VCI Entertainment has an ultra-rare New Year treat that cinema buffs and film fans; the curious will savor simply for what it is, an indie arthouse flick; avant-garde if you will, that was an experiment about a “new” medium.
Making its DVD debut on Jan. 24 is director Victor Stoloff’s 1973 film Why, starring none other than OJ Simpson (pre-Towering Inferno … filmed during his downtime while at the height of his career with the Buffalo Bills), who is joined by Jeannie Berlin (Oscar-nominee for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The Heartbreak Kid), Linda Gillen (Terror at Red Wolf Inn), Danny Goldman (The Strawberry Statement, The World’s Greatest Athlete, Young Frankenstein), Tim Buckley and Herb Goldberg as the psychiatrist leading the group sessions (that was his actual profession).
So what is so special about Why? Technicolor wanted to see if their new video process could be used to film (quickly and cheaply) a production, edited it and then “bumped” up it to 35mm for exhibition. Dig out your copy of Boogie Nights and revisit it to see what the adult film industry did with this process.
To make sure that they would get something of a high technical standard, they asked four-time Oscar-nominee Lee Garmes (winner for Best Cinematography for Shanghai Express) to be the cinematographer. The film was shot on a set constructed at Technicolor.
For weeks leading up to the filming, the actors went through rehearsals at a mock group session, improvising all of their dialog, their backstories, etc. and when finally-ready … they set up shop at Technicolor and shot the “group sessions” that they had been working on.
For years, Why was considered to be lost. A footnote to cinematic history, however VCI Entertainment has unearthed what appears to be the only surviving 35mm print of the film and now, on Jan. 24, it will be available for all to see!
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