LSIFF Day Four: One Fast Move Or I’m Gone …
by Steve Smith
Everyone knows Jack Keroauc’s On The Road. This book brought a band of bohemians known as the Beat Generation out of the shadows and into the spotlight. It also changed Kerouac’s life as it established him as voice and public persona of the Beats, a role he neither wanted nor was able to fill.
Fewer people know Kerouac’s Big Sur, tells the story of Kerouac’s struggle against his slide into dissipation as he struggled with his fame and the burden of expectations that came along with it. One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur is the story of the man and his book and the struggles that artists have with art, fame and addiction.
The film is a production of Kerouac Films, which is associated with the Kerouac estate, and the intent is to produce more films about the writer and his work. When I asked producer Jim Sampas why they chose to start with Big Sur, he said, “This is Jack Kerouac at his most introspective. Before he was writing more about others, and with this book, he was writing about himself.”
Events are told through Kerouac’s prose, narrated by John Ventimiglia (of HBO’s The Sopranos), and first-hand accounts by Kerouac’s thinly veiled contemporaries who people the book such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Carolyn Cassady, Joyce Johnson and Michael McClure. The readings, interpretations and reflections of writers, poets, actors and musicians influenced by Kerouac include Sam Shepard, Tom Waits (pictured above), Dar Williams, Patti Smith, Aram Saroyan, Donal Logue and S.E. Hinton. With original music composed and performed by recording artist, Jay Farrar of Son Volt, and additional performance by Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie.
It’s beautifully filmed and the story is as captivating as it is tragic. “It’s sad,” Waits said. “Today we’d send him to AA and straighten his ass out. Of course, he’d probably never write another word.”
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A film I missed but heard good things about was Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman, a documentary explores the career of monumental architectural photographer and tastemaker, Julius Shulman. “Modern Architecture porn” is how I heard it described. That sounds pretty good to me. … The buzz was also quite positive for the panel discussion featuring James Manos, writer of the pilot for the Showtime series, Dexter.
Tags: LSIFF
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