Dave Kehr wrote a feature on this collection for the Times back in January ... and Kehr summarizes the film nicely:
"News From Home: has a crowded soundtrack consisting of city sounds blended with Ms. Akerman's own voice, reading increasingly imploring letters from her mother back home in Belgium... we gradually become able to infer a story — this time, of a young woman’s growing autonomy and escape from the past.
Like William Friedkin's "French Connection," "News From Home" has, with time, become a documentary on New York in the 1970s. Lingering shots of pre-gentrified downtown neighborhoods, graffiti-slathered subway cars and the little village of shops and stands that once filled the Times Square station now carry a sense of impermanence and inaccessibility, of a world receding into the past, just as notions of "home" have receded for the unseen protagonist.
There's a scene shot in front of Veselka on Second Avenue and Ninth Street... and here are a few screenshots... You can see the St. Marks Cinema marquee in the background...
And here's a clip of this scene...
3 comments:
Wow! My first New York apartment was at 141 Second Avenue between the Meat Market (still in business with the same sign!) and Discount Center (later a Max Brenner, now an HSBC). This is really amazing footage. You can probably see the blurry lights of Ratner's and the Fillmore East in the background.
That's Roy Nathanson, ex-EV superstar, Jazz Passenger, Lounge Lizard, NYC public high school teacher, poet, and all-around nicest guy with a big mustache you'll ever meet. Alas, Roy moved to far Brooklyn a few years ago, after his coop on 7th St. started complaining about saxophone noise. He's the star, oddly enough, of several Chatal Akerman films, including Histoires D'Amerique, IIRC. He also shows up in various Jim Jarmusch film and he wrote the music for Raising Victor Vargus and Camp Stories.
Here's a sweet Brooklyn Rail profile: http://www.brooklynrail.org/2009/09/music/roy-nathanson-the-guy-to-look-at-on-the-subway
Ooops, I should have said "That's Roy, in the second still, on the left."
Post a Comment