Janis: Little Girl Blue

It took filmmaker Amy Berg almost eight years to bring her stunning, definitive documentary portrait of the blues singer Janis Joplin to the screen, and it was well worth the wait.

With the full co-operation of the late singer's estate, her family and friends, and several of the musicians that she played with, Berg has pieced together a very comprehensive picture of the troubled young lady who was described at one point as fluctuating being like a little girl lost or as strong as a mountain lion.

As an outspoken schoolgirl, her very liberal views in her conservative hometown of Port Arthur, Texas, made her very unpopular with her classmates. Her brother fondly remembered that Joplin loved to rock the boat as often as she could, which not only got her thrown out of the school choir, but some of the frat boys who disliked her very cruelly got her voted as "most ugly man." So it was no surprise that she hot-footed it out of town and landed in San Francisco when she was barely 19 years old. There, she discovered and experimented with everything from her sexuality, to the blues, to heroin, the latter of which would ultimately prove to be her undoing.

Now involved in a full blown affair with a man who got her hooked on methadone, Joplin got into such a sorry state that worried friends intervened and bought a ticket back to Texas to get herself sorted out. It looked for a time that this may work, as she got sober and even introduced her addict boyfriend to her parents. Acting in an old-fashioned manner, he asked them if he could marry Janis. Turns out that he already had a pregnant girlfriend at home, so with the realization that she wasn't going to get married, Janis decided once and for all that music was to be her life; she trooped back to San Francisco to join a band.

They were called the Holding Company, and with Janis fronting them they were moderately successful until they played the new Monterey Pop Festival. They were the smash hits of the show, and overnight Joplin started to become famous. All the reviews said that whilst she had the makings of being a very big star, her band were a big letdown. They soon parted company, and Joplin went solo.

The film details how much Joplin wanted all the celebrity of fame, and how much she came alive whilst performing on stage, yet when the show was over she relied heavily on her fixes of heroin to be able to cope with life out of the spotlight. However, what was surprising was her close bond with her family, and her constant need for their approval. Berg included a treasure trove of letters (read by singer Cat Power) that she wrote to her parents in which she was constantly assuring them she was not only successful but happy, too, as she obviously believed she was when she put pen to paper. In fact, both her younger siblings who were interviewed spoke very warmly of their sister, whom they were obviously close to and very proud of.

Some of the members of her own band spoke of the fact that Joplin always felt everyone else's pain, and they believed that in itself was the main reason that she used heroin. Others spoke of her desire to want the pain of being a real blues singer, which contributed to her addictions. Yet, aside from all this excess, what stands out most is the sheer electricity of her singing and live performing, which reminds you of what an extraordinary and talented musician she was. There is some unique footage of Joplin not just performing in large stadiums, but also actually recording new tracks in the studio, which are a sheer joy to watch.

Joplin's legacy is "Pearl," her most successful album, released three months after her her death in October, 1970, at the tender age of 27. It seems somehow fitting that this documentary comes out the same year as Asif Kapadia's film on Amy Winehouse, as the British singer was obviously very influenced by Joplin on so many levels. Both of them had their brilliant careers curtailed when they were both at their peaks, and are still, all these years later, such a sad loss to the world.