The big hit of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, it’s easy to see why. The film has carved a unique nitch for itself, somewhere between FREAKS and Fellini’s 8 1/2. It’s as though someone forgot to lock the studio door and Luis Bunuel and William Burroughs sneaked in and began a hatchet job on Hollywood."
— David Harris, THE BOSTON PHOENIX
BEFORE The Gong show, BEFORE England's Got Talent, BEFORE American Idol, BEFORE America's Got Talent, BEFORE The Voice...there was SHOWBOAT 1988—THE REMAKE (91 1/2 minutes, B&W/Color, ©1978 L.L. Productions). The second film of the Rick Schmidt trilogy (A MAN, A WOMAN, AND A KILLER, and EMERALD CITIES fill the bill),1988 is about a huge audition for the remake of the classic American musical "Showboat." For three nights, July 22-24, 1975, hundreds of San Francisco’s most bizarre talent turned up, while actor ED NYLUND, a real-life librarian and musicologist, tried to enact his dream of bringing "the stench of death" to the musical comedy form. As he narrates real-life stories of his childhood failures, the viewer can better understand any auditioner’s leap for glory.
Actors RICHARD A. RICHARDSON and CAROLYN ZAREMBA again supplied pivotal Supporting Actor roles, along with WILLIE BOY WALKER, SKIP COVINGTON, BRUCE PARRY, RICHARD MARCUS. Directed by Rick Schmidt. Script by Rick Schmidt, Bill Farley (I WANTED TO BE A MAN WITH A GUN, OF MEN AND ANGELS, PLASTIC MAN, etc.), Nick Kazan (AT CLOSE RANGE, REVERSAL OF FORTUNE, DREAM LOVER, etc.), and Henry Bean (INTERNAL AFFAIRS,THE BELIEVER, etc.).
1st PRIZE – ANN ARBOR FILM FESTIVAL. Additional Fests: ROTTERDAM INTERNATIONAL, LONDON FILM FESTIVAL, FLORENCE FILM FESTIVAL (Italy), FIGUEIRA DA FOZ (Portugal).
"Sleeper Trilogy" IN PAPERBACK
Three (out of four) Stars (***) -"Movies on TV" / Steven H. Scheuer. Village Voice "Choice of the Week" / J. Hoberman. TV premiere: CHANNEL FOUR , UK.
Featuring performances by rock star Sylvester, bluesman J.C. Burris, Jesus Christ Satan,Ral-pheno, others.
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“1988 recounts the fictitious tale of a middle-aged librarian’s attempts to finance and remake the film musical “Showboat” in contemporary terms. —VARIETY
“1988 in its cumulative preposterous flummery is a spirited outcry for people to throw off the covert and overt forms of oppression and be themselves. Beneath the film’s Quixotic humor and surprisingly touching pathos stands the surrealist belief that art is never more important than life. An outrageous tour-de-force.”
— Vic Skolnick, CINEMA ARTS CENTRE
“Laugh more than you’ve ever laughed before…one of the hits of the festival."
— Rotterdam International Film Festival
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READ MORE. "The Female Complaint" by Lauren Berlant, Chair, LG Studies Project, U. of Chicago, covers the LGBTQA aspects of movie in "SHOWBOAT 1988-THE REMAKE" Chapter” (Scroll several pages down to read her opinions about the historical importance of 1988).
1988-THE REMAKE (Censored Version, 95 min. , B&W/Color, ©1978 L.L. Productions). "The auditions are arranged on a San Francisco stage, and range from incredible to merely bizarre.”— VARIETY