Cinema Canada (Mar 1980)

lived in Los Angeles for a bit, and then I moved to New York. I’ve been half there and half in France for the last two years. Now, I’m in this sort of edgy position, where I’m almost part of it; there’s a lot of things I understand and share, but I’m still an outsider.” Atlantic City, U.S.A. represents the first contemporary picture he has shot in the last ten years, a particular challenge for Malle, who states that he needs to find “a distance from a subject that’s happening right now,” and believes he may have worked toward it this time by means of stylization. “Here, it’s stylized in the sense that it’s making fun of something that’s basically serious. It has the plot of a thriller, and it’s describing social and economic changes in Atlantic City, butit’s done asacomedy, the same way Murmur Of The Heart was a comedy about something that’s considered immensely serious.” He has been drawn to American subject matter before, and returns to it now because he finds the States “much more interesting than Europe at this point. ‘Europe is just reproducing what’s going on in America five or ten years later. Culturally, it’s very dead. The impetus for change, the patterns for culture in the Western World; they're all coming from the U.S.” Malle readily admits that Atlan tic City, U.S.A. is “only accidentally a Canadian film. I’m using a number of Canadian actors, whom I'm very pleased with, and a Canadian crew, which is excellent. Our exteriors were shot in Atlantic City, and we’re shooting interiors in this studio, but I feel good about this picture — my integrity’s not in question. If this type of project enables you to end up with films about Canada, made by Canadians, then the experience will have been justified. The mistake is to make too many commercial compromises — to turn out imitation American pictures. The French did that too, and it didn’t work, mostly because the Americans do them better. We did films with American stars, American subject matter, and called it ‘Le Cinéma Mid-Atlantic.’ Ultimately, it was ‘nulle part’ — nowhere.” He adds emphatically: “But there’s nothing worse than stagnation. The technicians and creative people are working here, and that’s very important. Hopefully, within the framework of this commercial indus try, a really indigenous film business will. develop. As a ‘guest director in this country, that’s what I'd like to see; then the whole exercise will have been worthwhile.” Barbara Samuels Susan Sarandon giving Burt Lancaster a hand in Atlantic City, U.S.A. Babe! d. Rafal Zielinski asst. d. Yvon Arsenault, René Chenier sc. Edith Rey ph. Peter Czerski ed. Avde Chiriaeff sd. Richard Nichol a.d. Real Ouellette m. Gino Soccio cost. Denis Sperdouklis choreo. Lynn Taylor-Corbett Lp. Buddy Hackett, Yasmine Bleeth exec. p. Morden Lazarus p. Arthur Voronka, Rafal Zielinski p. manager. Gilbert Dinel p.c. Rafal Productions Inc. The most unexpected thing about Babe! is how smoothly the shoot seems to be running. While filming an orphanage scene in acondemned university building, the crew members bitch at each other, shots are altered, half the actors are kids and the producers still haven’t rounded up all the funds. Yet, the only real setback that has put the film three shots behind schedule has been the exterior shooting, delayed by the weather. Polish-born Rafal Zielinski, at 25 years of age, is directing his first professional feature. Rafal (he prefers) runs his set in an open and easy going manner. The shot is a simple dolly and pan of a cafeteria kitchen, where 12-year-old Yasmine Bleeth, scrubs a stone with steel wool, doing penance for an unsuccessful orphanage Film Arts 46) Church Street: Toronto Ontario: Canada Telephones: 9€2-018! 962-0182 Cinema Canada/7