#407: VAN SANT, Gus: Mala Noche (1985)
VAN SANT, Gus (United States)
Mala Noche [1985]
Spine #407
DVD
DVD
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 an era that continues to haunt the director's work.
78 minutes
Black & White/Color
Black & White/Color
Monaural
in English and Spanish
1:33:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2007
Director/Writer
Gus Van Sant was 33 when he wrote and directed Mala Noche.
Other Van Sant films in the Collection:
#1251: Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
#277: My Own Private Idaho (1991)
#1213: To Die For (1995)
The Film
Other Van Sant films in the Collection:
#1251: Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
#277: My Own Private Idaho (1991)
#1213: To Die For (1995)
The Film
A gay-themed film without a hint of artifice, Van Sant’s debut is striking for what it isn’t, as much as for what it is.
It isn’t corny, it isn’t overly stylized and it isn’t the least bit pompous or overblown.
Tim Streeter (why did he give up acting? He’s so good here) is Walt, a discriminating dude in northwest Portland where the disenfranchised seem better off than they would be in New York or L.A.
But perhaps that’s an illusion. Walt — who works behind the counter at the corner bodega — is a good soul, easily bantering with the down-and-out customers who come in for their Pall Malls and malt liquor. One guy asks for credit, and Walt throws out one of his many one-liners:
“Credit is like sex … some get it and some don’t.”
But it’s love at first sight when he spots Johnny (Doug Cooeyate), who repels all of Walt’s advances. Walt settles for second-best when he spends the night with Roberto “Pepper” (Ray Monge), Johnny’s hot-headed companion.
The rest is loosely plotted; shit happens — the title tells you the nature of what the night portends.
Film Rating (0-60):
The Booklet
Sixteen-page booklet featuring an essay by Dennis Lim.
53
The ExtrasThe Booklet
Sixteen-page booklet featuring an essay by Dennis Lim.
“An unabashedly romantic blast of beatnik lyricism, filmed in the inkiest black-and-white chiaroscuro and soundtracked to languid alt-country arpeggios, Mala Noche nevertheless maintains an unsentimental clarity when it comes to its central relationships. Walt, Johnny, and Pepper form a triangle of thwarted and displaced desire, a diagram of mutual need and exploitation. Each one plays his designated role in the social and sexual economy. Practically every interaction is a transaction.”
Commentary
None.
Video interview
With Van Sant.
7-Up signage is seen throughout the film. They must have contributed a few bucks, because Van Sant is wearing one of their jackets for this interview.
He seems rightly proud of this, his debut feature. He learned to write from reading AFI scripts; out of his 17 films to date, he’s written nine.
His biggest hit was Goodwill Hunting (1997), which he did not write. He followed that up with a shot-for-shot remake of Psycho (1998) — why? It bombed, of course.
He recovered with Finding Forrester (2000), a film about the influence of J.D. Salinger on a young black teenager. The box office was decent.
Walt Curtis: The Peckerneck Poet
A documentary about the author of the book Mala Noche, directed by animator and Curtis friend Bill Plympton.
A documentary about the author of the book Mala Noche, directed by animator and Curtis friend Bill Plympton.
Curtis was set to play himself in the film at one point. Van Sant wisely declined. Streeter portrays Walt with passion and fire, but Curtis is just plain bouncing-off-the-walls, by the looks of this doc.
Storyboard gallery
Original trailer
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