Sunday, October 24, 2010
CINEMA VERI-KIDS
Today's film was the classic by Ray Ashley, Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin
Just on DVD.
Truffaut claimed that this film inspired The New Wave in France.
Made on a shoestring by two people, three with the editor, with "real people" in real locations in real time with real backgrounds in large crowds and simple one shots, this transfixing comedy/drama gained early acclaim, prizes and a wide international audience after people "in the business" told Ashley it was DOA.
I do not know quite what the magic is but it is there. Certainly it is the cinema verité angle. You are in the action.
But it is also the story. You can't get out.
I lost myself in it.
It is simple enough. Another asset.
A little kid who is being taken care of his brother is teased into believing that he has killed his brother, babysitter.
He runs away.
This being Brooklyn, NY, he heads for the elevated train which dumps him out at the end of the line in Coney Island.
He has taken some money and learns how to earn some. Deposit bottles. Makes friends. Rides the rides and so on. He wanders around and looks at stuff.
He is found.
End of story.
What is so appealing about this film is the editing and the lack of sentimentality. The story runs on quickly and believably to its conclusion. What it has is LIFE!
The kid who plays the lost kid is perfect. He is annoying and appealing. He is brave and fearful. He is a kid. I think, perhaps, the kid in all of us.
Coney Island, as seen through his eyes is a fairy land. Which, in a way, it was.
This is another level, now, in this picture.
This is all from a lost world. There is nothing like this now.
Kids are not left alone. Kids do not get to ride alone or be alone in crowds unquestioned. Most of the time.
There is no Coney Island. Well, there is the location.
My Coney Island was Asbury Park, NJ. I did get to be alone at his age (7) or a little more. I did wander around. played under the boardwalk and watched the shadows of the boards and the walkers. A movie of its own.
There was little danger.
The boardwalk attractions were a wonderland. This lived with me for years, in dreams, a kind of Shangrila.
So, all of this is there for me in this film.
It is also a look into history. The small family's apartment. Mom is a widow who works in a department store.
The streets where kids play. A nostalgia dunk.
I will give this film a 5 out of Netflix 5. I would like to play it with The 400 Blows with which it has so much in common.
Labels: films
