“The music video of ‘The Road to Nowhere’ becomes an extraordinary song about approaching death,” Walker said. “We mixed it with Bob Salvini being taken to the hospital by ambulance and then showed an ambulance in the music video. This film isn’t a drama. Bob actually died.”

He added: “We thought it was very bold to do that. I showed it to Bob’s family to make sure we hadn’t crossed a line. They gratefully gave it an absolute thumbs up. It was quite unflinching and uncompromising about mortality – and it had to be.”

Cilman observed: “Because the members have a finite existence with the chorus, it was nice to have their memories live on beyond the time they would be with us.”

It’s Dora B. Morrow – who’s both in the age range and a member of the choral group – who puts the film’s theme in perspective. She concluded: “If the audience gets something out of it, it can keep me lifted up. I keep this spirit in mind and I am never old. The body may get old but not me. In my heart, I am always young.”

“Young@Heart” choral member Dora Morrow in Chicago on March 27, 2008. Photo credit: Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

By PATRICK McDONALD Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com