There are few things in life worse than unrequited love as Walt discovers when he falls for a young Mexican man he meets whilst stuck behind the counter in his local Portland skid row store. Johnny becomes the object of Walt's desire and although Johnny, an illegal Mexican immigrant, is willing to be friends he does not reciprocate Walt’s feelings…

Mala Noche (1985) is Gus Van Sant’s directorial debut. Better known for his mainstream movies My Private Idaho (1991), Good Will Hunting (1997) and Paranoid Park (2007), Mala Noche is an affectionate look at the lives of the dispossessed.

Walt is the most disposed character in the film. Although the film is set in Portland, Walt spends most of his life amongst the poor Mexican community, an outsider in his own home. His sexuality also alienates him, not only from the object of his love, Johnny, but from his wider society. Through a series of interlinked vignettes we follow Walt through his relationship with Johnny and Pepper, with Walt providing a narration which allows us into Walt’s inner thoughts.

The film was made for a pittance, one camera, little script and little in the way of fancy editing. Most of the film was captured on a hand held 16 mm black and white camera. The effect is almost documentary in its aesthetic, giving the alternating feeling that we are seeing the world from Johnny’s perspective. At other times we feel like an external peeping tom spying on Walt’s life.

This is further helped by Van Sant’s use of either unknown actors or real people adding a neo realistic edge to the project. This sense of reality, or being there, is further enhanced by lighting the film with either the available light sources or just a single spotlight which throws into relief what is most important in the frame, allowing the peripheral visual information to bleed off into darkness.

For the most part both the actors and non actors impress considering that this is almost guerrilla filming. Tim Streeter, as Walt, has a natural presence on the screen, so that we believe that he inhabits the soul of Walt, who was a real person, as the film was based on the autobiographical novella by Portland poet Walt Curtis.

The DVD is a restored print and is most probably as good as the film gets given the limitations of its creation. The extras on the disc consist of the original theatrical trailer and an interview with the director (26 min 02 sec) which is well worth a look as he describes the process by which the film was made.

From the PR blurb it looks like the finished product should have a five minute introduction as well as a six minute analysis. The copy provided was a very clean 4:3 two channel stereo print, but once again the PR blurb promises a 5.1, DTS, stereo anamorphic presentation. Personally I’d check the back of the box before you lay any money on the counter.

Overall, the film is not great, but with such a low budget you can see that Van Sant has talent, to have produced such an interesting piece of work.

7

Charles Packer