\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a lovely moment that Andy intuited and put together,\u201d Gibney said. \u201cThe contrast between that love and then the bitterness laid over that sweet moment captured in a poetic way the ebb and flow of time and memory, happiness and sadness, all rolled into one.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Simon, the inspiration for \u201cSeven Psalms\u201d came to him in a dream in 2019. Gibney filmed him as he rehearsed and recorded the album in Wimberley, Austin, Houston and New York, directed singers and instrumentalists, and sang alongside his wife, the musician Edie Brickell.<\/p>\n
The filmmakers also pored through hundreds of hours of audiotapes and archival footage and thousands of photos, many from Simon\u2019s own collection. Simon lived much of his life in front of the camera, so it was less a matter of finding, say, footage of him singing \u201cCecilia,\u201d than it was of choosing which version out of dozens of them was the best.<\/p>\n
The movie offers a wealth of interesting trivia, such as how the actor Charles Grodin directed the documentary \u201cSimon and Garfunkel: Songs of America\u201d in 1969, and then appeared as a Garfunkel impersonator, complete with a wig, alongside Simon in a \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d skit. Or how the organizers of the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival expected Simon and Garfunkel, as well as fellow acts Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, to \u201cperform without fee.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the songs, there are many, and many of them played at length (the entirety of \u201cAmerican Tune\u201d; Aretha Franklin\u2019s powerful 1971 cover of \u201cBridge Over Troubled Water\u201d). Simon\u2019s discography is so extensive and hit-filled that \u201cKodachrome\u201d \u2014 \u201cKodachrome\u201d! \u2014 doesn\u2019t even make an appearance. \u201cIt\u2019s already a three-and-half-hour movie,\u201d Grieve said. \u201cIf we put in every amazing song, you\u2019d have a 10-part series.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Gibney, who has made many films over the years about villains and cheats, corruption and deception, being able to tell the story of such a beloved songwriter was a welcome change. \u201cI love his music, so this was a labor of love in the truest sense,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n