World Famous Comics: Mala Noche - Criterion Collection
Mala Noche - Criterion Collection
Starring: Tim Streeter, Ray Monge, Doug Cooeyate, Sam Downey, Nyla McCarthy Directed By: Gus Van Sant Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD Format: Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC Label: Criterion Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: October 09, 2007 Running Time: 78 minutes Theatrical Release Date: 1986
Description: With its low budget and lush black-and-white imagery, Gus Van Sant's debut feature Mala Noche heralded an idiosyncratic, provocative new voice in American independent film. Set in Van Sant's hometown of Portland, Oregon, the film evokes a world of transient workers, dead-end day-shifters, and bars and seedy apartments bathed in a profound nighttime, as it follows a romantic deadbeat with a wayward crush on a handsome Mexican immigrant. Mala Noche was an important prelude to the New Queer Cinema of the nineties and is a fascinating time capsule from a time and place that continues to haunt its director's work.
Amazon.com: The first thing that strikes you about Mala Noche is the raw, beautiful cinematography--a high-contrast black-and-white that captures the gutters of Portland, OR, like the setting of a long-lost film noir. Next, you'll be struck that the narrator, a convenience clerk named Walt (Tim Streeter), rhapsodizes about his love for a young Mexican hustler named Johnny (Doug Cooeyate) without guilt or fear--perhaps reflecting the rare occasion of a movie by an openly gay filmmaker (Gus Van Sant, making his feature film debut) based on an openly gay autobiographical story (by Portland poet Walt Curtis). Though the movie doesn't have much of a plot--basically, Walt alternately tries to woo Johnny and his friend Roberto Pepper (Ray Monge), gaining little more than a suspicious, combative friendship and some fervid but isolated sex--but the rough but engaging flavor of the storytelling gives the movie momentum and a rich charm. The Criterion edition features two splendid extras: First, a low-key, unpretentious interview with Van Sant (who notes that the movie had the spontaneous and low-tech spirit of the Dogme 95 movement, though made several years earlier); and a ramshackle, pugnacious documentary by Portland-born animator Bill Plympton (I Married a Strange Person!) about Walt Curtis, who proclaims himself a "jerk-off poet therapist." If there is a Portland aesthetic, this compilation captures it. --Bret Fetzer
mala noche excellent, a prelude to his next great film the black and white film is wonderfully eerie
Very original My only complaint is that the movie is in black & white. But very original and honest portrayal of illegal immigrants, gay issues & so forth. I live in Mexico and I was suprised how much on-target the character portrayals were.
beautiful, and moving film I picked up this movie not knowing what to expect....and boy am I glad I did a very moving and beautiful film....the films black and white concept is what makes it really work..had me thinking long after I finished watching it. Gus Van Saint was way a head of his time...deff one of my fav films now...if i could i would give this 10 stars....take notice hollywood this is a movie...not that Broke Back Mountain crap......excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!
Very interesting early effort by van sant mala noche is a very good example of low budget film at its best.. it is absolutely gorgeous black and white cinemetography and it takes on material that most directors would probably shy away from... Based on a book of the same title it really maintains a unique beat inspired flavor and brilliantly captures the longing that the main character feels.. It is very rough edged but that is part of its charm.. This is the first example of a truly gifted and unique director... I have recently heard people talking about the racism in this movie... but please don't make the mistake of thinking the film is racist just because a character in it has these particular tendencies... so often artists are criticized for this when in fact they are telling a story... it is clear that the main character in this movie has certain cultural views that i for one would disagree with but the movie does not really show this in a positive light so much as just show it.. and who can say that realism is offensive?
Early Van Zant "Mala Noche"
Early Van Zant
Amos Lassen
"Mala Noche" is Gus Van Zant's first feature film and it gives a hint of what the director will later give us in his movies. Made on a very tight budget, it is a wry and perceptive look at obsession and unrequited lust. Shot in black and white, the film looks at Portland, Oregon's skid row where handsome but cynical Walt (Tim Streeter) passes time by selling cheap wine to panhandlers. Walt had something for Latinos and he eventually becomes both fascinated by and infatuated with Johnny, a 16 year old illegal immigrant who is at times friendly and at other times abusive. Walt becomes frustrated that Johnny will not have sex with him so he becomes a sex toy for Johnny's handsome friend, Roberto. This is one of the films that have come to define what we call New Queer Cinema. Visually, even with its graininess, the movie is special. Van Zant waxes lyrical and his highly romantic style that he used here for the first time has gone on to become one of his trademarks. Almost as soon as the film begins, we can feel the danger in Walt's longing but his lust so consumes him that he is unable to resist. Using the themes of desperation and the power of sexuality and emotion, the film takes the viewers and the characters on a journey down the road of unnerving behavior and instability. The sub-culture of illegal immigrants which includes both immigration authorities and the will to stay alive gives us an atmosphere that these are the rules that life must be played by. The male immigrants act with reckless abandon and they are sexually unavailable. Because they are so overtly masculine, Walt finds them that much more alluring and he is even willing to pay to have sex just to get a small f taste of what these men are like. The movie actually tells two separate stories--one the lust of Walt for Johnny and the other is the story of Portland and the randomness of life. Portland is no more than a small town that has outgrown itself. It has a seamy underside with many people barely eking out an existence. Van Zant looks at the marginalized people of the city and shows how they differ from everyone else. The movie seems to be set in that period of time known as twilight which can also describe a state of mind and it seems to be a fragment of a larger existence. The acting is excellent. Streeter gives a brilliant portrayal of Walt and beautifully shows how he is a victim of his own desire. Walt's delusion is amiable and funny. All is not perfect here, however. There are moments of confusion and randomness and of tragedy but every shot of the camera is crafted with delicacy and style and any inconsistencies eventually work themselves out. Van Zant as an openly gay man has been honest about his sexuality yet this is his only feature with an overtly gay storyline, Both "My Own Private Idaho" and his segment in "Paris Je Taime" allude to a gay subplot but "Mala Noche" delvers one with no apology. The movie depicts everything with realism and the movie gives us an ethereal beauty not often seen in cinema.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tailipoe
Trevor
