No
Wave filmmaker Amos Poe is the focus of a
three-DVD product launch by MVD Entertainment Group on Aug. 11.
These three — virtually unseen “experimental” films
from the late 1970s and into the early 1980s — are from No Wave director Amos Poe, who would go on to direct Alphabet
City and deliver the script for director Daniel
Petrie’s 1988 film release of Rocket Gibraltar.
What makes these films unique is that he was working
with a young talent by the name of Debbie Harry, who would shortly explode upon
the music scene as Blondie.
These are cinefile films; arthouse films … films
that have a very select audience, which is fine. In a nation of 330 million people, there are
lots and lots of niches to fill. And
for the curious, these are certainly worth a look-see. For
fans of Blondie, this is a no-brainer.
The first, chronologically-speaking, is Poe’s 1976
film, Unmade Beds,
starring — and we use “starring” loosely in a traditional sense — Duncan Hannah
as a New York City denizen who fancies himself a photographer “living abroad,”
which translates to maybe Paris. He
stalks the city, taking pictures, which is a metaphor for something a little
more sinister.
In any case, he meets and falls in love with an
exotic beauty by the name of Blondie (yes, Debbie Harry) and things go south
from there.
The next film in this No Wave series from MVD Entertainment Group is Poe’s follow-up, The
Foreigner, which features another
alienated individual, Max Menace (Eric Mitchell, who was also in Poe’s Unmade
Beds … he too would go on to become a filmmaker,
directing such films as Underground U.S.A. and The Way
it Is).
As the story develops, we learn that Max Menace has
arrived from Europe (which is never really clear, exactly where … which is not
necessary) and he fancies himself a secret agent. He must make contact with someone he does
not know to get his assignment, so this requires him to wander about the city
in search of that person.
He will cross paths with Dee Trik (Debbie Harry) and
other odd characters as he awaits his assignment. As with Unmade
Beds, The
Foreigner is about alienation and being
alone; adrift in New York City.
Lastly, Amos Poe’s Subway
Riders arrived in 1981, by this time Debbie Harry
and Blondie had hit Platinum status with the release of the “Eat to the Beat”
album in October of 1979, so her early film career with Amos Poe had come to an
end.
In any case, we are introduced to an individual only
known as “The Saxophonist” (John Lurie — Stranger
Than Paradise, Paris, Texas, Wild at Heart,
etc.) who acts like a Pied Piper, by playing his saxophone down dark alleys …
the curious drawn to the music are gunned down.
And yes, that is Robbie Coltrane (who is perhaps
best known to contemporary audiences as Rubeus Hagrid from the Harry
Potter film series) in his first “starring” role as
Detective Fritz Langley. Another
familiar “face” in Poe’s Subway Riders is
none other than Susan Tyrrell (Oscar-nominated for her performance in Fat City,
plus such films as Forbidden Zone, Cry-Baby and Big Top
Pee-wee).
Also of note, MVD Entertainment Group has
documentary filmmaker Marco Porsia’s Where
Does a Body End? ready for a Blu-ray launch on
Sept. 11, which takes a look at the early No
Wave music scene in New York City as embodied by Michael Gira and his rock
group, Swans.
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