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Two Local Indies Play by Roger Rose and CineSource
Jonathan Parker, Catharine de Napoli at faux art opening mimicking their movie. photo CineSource
After being lauded and feted abroad, two hot local features are finally showing on their hometown screens. Both "(Untitled)," by Jonathan Parker and Catherine Di Napoli, and "Everything Strange and New," by Frazer Bradshaw are well worth catching on the big screen: "(Untitled)" at the Embarcadero until December 10th or so (depending on you!), possibly moving to the Bridge; "ESAN" at the Roxie from December 4 through the 10th.
Parker, the writer/director, has a San Rafael address; writer/producer Di Napoli calls San Francisco home (they also did the well-received "Bartleby," 2001, with Crispin Glover), and freshman writer/director Bradshaw is from Oakland (see "Out of Oakland with a Bullet," May09 CS, untitled-themovie.com or everythingstrangeandnew.com for more details).
Both are arty date flicks but two more opposite films you will not find. "(Untitled)" is a brainy romantic farce about New York's art scene; "ESAN" is an existentialist arthouse drama, with tragi-comic touches, about an everyman somewhere (Oakland). So much for film movements, eh?
Coincidentally, I ran into the star of "ESAN," Jerry McDaniel, at an art opening in Oakland - so Stanislavsky he was in stained overalls (actually, he was coming from his carpentry gig). I met Parker and Di Napoli at another gallery, a faux opening at the Steven Wolf in The City, replete with "art pieces" from their movie and a performance of contemporary music.
Considering that "(Untitled)" is about a brooding "modern" composer, Adrian (Adam Goldberg), I wondered if the performers had seen it, although it does lampoon lovingly. The film also follows Adrian's brother, Josh (Eion Bailey), a painter who sells out but wants back in, and Madeleine (Marley Shelton), the sexy and sharp gallery owner who challenges their bodies and minds while managing their art. Occasionally burlesque, as when eviscerating art collectors or critics, ("Untitled")'s music and banter sounded more like normal art speak than parody.
Also dryly close to their characters are Di Napoli and Parker. Strikingly beautiful and erudite, Di Napoli could have played her own lead, although Shelton is great and a new face to watch. Parker, while handsome enough, hails from New York, its Jewish humor and art scene, in general.
Despite his fretting, "(Untitled)" is a medium-priced indie that could do well. It won the jury prize at the respected Mannheim Festival, raves from the SF Chronicle's Mick LaSalle and NY Times's Holden noted, it's "on the side of experimental music and art and their champions, no matter how eccentric. For that alone this brave little movie deserves an audience."
Picked up by Samuel Goldwyn, "(Untitled)" opened on October 23 in 14 markets; Film-Sharks acquired it for Latin America; and they are now shopping around for TV and DVD distro.
"The reception has been pretty good," said Parker, just back from Germany. "It's our third film [they also did "The Californians," 2005], so having been through this a couple of times, we are happy with the movie and the response. The rest has become easier to take."
"Making a film is long process," he continued, "When you are writing comic material and three years later you hear the audience laugh - it is a strange, delayed reaction. Frankly, you never know if they are going to laugh. It is really nice to see an anonymous, paying crowd enjoying it."
"Everything Strange and New" has also being getting great reviews, some awards and distributors saying they adore it but thus far it has only received DVD distribution offers.
"Festival play is a mysterious creature," Bradshaw ruminated by email. "'ESAN' has had some, including Sundance, SFIFF, the Cinevision Award in Munich, but it has also been rejected by a lot of festivals with much less prestige. The reviews tended to fall on either end, many saying 'One of the best films I've seen this year,' but almost as frequently, 'a summation of everything that's wrong with independent filmmaking.'"
The film follows a carpenter, Wayne (Jerry McDaniel), and his wife, ReneŽ (Beth Lisick), as kids and work take over, sex slows to a crawl, and the recession (which Bradshaw anticipated) threatens their home. Few films capture so well the state of late-capitalist America, emotionally, morally, or financially. Its stately cinema veritŽ screams: "Something's terribly wrong here!"
"It's a portrait of someone who has signed up for the American dream, then realized it's more complicated than he thought." Bradshaw writes his characters inside-out: their vulnerabilities prominent and their power obscured.
A veteran cinematographer, Bradshaw makes the camera an instrument of high art with subtle camera moves. Add the anti-hero's inner voice-over and the cacophonous score and "ESAN" conjures some serious solipsistic angst.
"The music reflects the inner emotional drama on a level that the audience doesn't have explicit access to," said Bradshaw, doing a little art speak himself (he's an SFAI graduate, after all). Nonetheless, he pulls a couple of Chekhovian plot twists out of the hat at the end.
Using local film colleagues, whose help he honors, Bradshaw shot 95% of the film under two miles from his North Oakland home, where he also edited it himself. He mixed with his friend Kent Sparling at Skywalker Sound and finished picture at Spy Post in San Francisco.
"A film that doesn't have a big machine behind it, it's about word-of-mouth. If it sells well in San Francisco, it'll be easier for us to approach other theatrical venues. The lesson," Bradshaw cracks: "Making movies is a stupid masochistic thing to do. I don't know why on earth I'd put myself through it again."
"If there is any chance of NOT making films," agrees Parker, "That would be my advice. It is just so tough and the chance of reward so slim. But some people can't avoid doing it."
Indeed, "We are working on a new script. It's set in the California gold rush, a period piece." Since finishing a film takes so long, by time you're on the festival circuit, you need your next script, or even some shot scenes, in hand.
As for Bradshaw's next film, "I'm really looking forward to it," he confesses.Posted on Dec 02, 2009 - 12:36 AM