Baadasssss!

Started by mutinyco, April 22, 2004, 11:18:24 PM

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mutinyco

Check it out. It's a little uneven, but it's also probably the most inspiring film of the year so far. Mario Van Peebles plays his father Melvin. It's about Melvin making Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. All indie filmmakers should see it.
"I believe in this, and it's been tested by research: he who fucks nuns will later join the church."

-St. Joe

pete

sweet sweet back wasn't a very good movie, not even in a 70s blaxpoitation kinda way.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

mutinyco

Maybe not. But it was THE FIRST.
"I believe in this, and it's been tested by research: he who fucks nuns will later join the church."

-St. Joe

pete

nope.  ever heard of cotton comes to harlem?
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

mutinyco

They were made at basically the same time. It would be like saying Last House On the Left initiated 1970s low-budget horror, when The Texas Chain Saw Massacre would be pointed to by others. You have to respect how movies were made and the gradual manner in which they were released at the time. Especially indies. If you'd like to get technical by saying Cotton has a release of 1970, while Baadasssss was 1971, fine. But considering my point about it being a great example, in the new movie, of indie filmmaking, it WAS the biggest indie of 1971. And to push matters a step further, Ossie Davis, who directed Cotton, appears in Baadasssss! as Melvin Van Peebles' father.

Whether you like the 1971 film or not, this is a recommendation of the new film about its making.
"I believe in this, and it's been tested by research: he who fucks nuns will later join the church."

-St. Joe

Satcho9

I caught this flick at the Philly Film Fest. Got to meet Melvin and Mario Van Peebles. Very cool guys. The movie is also very entertaining and is a worthwhile flick to catch.

MacGuffin

"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

mutinyco

I'm putting this higher up, because it deserves more buzz.
"I believe in this, and it's been tested by research: he who fucks nuns will later join the church."

-St. Joe

pete

it's one of the featured films on this month's american cinematographer.  pretty cool!
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

mutinyco

If you get to see it at a press screening, it has great press notes. Mario Van Peebles wrote an epic account of his experiences.
"I believe in this, and it's been tested by research: he who fucks nuns will later join the church."

-St. Joe

mutinyco

Van Peebles as Van Peebles: Sweet Sweetback's Funhouse Mirror

By CARYN JAMES

Published: May 9, 2004

HERE may be more explosive movies this summer, but none more likely to make your head spin than "Baadasssss!," Mario van Peebles's story of how his father, Melvin Van Peebles, wrote, produced, directed and starred in "Sweet Sweetback's Baad Asssss Song" and made Hollywood safe for blaxploitation films. Thirty-three years later, Mario is not only the writer, producer, director and star of "Baadasssss!" He is also a character, which means he sometimes talks to himself — that is, the real Mario, playing the fictional Melvin, talks to the fictional young Mario. The actor playing Mario as a boy looks nothing like the adult Mario in front of us, but then Mario looks nothing like Melvin, so at least the lack of resemblance makes sense.

You don't have to know "Sweetback" to appreciate "Baadasssss!" (May 28), but it helps. At times the new film recreates scenes from the original, as when Sweetback runs from the police, wearing a long gold vest that screams of the 70's. But "Baadasssss!" is mainly about how Melvin, flat out of money and luck, cobbled together an independent film that changed the industry.

Knowing the original film illuminates those struggles, not to mention the family dynamics. "Sweetback" began with Melvin's character as an adolescent being initiated into sex by a kindly prostitute. And that boy was played by, yes, the young Mario. "Baadasssss!" deals with that sex scene far less explicitly; instead, we see Mario's mother disapproving and hear Mario beg to be allowed to keep his huge Afro instead of cutting his hair for the part of young Sweetback.

Melvin and Mario, promoting "Baadasssss!" together, have talked about how tough the son was on his father, dealing bluntly with subjects like his womanizing. But Melvin comes off as a visionary, determined to make his movie at any personal or financial cost. Mario has created a loving homage to his father the hero.
"I believe in this, and it's been tested by research: he who fucks nuns will later join the church."

-St. Joe

Ravi

In what other films have actors or actresses played their parents?

MacGuffin

Quote from: RaviIn what other films have actors or actresses played their parents?

Desi Arnaz Jr. played his father in "Mambo Kings". Geraldine Chaplin played her grandmother in "Chaplin".
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

mutinyco

Neva Chonin, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 2, 2004

Melvin Van Peebles didn't leave his heart in San Francisco, but this could be where he found it: It was while working as a cable car operator in the 1950s that the future father of independent black cinema began to explore filmmaking.

After relocating to France, he returned to San Francisco a decade later with his debut feature film, "Story of a Three Day Pass," the French entry in the 1967 San Francisco Film Festival. It won the critic's choice award.

