Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile

Overview

This film tells (using modern day interviews and archival footage and sound tapes) the story of how in 1967, while his band The Beach Boys triumphantly toured abroad, Brian Wilson was trying to push the boundaries of conventional pop music with a new follow-up to the Beach Boys' cutting-edge mega-hit, Pet Sounds. The new album was to be called "SMiLE". SMiLE pushed the envelope both musically and lyrically, and was supposed to out-do the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper record. But Brian wasn't able to sell the project to his band-mates when they returned. The project was shelved and Wilson's well-documented decline into depression, drug abuse, recluseness, and obesity had begun. Thirty-odd years later, Wilson announced that in 2004, SMiLE would be performed live in its entirety in London. This film tells the story of a damaged but healing artist bringing his greatest work to light.

Cast

Brian Wilson

Self

N/A

David Anderle

Self

Hal Blaine

Self

Jeff Bridges

Self

Elvis Costello

Self

N/A

Carol Kaye

Self

George Martin

Self

Van Dyke Parks

Self

N/A

Sylvie Simmons

Self

N/A

Michael Vosse

Self

Andrew Loog Oldham

Self

Tony Asher

Self