My understanding is that this is basically a film Andersen rediscovered through his research…I’m not sure anyone would have thought to restore it or distribute it otherwise.

Now if we could only get Los Angeles Plays Itself on DVD…or the book Andersen has hinted that he’s writing on the subject!

There should really consider marketing this as one of the only two films (the other being Burnett’s Killer of Sheep) that Thom Andersen had nothing but positive things to say about in Los Angeles Plays Itself. I haven’t caught up with Exiles yet, but Andersen definitely did a good job in fostering its reputation and importance in American film history.

It’s really an evocative mixture of Melville’s themes and Americana in general…a meditation on the natural landscape and a romantic sense of moral duty and fate. Ahab has been described as a “child of the woods” in this film, and having grown up in the midwest and having spent a lot of time in the woods myself, the film’s feel for the majesty, tranquility, and power of nature really hit home for me. It has a life of its own, too, so I don’t know if it enhances or updates the novel, exactly, but it is very rich, fascinating conjecture.

That opening shot of the mother’s naked pelvic area has apparently outraged a few reviewers, who dismiss it as a sign of French lasciviousness or something…but it may be the ultimate first shot of any and every biography!

I was thinking along the lines of Jean Rhys’s novel, Wide Sargasso Sea which was background story about Rochester’s first wife. Unfortunately, the film came off looking more like plantation fever, with its amped up, sweaty eroticism, but Rhys’s book also raised issues about post-colonial identity which added another dimension to the Jane Eyre aura.

Ballast was pretty great; I’m looking forward to your interview. (Incidentally, I also saw Lucian Pintilie’s Romanian classic Reenactment over the weekend, so I really appreciate your transcript of its introduction when it was shown at PSIFF. I’ll be sure to link.)

When can we expect you to do the same for Andre Bazin?

I especially look forward to hearing your comments on Ballast, which I very much appreciated when it screened at our San Francisco International. I also had the welcome opportunity to talk to Hammer for SF360, though I don’t imagine that will go up until the film is theatrically released next year.