THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 26, 1996 TAG: 9603260030
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Craig Shapiro
LENGTH: Long : 136 lines
A FRIEND HERE at work, a gifted artist captivated by ``Crumb'' when it played at the Naro, reacted unexpectedly when told it was coming out on video. ``I don't know,'' he said. ``It's too painful to sit through again.''
Terry Zwigoff, who spent nine years making the documentary about his best friend, underground cartoonist R. Crumb, understands. He got the same response when he was trying to drum up backing for the project.
``I just said, `Jesus, do you have to have Brad Pitt here?'' Zwigoff said from his San Francisco home. ``The first person to like it was (director) David Lynch. All the other people hated it. They thought it was very nasty and negative and depressing and dark and twisted.
``Yeah, but it was still good. It's not without its sad aspects, but it's ultimately entertaining, funny and uplifting.''
``Crumb'' (Columbia TriStar, 1995) also is brilliant. It finished 1995 on more than 75 Top 10 lists. The New Yorker, Boston Globe and Miami Herald named it the best film of the year.
Zwigoff didn't set out with that kind of ambitions.
``I wasn't out to make a film about the career of R. Crumb, even though that may be what it is on some level,'' he said. ``To me, it was more important to tell what I thought was a great story about these three eccentric brothers and not distort it. It wasn't until I met Max and Charles that I even thought about making a film about them.''
Max meditates daily on a bed of nails while toying with a bullet. The oil paintings stacked around his seedy hotel room are museum quality.
Had he not withdrawn as a teenager, Charles might have been a better cartoonist than Robert, who gave a disenchanted generation Messrs. Natural and Snoid, White Man and Fritz the Cat. Heavily medicated for depression, Charles lived the last 30-odd years of his life rarely venturing out of his room in the dark, squalid home he shared with his strung-out mother. He took his life before ``Crumb'' was completed.
Robert, for all his aberations and accusations that he's a pornographer and racist (neither of which is valid), is at least able to function. He even comes off as compassionate, a lost soul overwhelmed by the modern world.
OK, it's not ``My Three Sons.'' Maybe that's why ``Crumb,'' as much a valentine as an exploration of the creative process, resonates so profoundly.
``A lot of reaction to the film, even though it was overwhelmingly positive, a lot of it would be talking about the family in a way that made them sound very pathetic,'' Zwigoff said. `` `Dysfunctional' was a word I always heard. I can't argue that Charles was dysfunctional, but does that make him less interesting or valuable as a human being than someone like Michael Ovitz or Donald Trump, who sit around making deals all day?
``People infer that dysfunctional is a very negative thing. I can't make that judgment because I spent a lot of my life just sitting in chair staring out the window, thinking how absurd it is to try and do anything.
``I can relate to Charles in that bedroom and that dilemma. I came very close to that life myself.''
Robert Crumb left the States after the film was released, trading a case of sketchbooks for a home in a remote village in the south of France, where he lives with his wife and daughter. But contrary to popular misconception, Zwigoff said, he and Crumb didn't have a falling out.
Last year, they reunited the Cheap Suit Serenaders, a Dixieland band, and did a brief tour of Belgium and The Netherlands.
``I think he accepted the film as pretty accurate, but he wasn't very happy that it was so successful and seen by so many people. He expected it to be shown at film festivals for a week, then play the art houses and disappear.
``It's hard for him because he doesn't want to be more famous.''
Videomatic says: A+ (RATED: R for Crumb's drawings, language, brief nudity; 119 mins.)
ODDS & ENDS: Trust FoxVideo. ``The X-Files'' makes its video debut with six uncut episodes from the premiere season of TV's coolest show. They're packaged on three tapes - each including an intro by creator Chris Carter and special collector's cards ($14.98).
``Inherit the Wind,'' ``Judgment at Nuremberg,'' ``12 Angry Men'' and ``Witness for the Prosecution'' are the first titles in MGM/UA's Vintage Classics series ($19.98).
The beat goes on. MPI follows last year's tres fun ``Hullabaloo'' box with four more tapes from the '60s music series ($19.98, $79.98 for the set). MPI also has a title of local interest. ``Thomas Jefferson: A View From the Mountain'' examines his dilemma over the issues of racial equality and slavery ($29.98).
The word from Robyn
Is it just me or is the bone-chilling ``Seven'' a nightmarishly extremist version of the perennial children's favorite ``Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory''? In support of my theory, I offer these startling parallels:
``Seven'' follows the trail of an egomaniacal, intellectual, imaginative serial killer. Willy is introduced to us as egomaniacal, intellectual and imaginative.
The bad guy in ``Seven'' uses the seven deadly sins to devise elaborate, poetic punishments for his victims. In ``Willy Wonka,'' an overweight boy is swept away in a river of chocolate (gluttony), a spoiled brat goes out with the rejects instead of her beloved golden eggs (greed) and a prepubescent girl with an oral fixation is turned into a ripened berry as she wantonly chews experimental gum (lust?).
You get the idea. Someone involved with the story conception for ``Seven'' was deeply scarred - or inspired - by one Willy Wonka.
The Couch Report
``Seven'' (New Line, 1995). A weary veteran detective and his brash young partner track a serial killer whose M.O. is the seven deadly sins. David Fincher (``Alien3'') charges his unrelenting thriller with mood and tension - it's either raining or the action is bathed in shadows. But it gets its drive from the rich, fully realized characters created by Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt. You come away caring about them. Videomatic says: A
(CAST: Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow. RATED: R for mostly off-screen violence, language; 127 mins.)
``Mallrats'' (MCA/Universal, 1995). Big bucks and a broader story line take some of the edge off Kevin Smith's follow-up to ``Clerks.'' Still, the pieces are here: his crude ear for dialogue and skewed, unarguable insights; even Jay and Silent Bob. When they get dumped, T.S. and Brodie hang at the mall. Smith considers all the possibilities, then adds a few. Videomatic says: B-
(CAST: Jeremy London, Jason Lee, Shannen Doherty, Claire Forlani. RATED: R for language, nudity, mild violence; 96 mins.)
``Theremin - An Electronic Odyssey'' (Orion, 1995). In 1920, Leon Theremin created electronic music with his self-named marvel. With insights from Robert Moog, Brian Wilson and virtuoso Clara Rockmore, and illustrative film scores, the documentary explains how the Theremin is played - without being touched. Theremin's life was just as fascinating. Credit writer-director Steven M. Martin with some fine detective work. Videomatic says: B+
(RATED: PG for language; 84 mins.)
``Delta of Venus'' (New Line, 1995). Since no one rents a Zalmon King flick for the plot, the fact that this one's about a gal in pre World War II Paris who unlocks her erotic self by writing saucy stories is incidental. But when the skin gets repetitive, check the dialogue. It's a riot. Videomatic says: D
(CAST: Audie England, Costas Mandylor, Eric da Silva. UNRATED: NC-17ish nudity and situations, language; 101 mins. Also R-rated.)
Next Tuesday: ``Devil in a Blue Dress,'' ``Strange Days,'' ``Balto,'' ``Persuasion,'' ``Ring of Bright Water,'' ``Home for the Holidays'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by TOM BALLINGER/Sony Pictures
Terry Zwigoff, left, spent nine years documenting the life of
underground cartoonist Robert Crumb, right, and his family.
by CNB