Mala Noche (1985)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Audio Commentary-Claire Perkins, Assistant Lecturer in Film & TV, Monash Uni. Interviews-Crew-An Interview with Gus Van Sant Theatrical Trailer-New trailer directed by Gus Van Sant Trailer-Paranoid Park by Gus Van Sant Trailer-Gerry by Gus Van Sant Trailer-Night On Earth by Jim Jarmusch Trailer-Grizzly Man by Werner Herzog
Rating
Year Of Production	1985
Running Time	74:41 (Case: 78)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (67:07)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Gus Van Sant
Studio Distributor	MK2 Productions Madman Entertainment	Starring	Tim Streeter Doug Cooeyate Ray Monge Nyla McCarthy Sam Downey Robert Lee Pitchlynn Eric Pedersen George Conner Don Chambers Walt Curtis Conde Benavides Cristo Stoyos Matt Cooeyate
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Peter Dammann Karen Kitchen Creighton Lindsay

Before Gus Van Sant brought us mainstream fare such as Good Will Hunting and Milk, he was busy developing his craft on smaller budget films such as Drugstore Cowboy and his debut feature, Mala Noche. Well, strictly speaking, Alice in Hollywood would be his first film that he tried to distribute in 1981, but it was cut down from 90 minutes to 45 minutes and in Van Sant's words, "it was a comedy that wasn't funny". Consequently, he couldn't get a distribution deal. Mala Noche is an adaptation of Walt Curtis' novella of the same name chronicling his experiences with two Mexican illegal immigrants he got to know in his hometown, Portland, Oregon in the late 1970s.

Portland, Oregon is the setting of Van Sant's first four films: Mala Noche, Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho and Even Cowgirls get the Blues. All these films deal with familiar Van Sant themes such as stories that focus on marginalised characters, atypical families and unrequited love. Mala Noche (or Bad Night in English) certainly contains these themes. It was shot with Van Sant's own money that he saved up while working in an advertising agency for two years, $20000 (or $25000 depending on the source). The film was completed after a month-long shoot, using six cast and crew: Tim Streeter as Walt, Doug Cooeyate as Johnny, Ray Monge as Roberto/Pepper, Cameraman John Campbell, Sound Recordist Pat Baum and Director (and all the other left over production jobs!) Gus Van Sant. Supporting actors where used as needed when the budget could cater for it.

    The low budget explains why the film was shot in black-and-white with a stylised look. Cameraman John Campbell used his own spotlights and one soft light to shoot the film. Walt Curtis, the autobiographical author of the novella Mala Noche, from which Gus Van Sant adapted a 500 page storyboard concept over 2 years prior to making the film, is referred to by Van Sant as a beatnik poet, hence the rhythmical dialogue employed by Tim Streeter throughout the film, especially during his voiceover narrative sequences.

    Mala Noche is not a straightforward narrative with a self-contained plot in three acts like a standard Hollywood feature. You will get a lot more out of the film after you've viewed it a few times. Walt has a genuine empathy towards the two illegal Mexican immigrants, Johnny and Roberto throughout the film, it's just that these two marginalised characters have ended up in Portland, Oregon and maybe they should be heading for Idaho (a Van Sant metaphor for Heaven). Walt mentions this fact in the film, and Van Sant explored this Utopian theme further in his subsequent films after Mala Noche in Drugstore Cowboy starring Matt Dillon and My Own Private Idaho starring Keanu Reeves and the late River Phoenix.

Video

    Mala Noche was shot on a small budget with a skeleton crew. The stylised night-time scenes where characters are frequently shot in shadow, darkness or in spotlight was due to cameraman John Campbell utitlising only three spotlights and one softlight during the shoot. Mala Noche was also shot using handheld cameras onto 16mm film. Therefore, Mala Noche cannot be compared to modern 35mm or digital films.

    The aspect ratio of the film is 1:33:1 fullscreen. It is not 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions.

    I was genuinely surprised, for a film shot on a low budget with 16mm film, that the transfer was reasonably sharp and did not contain low level noise. The average bitrate for the film is 7.46mb/sec, although the film hovers mostly around 9mb/sec. Mk2 Productions, the same French independent film company that undertook restoration work on Charlie Chaplin's and Buster Keaton's films, may have cleaned up the transfer, as the same transfer appears on the Criterion Collection Region 1 release from 2007.

    Mala Noche was shot in black-and-white due to budgetary reasons. There are some colour scenes in the film, around the 21:00 mark and also during the end credits.

