In Toronto, Paul Simon takes a bow with a new career-spanning documentary

FILE - Paul Simon performs at Global Citizen Live in Central Park on Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021, in New York. In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon premiered Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023, at the Toronto International Film Festival. It is an expansive look at Simons decades-spanning career, from growing up in Queens, New York, with Art Garfunkel to the success of Graceland, the sensational 1986 album made with South African musicians. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File) (Evan Agostini, Invision)

TORONTO, ONT ā€“ After a three-and-a-half-hour documentary on his life, Paul Simon had only sympathy for the audience.

ā€œYou're probably exhausted,ā€ Simon told the crowd after the premiere of Alex Gibney's ā€œIn Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simonā€ on Sunday at the Toronto International Film Festival.

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The 81-year-old Simon, himself, hadn't watched the film before its debut, and he didn't watch it Sunday, either. ā€œI'll get up the courage to see it, no doubt,ā€ he promised.

The film, which is seeking distribution at TIFF, is an expansive look at Simon's decades-spanning career, from growing up in Queens, New York, with Art Garfunkel to the success of ā€œGraceland,ā€ the sensational 1986 album he made with South African musicians.

ā€œIn Restless Dreams,ā€ which takes its name from a lyric in ā€œThe Sound of Silenceā€ ("In restless dreams I walked alone"), also intimately captures Simon painstakingly assembling his latest album, ā€œSeven Psalms," which was released in May.

He began the album, his first in several years, he says, after a dream in 2019 in which he envisioned an album of seven songs. His work at his home studio in Wimberly, Texas, was made more difficult by Simon's hearing loss in his left ear, throwing off his musical equilibrium.

ā€œI havenā€™t accepted it entirely, but Iā€™m beginning to,ā€ Simon told the audience of his hearing loss in a post-screening Q&A.

Simon reached out to Gibney, the veteran documentarian of ā€œGoing Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Beliefā€ and ā€œTaxi to the Dark Side,ā€ after admiring his 2015 documentary ā€œSinatra: All or Nothing at All.ā€ Though the cameras took some adjusting to, Simon was content for Gibney to assemble a narrative around his life.

ā€œHaving the truth about me depicted by an observer is very interesting to me," Simon said. "I think I'm probably not the person to want to describe what the truth is. I'm biased on both sides. I overestimate myself and I dislike myself to a sufficient degree that I'd rather give it to someone else to document.ā€

Further, Simon said, he wished some of his earlier recording sessions had been filmed, like those for 1970's ā€œBridge Over Troubled Waterā€ or ā€œGraceland.ā€ ā€œIn Restless Dreamsā€ does include some rare footage, including 16mm dailies from the making of the 1969 documentary ā€œSongs of Americaā€ and early rehearsals of ā€œGraceland.ā€

After some prodding, Simon acknowledged that he is still making music and recently wrote a new song. Ideas are also still coming to him at night, too.

ā€œThe other night I dreamed again,ā€ Simon said, to applause. ā€œI dreamed it would be a good idea if I wrote a song called ā€˜It's What's His Name.' ā€

___

Follow Associated Press Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP


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