Underground U.S.A.

Underground U.S.A.
Directed byEric Mitchell
Written byEric Mitchell
Based onSunset Boulevard and Heat
Produced byEric Mitchell
StarringEric Mitchell
Patti Astor
Rene Ricard
Jackie Curtis
Taylor Mead
Cookie Mueller
Tom Wright
Distributed byNew Line Cinema
Release date
  • May 1980 (1980-05)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Underground U.S.A. is a 1980 American No Wave underground film directed by Eric Mitchell and starring Patti Astor, Rene Ricard, Jackie Curtis, Cookie Mueller, Tom Wright, John Lurie, and Taylor Mead.[1] Tom DiCillo was the director of photography. Future director Jim Jarmusch was the sound recordist on this film.[2] The film was shot in the Mudd Club and Lower East Side apartment interiors,[3] and is loosely based on the Billy Wilder’s 1950 black comedy film noir Sunset Boulevard via Andy Warhol’s 1972 film Heat. A general jaded slow pace and deadpan acting style is characteristic of the film. Characters exist less for themselves but as general iconic anchoring devices.

Premise

Underground U.S.A. begins with a bisexual street hustler (played by Eric Mitchell himself) being tossed out of his living situation. Not knowing what to do, he inveigles his way into the chic wistful entourage around a fading movie star named Vicky (played by Patti Astor), whose platinum blonde hairdo suggests that of Edie Sedgwick[4] and Kim Novak. Vicky's loyal chauffeur is played by Tom Wright and her effete manager/butler, named Kenneth, is played by Rene Ricard.[5] Kenneth has been protecting Vicky from the truth of her decline in popularity, but Vicky eventually comes to understanding the gravity of that fall through the hustler. She gradually spirals into drugs and towards suicide. The satirical No Wave art underground looks on with disdain as the characters drift from party to party, engaging in idle chitchat about an art market so controlled by capitalism that paintings are bought only to be stored away for profit, never to be seen again.[6] In the film’s final party scene, Vicky, wearing a neo-cubist black and white dress, is told by Kenneth that Andy Warhol has called about shooting her in his next film, to start shooting next week. Vicky becomes deliriously deluded as she emerges from her bedroom to face what she thinks is a large party crowd of loving friends and devoted colleagues, only to find there are only her butler, her chauffeur, and her hustler there.

See also

References

  1. ^ Boch, Richard (2017). The Mudd Club. Port Townsend, WA: Feral House. p. 172. ISBN 978-1-62731-051-2. OCLC 972429558.
  2. ^ Scheibel, Will (2017). American Stranger: Modernisms, Hollywood, and the Cinema of Nicholas Ray. State University of New York Press. p. 179. ISBN 978-1-4384-6413-8.
  3. ^ Boch, Richard (2017). The Mudd Club. Port Townsend, WA: Feral House. pp. 172–173. ISBN 978-1-62731-051-2. OCLC 972429558.
  4. ^ [1] Underground U.S.A. at Bomb Magazine 1981
  5. ^ [2] Underground U.S.A. at Bomb Magazine 1981
  6. ^ [3] Underground U.S.A. at Bomb Magazine 1981


Stub icon

This article related to an American film of the 1980s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.