SHOWBOAT 1988-THE REMAKE (Censored Version, 91.5 minutes, ©1978/9). https://vimeo.com/ondemand/showboat1988
TRAILER: <https://vimeo.com/ondemand/showboat1988>. SOME ACTS: <https://vimeo.com/173943349>, <https://vimeo.com/128107710>, (https://vimeo.com/129322012>, <https://vimeo.com/128414522>.
A Man, a Woman, and a Killer observed the fragile bonds of lovers (co-directed by Schmidt's roommate Wayne Wang who, unlike Rick, decided to give Hollywood a try). 1988: The Musical zeroed in on a dying man's aspirations for show business, and Emerald Cities analyzed society's fears of apocalypse in the Reagan 80's, achieving it with a ragtag sense of inevitability and taking pristine snapshots of the cultural zeitgeist of the world, California, and those still trying to find hope that an idealized form of the American Dream is attainable when collapse seems near.” <https://letterboxd.com/louferrigno/film/ emerald-cities/>.
(Excerpted from SLEEPER TRILOGY, THREE UNDISCOVERED FIRST FEATURES. <https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BKSN7T6Y>
Rick Schmidt shoots (SHOWBOAT) 1988-THE REMAKE, 1975, San Francisco, CA.
(SHOWBOAT)1988-THE REMAKE
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). 1988, The second film of the Rick Schmidt trilogy (A MAN, A WOMAN, AND A KILLER and EMERALD CITIES fill the bill), is about a huge audition for the remake of the classic American musical "Showboat."
“The film was originally titled, Showboat 1988: The Remake. However, in answer to objections from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., director Schmidt deleted all references to the play or novel (“Show Boat” by Edna Ferber). Schmidt actually staged open auditions in San Francisco’s California Hall for the alleged remaking of “Showboat.” As in “A Chorus Line,” the auditions are the heart of the story, except in “1988” those who try out are not just show-business types, they represent a microcosm of American society, from the elderly couple who dream of dancing on the “Lawrence Welk Show” to a bearded transvestite in a tutu. By saying: Write your own fantasies in celluloid,” the film examines our voyeuristic national tendency, which is evidenced by all those who want to appear on television game shows, of needing the validation of an audience in order to perform our lives. Unlike the material from which it borrows, “1988” strips away the structure of its fantasies, leaving the audience as well as the performers naked and vulnerable. Courage to those who can live without dreams.”––Linda Gross, LOS ANGELES TIMES
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. CREDITS: 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 (OF MEN AND ANGELS, PLASTIC MAN, I WANTED TO BE A MAN WITH A GUN, 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).
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, many others.
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THE FEMALE COMPLAINT by Lauren Berlant:
LOVE AND MONEY by Lisa Henderson
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The highlight, for me at the Senatorial Suite shoot, was when the waiter for the “wrap party” (played by Richard “Dickie” Marcus, of later TV “24” fame) tries his own audition. He performs “The Dutchess of Malfi” drama while a captive audience of “movie people,” the movieʼs fictional characters, barely respond. Co- Director Dick Richardson (center), producer, Skip Covington (right), and actress Z (left), can hardly handle another auditioner! Hereʼs a link that shows the full, great “Marcus” performance, beginning with the end moments of the audition––2AM, July 25, 1975.
<https///vimeo.com/183519895>.
Reviews for (Showboat) 1988-The Remake::
“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
“1988 recounts the fictitious tale of a middle-aged librarian’s attempts to finance and remake the film musical “Showboat” in contemporary terms. The auditions are arranged on a San Francisco stage, and range from incredible to merely bizarre.”
— 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
“With this film the tradition of the independent cinema's mock-Hollywood humor is turned inside out.” ––B. Ruby Rich, CHICAGO READER
“It's the greatest extravaganza of the improbable, the bizarre, and the merely mediocre gathered together for the first time anywhere, anytime, on any stage.”––Tom Baglien, MINNEAPOLIS STAR
“Hollywood has made three versions of Show Boat boat, but none of them are remotely like SHOWBOAT 1988.”––Bob Lundegaard, THE MINNEAPOLIS TRIBUNE
“The tryout sequences are both delicious and dismaying, reminding us in poignant moments of A Chorus Line and (more often) in silly moments of the tryouts in Mel Brooks' The Producers.”––David Elliot, CHICAGO SUN TIMES
“It could be a monster the way Variety uses the word, or the way Mary Shelley did.” ––-Jon Carroll, VILLAGE VOICE
“Schmidt's cutting is right on the money, from news to color video to black and white. He spins around his various stories like a narrative Nureyev.”––Phil Anderson, MINNEAPOLIS READER
“The varied interpretations of Ol’ Man River reprised throughout support my hope that this ballad will some day replace The Star Spangled Banner as our national anthem.” ––J. Hoberman, VILLAGE VOICE
“The film raises questions about exploitation, entertainment, politics, psychology, and the nature of the medium itself.”––Michael Brown, BOSTON EVENING GLOBE
“Laugh more than you have ever laughed before...one of the discoveries of the festival.” ––FILM INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, ROTTERDAM
“[(Showboat) 1988-The Remake] ––One of the best independent films of the year.” ––LONDON FILM FESTIVAL
OMG!! One of the first movies of yours Sue and I watched after moving to Port Townsend. (Perhaps we rented it from "Bick" Bickford's Video Mart. I don't remember exactly.) We LOVED it! As did all the wonderful reviews!