USA,
1983, 95 min
Shown in 1984
CREDITS
- dir
-
Rob Nilsson
- prod
-
Don Taylor, Ben Myron
- cam
-
Geoff Schaff, Tomas Tucker
- editor
-
Richard Harkness
- cast
-
Bill Ackridge, Don Leegant
-
COMMENTS
Rob Nilsson in person.
Shot on videotape and then transferred to film (this process is so good and so innovative that it alone makes the movie worth seeing), Signal 7 is about acting and improvisation under the unexpected but lifelike circumstances of some would-be actors (already middle-aged, and destined for "character" parts, not leads) who earn their living as San Francisco taxi drivers. It is a feature in which two men play themselves—or, it is a documentary on the lives of two actors. We follow the two men in their daily routines of auditions and preparation, of driving and storytelling in the drivers' recreation room. The movie was "written" by the cast during the process of rehearsal, and it is clear that its energy and directions depend in great part upon the needs and instincts of Bill Ackeridge and Dan Leegant, the central people. Rob Nilsson, the director, managed to shoot enough footage in just four days and nights. Yet the film is very well shaped as a rough film noir about hope and its limits in which two engaging cabbies win our interest and sympathy before "signal 7"—the radio call that means a driver is not answering and may need help. Far more than just an actors' exercise, Signal 7 is a complex study in the interweaving of naturalism and living theater. Shown in the course of a Festival that honors John Cassavetes too, it is an example of that outsider's influence on American film.
—David Thomson
FACTOID #28
A print of Tonight and Every Night, to be shown at the Rita Hayworth tribute in 1972, was stolen out of a truck on its way to the theater.
