Rufus Wainwright - All I Want DVD

Finally we get some Rufus Wainwright video released so us obsessives can watch him over and over again without the awful fuzzy effect you still get from recording stuff off telly (that’s if you’re poor like me and don’t have Sky +). Not that Rufus is ever on telly much, which of course is a criminal fact. And this DVD is all you could ever hope for plus more. The main feature of the DVD is a very candid and honest documentary about Rufus’s entire career. First up we are given detailed accounts of Rufus’s life growing up in Montreal from younger sister Martha Wainwright (now a singer herself), mother Kate McGarrigle (also a well known folk singer), family, friends and Rufus himself. We are treated to the cutest video clips of Rufus and Martha play-acting as teenagers and various baby photos. Rufus talks very openly about being raised in an entirely female environment when his parents divorced, and about going to visit his father in New York. Then we hear about his struggle to be successful in music while his contemporaries were moving up. Once he finally did get recognised life became one big party and Rufus talks about having to get help for drug addiction. It was around this time that he wrote some of his most poignant work. Along the way, some very significant names in music give their 10 pence worth on Rufus, including Sting, Neil Tennant, Elton John, Jake and Baby Daddy (Scissor Sisters) plus various producers Rufus has worked with during his career. We even have the little chubby one from Keane, Tom Chapman, expressing his admiration in an almost fan-boyish way. And let’s not forget the biggest fan-boy of all, Mark Gatiss from The League of Gentlemen, who does not hold back in his praise! In between all of this are live and acoustic performances of Rufus’s greatest tracks. A very informative, interesting glimpse into the past and the present life of Rufus Wainwright, very well documented.
There are also lots of great extras on this DVD, and you know that the best DVDS are the ones where you can spend another half an hour or so enjoying these after you have seen the main feature. First of all there are full versions of all the songs from the documentary, from live shows, festivals and sessions. There is also, available for the first time, 4 fantastic music videos; ‘Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk’, ‘The One You Love’ and the adorable ‘April Fools’ & ‘California’. There are also loads more interviews, with talk mainly circulating around some of Rufus’s best songs. There is an interactive option which links to the corresponding music performance, and although some of this is very interesting, the producers do go on a bit about not much at all and you are somewhat relieved when the icon finally arrives in the top right corner for you to select the song.
All in all this DVD is a must for Rufus fans - and for anyone else for that matter! Being jam-packed full of fantastic musical performances and an insight into Wainwright’s hedonistic lifestyle, it is enough to make anyone who has not witnessed the man himself and his work before fall in love like the rest of us.