posted
Anyone seen this film? Its a gritty, rather seedy, but hilarious noir satire with Steven Bauer, Christopher Walken, Anne Heche and Joan Chen. Directed and co-written by British art-house legend, the late/great Don Cammell (‘Performance’).
This was a troubled production with his Nazi studio/producers (‘Nu Image’) taking the film away from Cammell. Butchering the labyrinthine plot beyond recognition, and spewing it out to be some kind of cheap thrills erotic film shown on the graveyard slot on cable TV, that version was (probably justifiably) slated, Cammell later committed suicide Earnest Hemmingway style; double-barrel-gunshot-to-the-head (but it was, apparently, because he was happiest at that time and knew it wouldn’t get any better…OK) and the film faded into obscurity.
Years later, Cammell’s DP and editor; Saed Mutarevic and Frank Mazzola, joined forces with London distributors Metro Tartan, bought the rights to the stock footage and painstakingly re-edited and re-cut the whole film frame-by-frame according to the script. The result was one of the weirdest and most interesting movies ever made, and Christmas-come-early for fans of the man known as Christopher Walken.
‘The Guardian’ film critic said: "I cannot think of two such radically different films being produced from the same raw footage."
'Wild Side' is a daring bit of cinema with great performances (particularly Walken) it has the power to disturb, compel, revile and amuse the viewer, sometimes all at once.
Posts: 2041 | From: The Ice Planet Hoth | Registered: Jul 2001 | Site Updates: 0
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posted
I do not know the movie, but Premiere magazine has an interview with Walken in the latest issue...he mentions the film...it may have also recently shown up on one of digital's independent film channels. I'll keep my eyes peeled for it now.
The Walken article was mighty good reading...he's been an actor since he was about 5, starting from the beginnings of TV. He attended professional children's school, took dancing lessons, appeared in dozens of shows throughout the '50s & '60s. While "The Deer Hunter" was his 'breakout' performance, he certainly could have been considered a journeyman actor at the time. They talked a bit about his one & only scene in "Pulp Fiction" which just happened to be on digital this weekend...I managed to catch his pivotal scene and took it in from a renewed perspective.
Maybe I'm in 'a transitional phase'...get it?
Posts: 1019 | From: NYS | Registered: Dec 2003 | Site Updates: 0
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Kash
Kash : Aha! He'll save every one of us...
Member # 297
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hey, you know when we quit 'the life' we should just 'walk the Earth, meet people get into adventures...like Cain in Kung-Fu'.
I love the Gold watch scene in Pulp, I don't think I've ever laughed at anything as much as I did the first time I saw that (pure comic genius), uselelss fact: Chris Walkens real name is Ron...Ronnie Walken, doesn't quite have the same ring to it.
Another excellent (but underated) Walken film is 'The Prophecy'. Chris plays a vengeful version of the archangel Gabriel, great cast too: Elias Koteas, Eric Stoltz, Virgianna Madsen, Viggo Mortensen, Amanda Plummer and Adam Goldberg.
Posts: 2041 | From: The Ice Planet Hoth | Registered: Jul 2001 | Site Updates: 0
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