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A
DECADE UNDER THE INFLUENCE
6/10
USA
2003 : Ted DEMME & Richard LaGRAVENESE : c108 mins*
The interviewees
(on camera) : Robert Altman, John G. Avildsen, Peter Bogdanovich,
Marshall Brickman, Ellen Burstyn, John Calley, Julie Christie, Francis
Ford Coppola, Roger Corman, Bruce Dern, Clint Eastwood, Peter Fonda, Milos
Forman, William Friedkin, Pam Grier, Monte Hellman, Dennis Hopper, Sidney
Lumet, Paul Mazursky, Mike Medavoy, Polly Platt, Sydney Pollack, Jerry
Schatzberg, Roy Scheider, Paul Schrader, Martin Scorsese, Sissy Spacek,
Robert Towne, Jon Voight.
The interviewers
(unseen) include : Demme, LaGravenese, plus Scott Frank, Alexander
Payne, Neil Labute, Mike De Luca.
Structure
: standard-issue (conservative) documentary format - talking heads + news
footage + clips from key movies + stills montages.
Subject
: American cinema of the (very) late) 1960s and 1970s, with special emphasis
on the post-Easy Rider, pre-Jaws era from 1969 to 1975.
Tone :
Self-congratulatory. Clearly Compiled by rabid fans - Demme and LaGravenese
both bedazzled admirers of this 'golden age', even if their own directorial
efforts (LaGravenese's Living Out Loud, Demme's Blow)
won't feature in any future documentaries about turn-of-the-new-century
US cinema.
Best value
: Friedkin (surprisingly coherent), Bogdanovich, Ellen Burstyn.
Hero :
Corman, who clearly deserves a documentary to himself (oops - he already
got one: Roger Corman: Hollywood's Wild Angel [Christian Blackwood,
1978])
Gimmick
: The 'new generation' interviewers, most of them very bright sparks,
who only appear during the closing credits after the interviews have finished.
We very seldom even hear their questions. Why bother recruiting such illustrious
names? Publicity purposes? Much better to have put them on screen and
filmed segments in dialogue/interview form.
Couldn't
have put it better myself : "For neophyte cinephiles, A Decade
Under The Influence should serve as a lively primer on a seminal film
era, but its reverent tone is antithetical to the rule-breaking spirit
it celebrates." [Todd Rabin, The
Onion AV Club website.]
23rd April,
2004
(approx.108-minute version seen on VHS, Sunderland, 1st April)
* full version
reportedly runs 138 mins
by Neil
Young
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