Review No.96: Blank City

A while ago on the blog I reviewed a documentary that looked at the work of Roger Corman which showed  how he'd given a start to fledgling directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Jonathan Demme and Ron Howard. Blank City looks at how a place rather than a man gave a start to a group of artists, musicians and directors that place being New York in the 1970s and 1980s. The blank generation, as they are dubbed in this film, created a genre of films known as 'No Wave' which was also a musical movement led by such acts as The Contortions and Sonic Youth. The directors of these films lived in and out of each other's lofts in the Upper East Side and Alphabet City creating art that represented how they felt. A lot of the directors featured in Blank City talk about how they had little money and would often shoot a film until they ran out of cash or until the movie was finished in addition there was talk of people borrowing Super 8 cameras from film schools while going so far as to break into someone's house to film a particular scene. According to Blank City the film that really catapulted the movement was Amos Poe's Unmade Beds which in turn influenced a lot of the No Wave directors most notably Jim Jarmusch whose first films Permanent Vacation and Stranger than Paradise were both seen as major works of this culture. The film looked at where these artists would hang out together including the rock club CBGBs and the New Cinema which would help these directors to start getting money from their films. As No Wave cinema got into its latter stages it became more extreme as directors tried to push the boundaries, one film in particular saw a man make love to himself before committing suicide, leading to some movies getting negative reactions before they were even viewed. Finally Blank City tells us that what killed the movement off was the rise of MTV as a way for underground music to be viewed as well as the economy as property in these areas became harder to afford.

I do think that Corman's World and Blank City would make a good double bill however the latter film features less success stories with most of these directors and performers reliving their glory days by giving interviews here. As well as Jarmusch the only successful no waavearists who went on to have a signifcant career in the industry were Steve Buscemi and Desperately Seeking Susan director Susan Seidleman however there was an indication that these films had also directly influenced the work of Spike Lee. What I liked about Celine Danhier's film was the way that it quickly intercut between film clips and talking heads to give us a real idea of how fast life was moving for this so called Blank Generation. Like with the Corman documentary some of these films look really cheap and badly acted however in many ways it helped those involved to better their abilities and hone their craft. What I really got a sense of though was what it was like to live in New York at that time with the music, the atmosphere and of course the films, Dahnier goes out of her way to make this as explicit as possible. My problem with the film, which isn't necessarily the director's fault, is that at times I found it awfully smug like the majority of those involved were using it as an excuse to give themselves a pat on the back. Sure they were part of something special but they certainly are aware of it and some of them seem to want to take as much credit as possible for influencing some of today's independent film directors. So while I did enjoy the sense of nostalgia that this film invokes the central problem with it is that most of the talking heads are still wrapped up in their youth thinking they contributed more to culture than they actually did. The film ends with the line 'forget about the past and bring on the future', something most of those involved should've been told before taking part in Blank City.

Verdict: An interesting look at a culturally diverse chapter in New York history is spoilt by a number of interviews with people who are too self-involved to be likeable so because of this I can only award Blank City a 6.5/10