Out of the cocaine-fuelled, rock'n'roll debauchery of the 1970s came an iconic collaboration between an influential rocker and a visionary filmmaker.
From The Last Waltz to The Wolf of Wall Street and The Irishman, the creative legacy of Robbie Robertson and Martin Scorcese has spanned decades. Filled with high octane exploits, bacchanalian parties and untold amounts of debauchery, this is the intimate and unvarnished behind-the-scenes story of a partnership that has shaped American culture like no other.
PRAISE FOR TESTIMONY
'A book of memories and wonders, a personal testament of a magical time in American music from someone who was there, at the center of it all . . . Robbie brings you along with him, keeps you right by his side first to last, just the way his songs do, drawing you close, spellbound by his easy sorcery. You can feel the music in every word' Martin Scorsese
'Robust, wry, gritty and wise' Wall Street Journal
'Confident and well oiled. At times it has the mythic sweep of an early Terrence Malick movie' New York Times
'Captivating... this is essential reading' Rolling Stone
'Robertson is an immensely capable storyteller and a keen observer' New Yorker
The rock legend tells the story of his wild ride with Martin Scorsese - as friends, adventure-seekers, and boundary-pushing collaborators - with all the heart of his New York Times bestselling memoir Testimony
For four decades, Robbie Robertson produced music for Martin Scorsese's films, a relationship that began when Robertson convinced Scorsese to direct The Last Waltz, the iconic film of the Band's farewell performance at the Winterland Ballroom on Thanksgiving 1976.
The closing of the Band's story with that landmark concert thrust Robertson into a new and uncertain world. With his relationship with his bandmates deteriorating and his marriage collapsing, Robertson arrived on Scorsese's Beverly Hills doorstep only to find his friend in similar straits. Before the night was out, Scorsese had invited him to move in. Both men, already culture-transforming stars before the age of thirty-five, stood at a creative precipice, searching for the beginning of a new phase of life and work. As their friendship deepened into a career-altering collaboration, their shared journey would take them around the world and down the rabbit hole of American culture in the long hangover of the seventies. Buffeted on either side by temptation and paranoia, veering closer to self-destruction than either wanted to admit, together they had devoted themselves to a partnership defined by equal parts admiration and ambition.
With a cast of characters featuring Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Federico Fellini, Sophia Loren, Sam Fuller, Liza Minelli, Tuesday Weld, and many more, Insomnia is an intimate portrait of a remarkable creative friendship between two titans of American arts, one that would explore the outer limits of excess and experience before returning to tell the tale.
