#850: GARFEIN, Jack: Something Wild (1961)

GARFEIN, Jack (United States)
Something Wild [1961]
Spine #850
Blu-ray

A complex exploration of the physical and emotional effects of trauma, Something Wild stars Carroll Baker, in a layered performance, as a college student who attempts suicide after a brutal sexual assault but is stopped by a mechanic (Ralph Meeker) — whose kindness, however, soon takes an unsettling turn. Startingly modern in its frankness and psychological realism, the film represents one of the purest on-screen expressions of the sensibility of the intimate community of artists around New York's Actors Studio, which transformed American cinema in the mid-twentieth century. With astonishing location and claustrophobic interior photography by Eugen Schüfftan, an opening-title sequence by the inimitable Saul Bass, and a rhythmic score by Aaron Copland, Jack Garfein's film is a masterwork of independent cinema.

113 minutes

Black & White
Monaural
1:66:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2017

Not to be confused with the film with the same title: #563

Director/Writers

Garfein (left)

Based on the novel Mary Ann by Alex Karmel.

Screenplay by Jack Garfein and Karmel.

Garfein was 31 when he directed Something Wild.

The Film

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Twelve-page wraparound featuring an essay by critic Sheila O’Malley.

Commentary

None.

Conversation

Between Garfein and critic Kim Morgan.

Interview

With actor Baker.

Behind the Method

An interview with scholar Foster Hirsch on the Actors Studio.

Master Class with Jack Garfein

Excerpts from a 2014 recording of one of the director’s world-famous lectures on acting technique.

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

99

By Director
By Spine #