Jeff Beck – performed live at Ronnie Scott’s

A Review Of A Day In The Life - By Robert Greenfield

Road Recovery show at Nokia 5/1/09

A review of Hair At The Al Hirschfield Theatre 3/27/09

It was 40 years ago the Hair was last on Broadway, but it is back now with a vengeance. It's about time that great Rock & Roll is back on top on Broadway. In a time when Broadway shows have been only about corny musicals it's good to see some great written rock & Roll songs being performed once again. James Rado one of the original composers of Hair was there in the front row showing his support. The cast is great & very real. There is even the famous nude scene. also at the end of the play people are encouraged to jump up on stage & dance with the cast. The music of Hair was made at a time when this country was up against a crazy war & social issues were important then. Well, 40 years later it’s hard to believe we are in another crazy war. Songs like Aquarius, Let The Sunshine In, Easy To Be Hard & I Got Life still have important meaning. And that's why Hair is going strong into the 21 century. Let The Sunshine In again!

A Review Of Blank City -

Celine Danhier's superb documentary about the No Wave movement in New York in the late! 1970's - 1980's. Until now nobody that covered this very important underground scene in New York. It was a very different & thriving time with anything seemed possible & film makers like Nick Zedd & Jim Jarmusch were creating films as underground art & also jazz punk musicians like James Chance, John Lurie & Lydia Lunch were doing something different in music along with Debra Harry of Blondie. Actors like Steve Buscemi & artists were all a small collective community & Celine with interviews & vintage footage captures a moment in time that will never be again.

BA-Tell us how your film got into the Tribeca Film Festival?
CD-We submitted a rough cut of our film to Tribeca so long ago that I had actually forgotten about it by the time we received the invitation.

David Kwok from Tribeca contacted us in March and wanted to screen it. I was really thrilled to present the movie in Tribeca, because it was the perfect venue for BLANK CITY.

In fact, BLANK CITY follows the emergence, development and eventual decline of New York underground filmmaking from the late 1970's through the mid 1980's.

BA-How did you research New York City in the 1980's? Did you live here? Or were you around at that time?
CD- I lived in Paris & traveled back & fourth from Paris & New York. I knew New York from watching a lot movies. One of my favorite movies was “After Hours”. The Moon Dance Dinner was still there then & I used to set up all my meeting there.

I met a lot of people from that time, who were generous to share with me their stories and each person would lead me to the next. Sometimes I would interview somebody, and they’d say, “hey you should talk to this person,” and then they’d give me a phone number or email address. I let the documentary unfold in that way, kind of organically.

Also, we were lucky to be in NY where there are some great resources like the NYU Fales Library and the Anthology Film Archives, and some people like Alan Moore have these great personal collections. Although there’s very little you can find to read on this period, particularly on the films, I had read Jack Sargeant’s book “Deathtripping” about the Cinema of Transgression filmmaking movement and he appears in my documentary as well. It is funny because as we were working on the film, some books started to come out on the topic like Thurston Moore and Byron Coley’s book on No Wave – mostly books would be more on the music but there’d always be some mention of the films too.

BA-Were you in contact with people like Nick Zedd?
CD- For Nick Zedd I went to his website & sent him an e-mail & I asked him to be interviewed for the film & he said yes! After Jim Jarmusch I was in touch with James Nares so I did an interview with him and he said you should be in touch with Jim Jarmusch! For John Waters I sent him a letter and e-mail and finally he decided to be in the film. For Steve Buscemi I contacted his agent & he agreed right away.

BA- What about James Chance?
CD- He was a musician and was in some of these underground movies (Rome 78 from James Nares, Downtown 81 from Edo Bertoglio).

He is a great musician, and It was very important to have him in my documentary.

At that time. the collaboration was on its peak... and the slogan "Do it Yourself" came to encapsulate the movement.

BA- What inspired you to make a film about the New York underground scene from the 1980's?
CD- My love for the music and cinema of New York's No Wave, together with my frustration with the inaccessibility of its artifacts and arcana, first inspired me to Blank City.

These films were made fast and loose, with little or no budget by a small community doubling as actors and technicians.

The movement was driven by an enthusiasm for narrative, unfashionable in the art films of their contemporaries and by affection for the rawness of early French New Wave forgotten by the ever glossier Hollywood of the late seventies after its flirtation with the auteur earlier that decade.

When I made the documentary, I looked to, first and foremost, the films discussed in BLANK CITY. I really loved the free form style of a lot of these movies, blurring that line between fiction and documentary. James Nares’ Rome ’78 or Eric Mitchell’s Underground USA or Amos Poe The Foreigner really helped me get into that state of mind.

a review of “An Englishman In New York”

BA- Tell us it was like doing the 60's cult film Psych-out with Jack Nicholson?
BD- Before I did Psych-out I’d been around Jack Nicholson way before. This movie I worked just once with them, then I vanished and I go off and they go looking for me. Also great actors Max Julien and Adam Roarke were in the film. They had band members of a rock band. Jack & I had begun with Roger Corman, and then Richard Rush, for a while looked like he was going be a step above Roger Corman. He got bigger budgets and got to work 3 weeks on a movie instead of 1 week. Roger Corman movie you made them in 10 days and with Richard Rush you got 17-20 days & got paid 500,000 & Roger Corman you got about 280,000 to 320,000.

DC- So it was all about the numbers! Dean Stockwell had the greatest line in the movie when he was dying & he said reality is a heavy trip I hope this is a good one!

BA - What brought you guys together to do Golden Boys?
DC- The location Cape Cod. It turned out that we have become blood brothers. The movies that you have seen Bruce Dern in have nothing to do with the person that is Bruce. A completely different guy.

BD- I'm not the  complete sick fuck that I appear to be. I had an advantage with Rip Torn because we both worked for Mr. Cazon. With David Carradine, I always admired David, he was A TV star, movie star and plays on Broadway too. Dan Adams the director created a space to do our work and was not hard on us. The Material itself was about our characters and could we live together or not. Could we make a movie together or not.

BA- How did you create the 1905 era?
DC- we did not create it. Dan created it. We just stepped into it. We had the right costumes on.

BD- one of the surprises of the movie was on Cape Cod. I never expected no Hollywood people, no real New York people & have the costumes, makeup and the props perfect.

BA- how has the film industry changed for you better or for worst.
BD- when I first decided to be an actor I was in Philly and I left college. I never acted in my life and went to a little dramatic night school for 3 week & I realized I had 3 goals 1. go to New York 2. become a member of the actors studio 3. work for Cozan. Now the kids have 3 goals, go to Hollywood, get a star on the bvld. and get to the party. I’m still trying to get to the party!