USA,
1995, 93 min
Shown in 1996
CREDITS
- dir
-
Alan Taylor
- prod
-
Uberto Pasolini, Scott Ferguson
- scr
-
David Epstein
- cam
-
John Thomas
- editor
-
David Leonard
- cast
-
William Forsythe, Vincent Gallo, Adam Trese, Gareth Williams, Frances McDormand
-
COMMENTS
One of four Opening Night films. Alan Taylor and Adam Trese in person.
Set in a decaying New Jersey that lies in the shadow of a sparkling Manhattan, Palookaville is the warmhearted, comic story of three lifelong friends experimenting in petty crime as just one of their earnest attempts to pull themselves out of the economic desperation around them. Russ (Vincent Gallo) is the would-be ringleader. Sid (William Forsythe), stunned by a divorce, helps plan the various schemes in a state of numbness. And Jerry just wants to put food on the table. After bungling a small jewelry store theft (complicated by the unpredictable layout of the neighboring pastry shop) and trying to start a taxi service ferrying local elderly people to and from the supermarket, the three men plan a real heist: the armored security car that carries cash from the supermarket to the bank. Winner of the Venice Film Festival prize for a first feature, Palookaville is grounded in day-to-day reality—in its absurd, even magical pleasures as well as its despairing undercurrents. Although the film’s roots are Italian—both Italo Calvino’s short stories about life in post-World War II Italy and Mario Monicelli’s comic heist movie Big Deal on Madonna Street were inspirations—Palookaville is American in spirit. But unlike so many contemporary films, Palookaville forsakes superfluous violence and cynicism to explore the matter at heart: the moral dilemma of people trying to survive in a world of limited options.
—Lisanne Skyler
FACTOID #273
In 2006 the Festival widened its scope, screening films at seven satellite venues throughout the city including an arts venue (Intersection for the Arts), a pub (Edinburgh Castle) and a fire station (San Francisco Fire Station #7).
