Just watched the film, phoned the distributor (where I learned the film "is" fiction), read the reviews on this website, and feel happy to be the first in five years to comment on this masterpiece.
What an experience--especially thinking it was "real" and made by one person as a documentary. "Peeping Tom" (on U.K. 100) could have easily found inspiration from this film, as could have "Sherman's March". The earlier masterpiece, "A Man With A Movie Camera" (from Russia) contains hints of where Jim McBride's search for "truth at 24 frames a second" may have first popped up. Since none of these films find listing in the recommendations section for this film, I'll add them here and there.
OK, a few words about this father of fakeumentaries itself. So far ahead of it's time that it duplicates, at times, the life of a present day blogger, this film also historically depicts real-life New York, its citizens, and the media overlay placed upon the populace as the Vietnam War raged like a mental wildfire in the consciousness of millions of those citizens and media figures. There is a rage here, centered around David's (Kit Carson) relationship with Penny, and how her anger at David filming her finally let's her find a reason to break off an obviously one-sided relationship--and David's mild obsession with Sandra who lives "one floor above him" across the street. The two women counterpoint each other as David knows Penny too well and Sandra not a all. And all these metaphors, all the emotions played with in this film, also metaphor the Vietnam War and its effect on individual Americans, especially of draft age. I could go on and on along those lines, but will let it go at this. I'd suggest a viewing of this film, and show it to someone who doesn't know it's a work of 'fiction', and share with them, once again, "truth at 24 frames a second".
What an experience--especially thinking it was "real" and made by one person as a documentary. "Peeping Tom" (on U.K. 100) could have easily found inspiration from this film, as could have "Sherman's March". The earlier masterpiece, "A Man With A Movie Camera" (from Russia) contains hints of where Jim McBride's search for "truth at 24 frames a second" may have first popped up. Since none of these films find listing in the recommendations section for this film, I'll add them here and there.
OK, a few words about this father of fakeumentaries itself. So far ahead of it's time that it duplicates, at times, the life of a present day blogger, this film also historically depicts real-life New York, its citizens, and the media overlay placed upon the populace as the Vietnam War raged like a mental wildfire in the consciousness of millions of those citizens and media figures. There is a rage here, centered around David's (Kit Carson) relationship with Penny, and how her anger at David filming her finally let's her find a reason to break off an obviously one-sided relationship--and David's mild obsession with Sandra who lives "one floor above him" across the street. The two women counterpoint each other as David knows Penny too well and Sandra not a all. And all these metaphors, all the emotions played with in this film, also metaphor the Vietnam War and its effect on individual Americans, especially of draft age. I could go on and on along those lines, but will let it go at this. I'd suggest a viewing of this film, and show it to someone who doesn't know it's a work of 'fiction', and share with them, once again, "truth at 24 frames a second".