Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Coney Island Baby

Little Fugitive (1953) - Ashley/Engel/Orkin
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I could've gone crazy with the screengrabs on Little Fugitive. But I controlled myself. This simple, 16mm shot, entirely overdubbed movie is the original ode to Coney Island before the Warriors or other Coney Island themed movies. Truffaut cited the film as the inspiration for the French New Wave (he was talking more about 400 Blows, obviously).

Joey, an eight year old neighborhood kid gets tricked into believing he shot and killed his older brother, runs away to Coney Island and spends a whole day riding various amusement park rides, hanging out on the boardwalk falls asleep on the beach. It's simple as heck but extraordinarily beautiful. The film's look reminds me of Robert Frank photos .