Rob Nilsson in Person When the Argentine flag was raised over the island of South Georgia, John Cale, former member of the Velvet Underground, was mulling over the collected poems of Dylan Thomas. The political and the poetic converged in Cale's composition, "The Falklands Suite," four beautifully shaded songs with symphonic interludes. With the album, entitled "Words for the Dying," ready for recording abroad, San Francisco-based filmmaker Rob Nilsson accompanied Cale and producer Brian Eno to the Soviet Union and, eventually, England to document their aural machinations. Grand sessions with Moscow's Orchestra of Symphonic and Popular Music set the scene for Cale and Eno's creative process, as do the later sessions with the Choir of Llandaff Cathedral in South Wales, and Cale's own vocal sessions in Suffolk. Though Words for the Dying has the signature scenes of Cale and Eno rambling about town, in conversation with Soviet rockers, and mulling over the artistic impulse, this is not your typical "making of" documentary. Once in Moscow, director Nilsson discovered, much to his chagrin, that Eno wanted no part of the filming. Words for the Dying then becomes a clash of wills as Nilsson tries to calmly coax then cajole Eno back into the project. It is a subtle internecine battle as the camera crew tip-toes through a minefield of bursting egos. All the while a placid-faced John Cale is rendering the darkly lyrical words of Dylan Thomas melodious. Words for the Dying has much to say about the living. --Steve Seid