In the latest installment of their “Unstaged†series, American Express has hired Todd Haynes — whose latest project, Mildred Pierce, just wrapped up — to direct a live-stream of My Morning Jacket’s May 31 Louisville show. You might be thinking: Okay, yeah, it’s a webcast of a concert, what’s it matter if Todd Haynes directs it or someone I’ve never actually heard of? And you would be (at least a little bit) wrong, for two reasons: (1) One of the previous editions of “Unstaged†— the pairing of Terry Gilliam and Arcade Fire — resulted in this amusing, strange backstage video, and that’s something that wouldn’t have happened if just any old dude had directed the stream, and (2) Haynes and My Morning Jacket front man Jim James have worked together before, when James delivered a rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Goin’ to Acapulco†in I’m Not There. That scene, embedded above, was plenty mesmerizing, and while there’s no reason to think the actual footage from this upcoming MMJ concert will be anything like it, would it kill Haynes to make Jimmy put on some crazy-ass white face paint again? [ArtsBeat/NYT]
