Source: New York Times (Archives)
NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS
'SLEEPWALK,' FAIRY TALES IN REAL LIFE
By CARYN JAMES
Published: March 20, 1987
LEAD: WHEN Chinese fairy tales impinge on the life of
Nicole, a young woman in downtown New York, several things happen: her
sexy French roommate becomes bald; her finger begins to bleed; an Oriental
woman about to unravel these mysteries is killed. Nicole's half-Chinese
son, a wise child, thinks the whole thing smells like almonds.
WHEN Chinese fairy tales impinge on the life of Nicole,
a young woman in downtown New York, several things happen: her sexy French
roommate becomes bald; her finger begins to bleed; an Oriental woman about
to unravel these mysteries is killed. Nicole's half-Chinese son, a wise
child, thinks the whole thing smells like almonds. Sara Driver's lyrical,
witty ''Sleepwalk'' has the illogical sense of a dream, backed by the texture
of everyday life. In her first feature, Ms. Driver blithely absorbs influences
- from chiaroscuro to Surrealism to performance art - and spins them into
her own vibrant, original style.
''Sleepwalk'' begins with the theft of an ancient manuscript,
which the sinister Dr. Gou asks Nicole to translate. She does, and soon
life imitates these tales. Isabelle, the bald, vain roommate, is punished
for her greediness, like the princess in the manuscript story who refused
to give a bird a lock of her hair. Another tale warns, ''Keep the child
away from the man who smells like almonds.'' The child is clearly Nicole's
son. But why does Dr. Gou lie on a bed of almonds, and why does Ecco Ecco,
the Oriental woman, say ''almonds, poison,'' as she points to the manuscript?
Ms. Driver, who co-wrote the screenplay, takes the incoherence
of these events for granted. Despite its trappings of mystery and suspense,
''Sleepwalk'' is barely concerned with plot; what matters is the feel of
this place where dreams meet reality. In a glance Ms. Driver captures the
print shop where Nicole works, a grimy warehouse building where she and
her hip-looking colleagues bend over computer terminals and drafting tables,
intensely bored. On her way to a neighborhood bodega, Nicole sees a child
throw a handful of stardust into the air; at least that's what it looks
like.
Sara Driver, a graduate of the New York University Film
School, has worked on Jim Jarmusch's three films. She produced his ''Stranger
Than Paradise,'' and he and Frank Prinzi did the dazzling camerawork on
''Sleepwalk.'' Ms. Driver's film, though, is like a Jarmusch work turned
upside-down and inside-out. Instead of his black-and-white photographic
images, she works with light and shadow like a painter creating still lifes.
Doors open and light slashes diagonally across darkened rooms; whole scenes
seem painted from a palette of blues. And while Mr. Jarmusch's characters
are downtrodden dreamers, Ms. Driver's are offbeat people who have dreams
foisted on them.
Although ''Sleepwalk'' moves slowly, Ms. Driver keeps
her images from becoming static or self-consciously artsy. The performance
artist Ann Magnuson is colorful comic relief as Isabelle; she may lose
her rich red hair and parade around much of the film looking like Daddy
Warbucks, but she never drops her perfectly exaggerated French accent.
Suzanne Fletcher's Nicole is methodical and laconic, a relatively ordinary
center for her jumbled household, a perfect foil for the magic that appears
before her.
''Sleepwalk'' will be shown as part of the New
Directors/New Films series at the Museum of Modern Art today at 8:30 P.M.
and tomorrow at 1 P.M.
It will be preceded by ''Drum/ Sing,'' a 1985
short from New Zealand featuring a performance by a group called From Scratch
- a trio of percussionists who use drums and chimes, their hands, and occasionally
their voices. This appeals to a rather specialized taste. ''Drum/Sing''
is an unimaginative 22 minutes, worth sitting through only to discover
the freshness of ''Sleepwalk.'' Checkered Chinese
SLEEPWALK, directed by Sara Driver; screenplay
by Ms. Driver and Lorenzo Mans, from a story by Ms. Driver and Kathleen
Brennon; photography by Frank Prinzi and Jim Jarmusch; edited by Li Shin
Yu; music by Phil Kline; production company, Ottoskop Filmproduktion GmBH,
Munich, West Germany, and Driver Films Inc., New York; production team,
Dave Bromberg, Dan Shulman, J. C. Hardin and Jane Weinstock. At Roy and
Niuta Titus Theater 1, the Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53d Street, as
part of the 1987 New Directors/New Films series.
Running time: 78 minutes. This film has no rating. NicoleSuzanne
Fletcher IsabelleAnn Magnuson JimmyDexter Lee Dr. GouSteven Chen Ecco EccoAko
DRUM/SING, directed by Gregor Nicholas.
Running time: 22 minutes.
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