  Peter Bogdanovich envisioned his 1976 film Nickelodeon — starring Burt Reynolds and Ryan O’Neal — in black and white, but was overruled by the studio. A new Director’s Choice DVD set presents the film as he had wanted. |
Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show is an American classic, a signature film that poignantly captures the end of an era in small town American life.
By his own admission, Nickelodeon is not a classic. In fact, it was a troubled project and remains a thorn in his paw. But it is an interesting companion piece for The Last Picture Show because it explores the origins of American cinema.
“If The Last Picture Show was the end of a certain way of life and of a certain communal enjoyment of movies, Nickelodeon was the very beginning,” Bogdanovich tells Sun Media. We are talking because a new DVD packages the two together under the umbrella title, Director’s Choice. It is a two-disc set with each title on its own disc.
In the case of The Last Picture Show (1971), this Director’s Cut has been on DVD before, as early as 1999 when it set a standard for special editions. Bogdanovich says the new DVD release includes a slightly enhanced, remastered version, but it is the same cut. Extras are recycled, including his commentary, a face-to-face interview and a making-of documentary.
In the case of Nickelodeon (1976), the film is making its DVD debut, in an interesting fashion. Bogdanovich offers both the original theatrical cut, which plays in lurid colour, and a Director’s Cut, in black and white. Bogdanovich provides the commentary on the B&W version, signalling his preference.
Bogdanovich, inspired by suggestions from his mentor, Orson Welles of Citizen Kane fame, always wanted to film Nickelodeon in B&W. Columbia Pictures executives forced him to shoot it in colour. Now, for the first time, audiences can directly compare the two versions. With its slapstick story about shenanigans which took place in the early days of the American movie industry, Nickelodeon oddly looks more real — and funnier — in B&W.
“Exactly right!” Bogdanovich says. “I felt it would all seem fantastic and made-up in colour. Yet a lot of the stories that happened were true and they just seemed to be a fraud in colour.
“Yet, in black and white, they seem real. That is exactly the reason I wanted it in black and white. I think it is a question of the medium. The abstraction of black and white creates more of a feeling of a document. It removes distractions which are irrelevant to the story. You don’t sit around looking at the blue eyes or long blond hair of the actor. You just focus. So I think it is a more dramatic, more realistic medium. I don’t think it has anything to do with age (of the viewer).
“The only age aspect is the fact that younger people hate it because it reminds them of older films and they are impatient with anything made earlier than about 1990.”
The Last Picture Show is also in lambent black and white. Robert Surtees was Oscar-nominated for cinematography, as was Bogdanovich for his direction and for co-writing the screenplay with novelist Larry McMurtry. Picture Show earned eight Oscar noms, winning two in acting categories (Ben Johnson as best supporting actor; Cloris Leachman as best supporting actress).
Nickelodeon, in contrast, did not win a darn thing. Didn’t get nominated. Didn’t deserve to. Bogdanovich did not even want to cast Ryan O’Neal and Burt Reynolds in the co-starring roles, along with Tatum O’Neal and Brian Keith.
“I wish it could say it was the film I really wanted to make. It wasn’t, quite. I wanted a somewhat younger cast and I wanted it in black and white — and it would just have had a different energy to it.”
Now, he says, “I think it’s all right. And, I think, in black and white it gets a lot closer to what I had in mind.”
bruce.kirkland@sunmedia.ca