On an April afternoon 37 years later, the Chicago-born Van Peebles, now 71, is back in San Francisco. He and his son, Mario, are ensconced in a suite at the Fairmont Hotel that boasts, among other things, a view of the Powell Street cable car line. The two are in town to promote Mario's new film, "Baadasssss!," a dramatization of the elder Van Peebles' struggle to make his signature 1971 picture, "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song."

Equal parts documentary, drama and social comedy, "Baadasssss!," which opens Friday in Bay Area theaters, has already earned accolades at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival and a standing ovation at this year's Sundance. The movie -- co-written and directed by Mario, who also stars in the role of his father -- is a personal and political testament, delivered in the raw, low-tech style of "Sweet Sweetback."

Mario, 47, figures the time was right for "Baadasssss!" to revisit the roots of black cinema and indie film. "I wanted to make the movie now, because the more things change, the more they stay the same," he says, settling onto a couch beside his father. "Some of the conditions under which my dad made his film -- repeal of funding for the arts, for instance -- are happening again, and with the current administration, there's an increasing sense of being disempowered."

Credited with breaking ground for independent filmmakers and inspiring the genre later known, dubiously, as blaxploitation, "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" told the story of a black porn performer who successfully battles the white-dominated system before vanishing into the sunset, fist held high. The first cinematic statement of black power, the film didn't pull punches. Neither did its director.

As captured in "Baadasssss!," Melvin's filmmaking struggles were legion. After writing and directed the hit 1970 comedy "Watermelon Man," Melvin was offered a three-picture deal with Columbia. Instead, he devoted himself to "Sweet Sweetback," a project whose racial politics were deemed too hot for any Hollywood studio to touch.

Made in just 19 days for $500,000, the self-financed film landed Melvin in trouble with creditors and his camera crew in jail. "Baadasssss!" shows how death threats flew, and how the cumulative stress caused Melvin to go temporarily blind in one eye. Once completed, the picture was slapped with an X rating. Distributors balked. In spite of everything, "Sweet Sweetback" went on to gross nearly $15 million (back when movies cost $1) in limited distribution.

"Sweetback's" success inspired a wave of black-centric movies that included "Shaft," "Superfly" and "Foxy Brown." While the gritty look was the same, the spirit had changed: Instead of a call to revolution, many post- "Sweetback" blaxploitation flicks featured protagonists who worked within the white power structure, not against it.

"I opened the doors. But of course they found the political agenda despicable, so they reduced that and made it cartoonlike, and you had blaxploitation," Melvin says. "However, one of my subplots worked perfectly: 'Sweetback' was so immersed in the 'hood culture that they couldn't fake it. They had to start hiring minorities."

The idea of making "Baadasssss!" came to Mario while he was playing the role of Malcolm X in 2001's "Ali." Preparation for the role led him to talk to his father, who had interviewed Malcolm X, and the younger Van Peebles began to see the connections between Melvin's cinematic revolution and the broader cultural upheaval of the '60s.

In making "Baadasssss!," Mario -- whose directing resume includes "New Jack City" and "Panther" -- found himself facing some of the same kind of resistance his father experienced three decades earlier. Studios tried to "Wonderbread" the project, first suggesting he gear it toward an independent film audience, then advising him to "take it to the hood" and make it a "Barbershop"-like comedy with a hip-hop cast. The studios also declared that "Baadasssss!" was too sexy, too political and hobbled by its unsympathetic lead character.

Mario ignored these hints and opted to follow in Melvin's footsteps by making the picture independently. In addition to providing a flashback to the social climate of the late '60s and early '70s, "Baadasssss!" explores the mercurial relationship between father and son, including a scene in which the driven Melvin pushes a 13-year-old Mario to play a sex scene in "Sweetback."

Mario has forgiven Melvin that particular transgression -- for his part, Melvin doesn't see that there's anything to forgive -- but this doesn't mean father and son don't occasionally lock horns. "We still have our differences," says Mario, laying an affectionate hand on his father's shoulder. "We got to the airport the other day and I'm pissed off because he forgot the cell phone. Then it turns out I forgot the tickets. So we still get on each other's nerves. But the important thing is that I'm proud of what he stood for. I'm proud of the changes he made, and I could not have made the film I made today if he hadn't blazed the trail."

Melvin, whose post-"Sweetback" career has included writing two Broadway plays and numerous books, composing music and continuing to direct independent films, says the pride goes both ways.

"People ask me what makes me most proud about Mario. I'm most proud that he could turn his back on the possibility of making a 'New Jack City 5' and make a film such as this. Many times I get young people asking, what do you think about black movies? And I say, what are you talking about? You mean Hollywood movies that have black people in them? It's gone back to that, and that's not the same thing as a black movie."
"I believe in this, and it's been tested by research: he who fucks nuns will later join the church."

-St. Joe

coffeebeetle

Great article!  Thanks Mutiny.
more than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. one path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. the other, to total extinction. let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
woody allen (side effects - 1980)