    MPEG artefacts are extensive, but minor, even though the film contains many instances of lines across the image and dirt and dust. Having witnessed on Fritz Lang's M and Buster Keaton's The General what is involved in digitally restoring film that has extensive film artefacts, I can understand why Mk2 productions and/or The Criterion Collection in America did not undertake digital restoration on the film, after all, unlike M or The General, Mala Noche is not yet a historical cornerstone of cinema or a candidate for the National Film Registry (a film body in the USA that nominates 25 films are year to preserve). Specific instances of film artefacts occur at 2:16, 4:07, 8:59, 9:29, 11:16, 14:58, 15:31, 16:32, 17:37, 22:16, 22:39, 25:06, 28:15, 28:30, 33:25, 34:42, 37:40, 37:43, 37:59, 40:11, 40:41, 40:58, 41:11, 41:39, 43:12, 46:14, 48:59, 58:41, 58:55, 59:51, 60:48, 62:11, 63:07, 65:38, 67:08, 67:15, 67:30 and 68:30. There is a reel change mark at 28:56. There is a black line at the top of the image from 54:48 - 55:48. White lines form across the image at 53:36 - 54:01, 62:19 - 63:05 and 68:43 - 68:57.

    Subtitles are burned in, used sparingly when the Mexican characters speak in Spanish, which is not often. Otherwise, the film has no optional subtitles.

    RSDL change occurs at 67:07. This is during a dark scene, so it's not too noticeable.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Sound was recorded by Pat Baum. The movie opens with a mellow acoustic guitar and piano accompaniment, and this is the main musical theme used during the film.

    There are two audio soundtracks. The first is an English track with occasional Spanish dialogue, the second is an audio commentary track. Both soundtracks are Dolby Digital 2.0 encoded at 224kbps.

    Dialogue is clear but not synchronised as Doug Cooeyate, who plays the Mexican immigrant, Johnny could not speak any Spanish, so his dialogue was dubbed in post-production by Arturo Torres. There are a few other examples were audio has been re-dubbed in post-production during the film.

    Background music varies throughout the film. Apart from the main acoustic guitar and piano folk accompaniment, there is also Mexican folk music, jazz percussion effects, a classical choral piece, Silent Night played to the sound of church bells and even a scene where a traditional Greek folk song is sung. With the theme of the film centering on the identification of the two young Mexican immigrants, and Walt (and the audience's) struggle to get to know them, it perhaps is not surprising that Van Sant opted to include a lot of distinct folk music in the soundtrack to the film.

    There is no surround channel usage as the Dolby Digital 2.0 track is in mono.

    The Subwoofer is not utilised on this soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Audio Commentary - by Claire Perkins, Assistant Lecturer in Film and Television, Monash University

Interviews-Crew - No Cutting, No Stars, No Script:An Interview with Gus Van Sant (26:03)

Van Sant discusses his unsuccessful debut film, Alice in Hollywood, the original Walt Curtis novella of Mala Noche and it's adaptation into storyboards, the two-and-a-half year commitment to save $20000 to make the movie, the skeleton crew and resources, shooting "on-the-fly" and continuity, comparisons to the Dogme95 movement (see my review on Thomas Vinterberg's Festen for more information on this late 1990s filmmaking movement) and finally the themes of the film. From the way that Van Sant discusses Mala Noche you can tell that the film is special to him, motivating him to somewhat parody it's style and themes in his recent works such as Elephant and Paranoid Park.

Theatrical Trailer

Mala Noche has been released in Region 1 (USA) by the Criterion Collection. That version contains the following which is not on the Region 4 Australian Directors Suite Release:

* Walt Curtis, the Peckerneck Poet: a documentary about the author of the book Mala Noche, directed by animator and friend Bill Plympton.

* Gus Van Sant's original storyboard gallery.

* An essay by film critic Dennis Lim.

The Region 4 Directors Suite release contains the following not on the Region 1 Criterion Collection release:

* Audio commentary by Claire Perkins, Assistant Lecturer in Film and Television, Monash University.

Personally, I would rather have an audio commentary rather that a 1 hour feature on the writer of Mala Noche, Walt Curtis. Overall, the extras balance themselves out and therefore I would call it a draw.

    For many years, Mala Noche was an unknown debut feature film of Gus Van Sant's that was not widely known because it was not available on DVD. The 2007 Region 1 Criterion Collection and 2008 Region 4 Madman Directors Suite releases has allowed this independent feature to be viewed by audiences familiar with Van Sant's later works.

    In academic circles, the film is seen as a pioneer of the Queer Cinema movement of the 1990s, however, Mala Noche should be seen more as an example of the themes that Van Sant's explores in his films such as the study of marginalised characters, atypical families or student/mentor relationships. These themes can be found in nearly all his films. Mala Noche represents another quality release from Madman's Directors Suite label.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall