!["Sweet Thing" directed by Alexander Rockwell The NY independent scene of the 80's and 90's was a magical time [Director's Interview Vol.158]](https://cinemore.jp/images/96f381277c8de16339d29a3ef5da8f7a99aa1ea081b6c8aa5ca197fe11a5bc0d.jpg)
"Sweet Thing" directed by Alexander Rockwell The NY independent scene of the 80's and 90's was a magical time [Director's Interview Vol.158]
Every movie repeats the same thing
Q: One last question: Why do panda masks appear in "The Sweet Thing," "Little Feet," and "Pete Smalls Is Dead" (2010)?
Rockwell: That's because I'm broke and I reuse props! I'll have Santa Claus in my next movie too. I bought the costume this time (laughs).
"Sweet Thing" ©️2019 BLACK HORSE PRODUCTIONS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Seriously, I like the way people dress up in costumes. It gives them a different personality. And if a guy in a panda costume is drunk, it's heart-wrenching. I like to dress my characters in different clothes, so I dress them up as pandas and Santas.
And in my films, for some reason, the characters always head to the sea. No matter what film I make, I always end up doing the same thing.
Directed and written by: Alexander Rockwell
Rockwell is one of the most respected American indie directors, perhaps best known for In the Soup and 13 Moons (not released in Japan). His grandfather, Russian-born animator Alexander Alexeiev, and his grandmother, American artist Claire Parker, met and married in France. They are famous for creating pinscreen animation. In his late teens, Rockwell went to Paris to study film under his grandfather. He frequented the Cinémathèque Française. In the 1980s, several of his short films were shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Boston and other venues, and his first feature film, Lenz, was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1982. His third feature film, I Love My Father, was written with the hope of getting his "father of film," John Cassavetes, to star in it. However, Cassavetes passed away before filming could begin, and his dream was not realized. However, he completed the film with his beloved Samuel Fuller in the lead role. Due to the attention on Fuller, this was the first Rockwell work to be introduced in Japan. He made his breakthrough with In the Soup, starring Steve Buscemi, Seymour Cassel and Jennifer Beals, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival and garnered rapturous praise from his generation of audiences and fans. He followed that with Four Rooms (co-directed with Quentin Tarantino, Allison Anders and Robert Rodriguez), Somebody to Love starring Rosie Perez and Harvey Keitel, and the comedy 13 Moons (unreleased in Japan) featuring Rockwell regulars Steve Buscemi, Peter Dinklage, Sam Rockwell and Jennifer Beals. In 2011, he gained cult popularity with Pete Smalls Is Dead! (unreleased in theaters) starring Peter Dinklage and Tim Roth. In 2013, he released the mid-length film Little Feet (unreleased in Japan) starring his two children Lana and Nico, which was met with critical acclaim. It is a short 60-minute film about a couple who walk around Los Angeles with their friends in the neighborhood to set their pet goldfish free. The film won the prestigious Piazzolla Award at the Mar del Plata Film Festival. It also received high praise at the Toronto Film Festival and the Rome Film Festival, and was enthusiastically received in New York and Los Angeles. In 2017, Rockwell became the Director of the Directing Program at the prestigious New York University Tisch School of the Arts Graduate School of Cinema, where he mentors many rising stars in the independent film industry.
Interview and text: Akira Murayama
Born in 1971. Writes articles for magazines, newspapers, movie sites, etc. Representative of “ShortCuts,” a review site for distribution-based works.
"Sweet Thing"
Released nationwide from Friday, October 29th at Human Trust Cinema Shibuya, Shinjuku Cinema Qualite, Uplink Kichijoji and other theaters.
©️ 2019 BLACK HORSE PRODUCTIONS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
"Sweet Thing" original T-shirts on sale!
The T-shirts created for the production budget of this film through crowdfunding in the US will be sold at theaters nationwide where "Sweet Thing" is screened! The profits will be used towards the director's next film.
Sales price: 3,500 yen (tax included)
<To celebrate the release of "Sweet Thing">Limited screening of director Rockwell's legendary masterpiece "In the Soup" (1992)!
The film will be shown at Shinjuku Cinema Qualite for one week only from Friday, October 29th to Thursday, November 4th, once a day, and will be shown at other locations nationwide. For more details and information on theaters nationwide, please visit the official website of "Sweet Thing"
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