2020 Catch up: Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions

Dir: Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift usually works to a relatively regimented schedule; a roughly two-year album cycle with a tour in between records. Coronavirus threw a lot of people’s schedules off in 2020, and Swift responded with an unexpectedly early eighth album so secret before its July launch that even her record company didn’t know about it until a week before.

Of course, touring Folklore isn’t an option in the near term, especially given the size of shows that Swift is now accustomed to playing, so we’ve got this; the first venture in her new deal with Disney+ and her first feature as a director. She had dipped her toe in directing with some early music videos but, unsurprisingly for an artist who has so carefully crafted her image and had hit a few controversies around her Reputation album, she assumed directorial control over all her videos starting with Me!, the first single from 2019’s Lover album.

The Long Pond Studio Sessions isn’t a film that screams directorial vision, rather its use of remote-controlled cameras and simple setups that generally just show the musicians in a couple of solo shots each and occasionally take in a wider angle on the studio seem designed to allow you to slot into the intimate atmosphere of this simple performance of the tracks from Folklore, all played in the order they are presented in on the album.

Between tracks, we have brief behind the scenes chats with Swift and co-writers/producers Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner. The three, in various configurations depending on which of them wrote on each song, discuss Folklore’s lyrical themes, the process of composing while all of them were in lockdown, the pseudonymous contribution of Swift’s partner Joe Alwyn to tracks Exile and Betty, and much more. Perhaps most interesting among it all is the way Swift talks about wanting to move away from writing about things fans can read about in the tabloids and more into storytelling, singing in the voice of different characters, and crafting a three-part teen romance narrative that plays out across the record. It’s a good insight into her process and backs up just how well written the songs on Folklore are.

Stripped back, sometimes with little more than an acoustic guitar and Antonoff on a brushed snare drum, Swift is in fine voice throughout. She clearly loves these songs and the way the collaboration has pulled each track together. When she’s not singing, or when she delivers a few lines that she’s mentioned having in a note on her phone for years, the satisfaction with the process and the result is written all over her.

Of course, your reaction to this film will be the same as your reaction to Folklore. I thoroughly enjoyed the album, and the intimacy of these performances (especially the remote duet with a masked Justin Vernon on Exile) and the stories behind the tracks has only deepened my appreciation of it. If you’re not a Taylor Swift fan, this clearly isn’t for you. The only caveat for fans is that, being on Disney+, there is one compromise. Folklore is the first Taylor Swift record with a Parental Advisory sticker, and the occasional dropping of the F-bomb is muted, which sadly neuters the chorus of Betty (my favourite track). I can only hope we’ll see an uncut version, whether as an album, a Blu Ray or uploaded to Youtube. Otherwise, this is a lovely and often insightful version of a terrific album and a safe but solid directorial debut for Taylor Swift.

★★★★