Rick Springfield's An Affair of the Heart: Flattering, Yet Strangely Compelling

This is a revived version of a Line Out post about Sylvia Caminer's 2012 documentary, An Affair of the Heart (these posts were purged from the internet after The Stranger pulled the plug on their music blog).

Film/TV Jun 5, 2013 at 10:22 am

Rick Springfield's Affair of the Heart: Flattering, Yet Strangely Compelling

Kathy Fennessy

• Breaking Glass Pictures

AN AFFAIR OF THE HEART
(Sylvia Caminer, 2012, USA, 93 mins)

I wouldn't have thought I'd get the chance to tag a post using Rick Springfield's name, but then this DVD showed up in my mailbox. I was never a Springfield fan, but I wasn't a detractor either. I'm old enough to remember his 1980s heyday, and although I never bought any of his records, I did go through a brief General Hospital phase, coinciding with his first run as Dr. Noah Drake (he would return to the show in 2005). 

This was back when Demi Moore ("Jackie Templeton") was also part of the cast. If anything, I would've predicted Springfield as the breakout movie star, rather than Moore, but he decided to make music his primary focus.

Sylvia Caminer's flattering, yet strangely compelling documentary, An Affair of the Heart, doesn't present a conventional portrait of a celebrity. Instead, it's more like Stephen Kessler's 2011 Still Alive, which caught up with 1970s singer-songwriter Paul Williams. If 63-year-old Springfield, who looks at least 20 years younger, enjoyed his biggest hits, like "Jessie's Girl" and "Don't Talk to Strangers," in the 1980s, his fans have sustained his career since then, and Caminer profiles several of his most dedicated followers.

           Mike Nipper first posted this video in 2010. That's Rick on guitar.

After a break of almost a decade, Springfield returned to live performance in the 1990s, and fans travel thousands of miles just to see him play. Famous friends, like Mark Goodman, Linda Blair, and Corey Feldman, speak to his past. To Goodman, Springfield was a "dick" and a "lightweight," who's only gotten better and more humble with age. As with the super-fans who've congregated around the Grateful Dead and Phish over the years, his shows have spawned deep friendships and even ardent romances.

Suburban stay-at-home moms JoAnn and Sue welcome the chance to leave their troubles behind for a regular "Rick fix," as they put it. In their case, that means attending up to 10 shows a year, including Springfield's annual cruise to the Bahamas (and since Goodman participates in that venture, I think it's fair to take anything he says with a grain of salt). 
 

Fourteen-year-old guitar player Dustin has been a fan since he was a toddler, a bond he shares with his single dad, Jeff—who looks a little like Springfield—while Steve proposed to his wife, Jill, on stage at a concert.

             

Other fans talk about the comfort they took in Springfield songs while recovering from sexual assault, heart surgery, and other traumatic events (Laurie says her "pity party" over her cardiac woes lasted for 24 years). 

There's a darker side, too, since Rick addiction has put a strain on Sue's marriage. Oddly, her cardiologist husband, Mike, started out as a New Jersey thrasher,* and he's never understood his wife's pop-idol obsession.

If there isn't much here about his personal life, Springfield has written a bestselling memoir, Late, Late at Night, that discusses his battles with infidelity, depression, and other more personal matters (amazingly, he's still married to his wife, Barbara, who also appears in the film). Watching Caminer's documentary didn't lead me to any startling revelations about his music, but I found his relationships with his fans genuinely touching.

*Mike Devita played guitar in Sacred Denial (1982-88), which had a brief run on Atlantic.

My favorite quote: "We touched his butt last time he was here."

Breaking Glass releases An Affair of the Heart on Blu-ray and DVD July 16.