My review was written in March 1991 after watching the movie at a Midtown Manhattan screening room.
This fascinating experimental film, which combines fictional and documentary techniques in innovative fashion, was shot in 1967 but never released.
Like Michael Roemer's "The Plot Against Harry", similarly 20 years on the shelf, it's an artifact modern audiences could appreciate. It offers a fresh look at society and filmmaking trends of the adventurous '60s.
Making his first fiction feature, documentarist William Greaves chose the challenging assignment of becoming a filmmaker-provocateur, using a screenplay "Over the Cliff" as the basis to instigate a revolt among his actors and his crew against directorial tyranny.
This is set against the backdrop of auteur filmmaking, in which Jean-Luc Godard and especially John Cassavete were using cinema verite techniques in fictional formats. Greaves takes his crew to Manhattan's Central Park in springtime an repeatedly shoots the same scenes of a marital breakup, using a succession of free different couples in the roles.
"Take One" focuses on one thespian team, stage actors Patricia Ree Gilbert and Don Fellows (latter frequently seen as an American in British films of the '70s and '80s), who ultimately question the lack of direction Greaves is giving them. Hazard of the verite technique occurs when Gilbert storms off in disgust as Greaves interrupts her big scene before the payoff, and his camera crew is unprepared to capture on film the remainder of this high point incident.
What makes "Take One" uniques is a series of segments Greaves did not direct: after several days of shooting, the crew clandestinely assembles and films their own bull sessions (with the director absent) criticizing Greaves and pondering what can be done to save the "Over the Cliff" feature. Their comments are fascinating, and Greaves leaves this material in as part and parcel of his freeform filmmaking design.
Especially effective is sound man Jonathan Gordon's later eruption in which he tells Greaves to "drop the euphemisms" and lectures the writer-director on how his banal dialog would benefit from unexpurgated contemporary jargon.
This house revolt is exactly what Greaves wanted and demonstrates realistically, rather than satirically, how even the lowliest crew member often could give valuable input in a foundering production if such collaboration were encouraged (or permitted).
Use of split-screen techniques presents simultaneous different angles of the same "Over the Cliff" scene being shot as well as views of the crew. Film also documents the intrusion onto the set of an alcoholic who takes center stage briefly to inject his nihilistic, post-Beatnik but anti-hippie stream of consciousness.
Much of this film is quite funny though Greaves' Machiavellian approach to bamboozling his cast and crew is a bit hard to take at times. He reportedly shot enough footage for several features (a "Take Two" sequel is permitted in the end credits), and included among the cast not shown here is Susan Anspach in what would have been her film debut pre-"The Landlord".
This fascinating experimental film, which combines fictional and documentary techniques in innovative fashion, was shot in 1967 but never released.
Like Michael Roemer's "The Plot Against Harry", similarly 20 years on the shelf, it's an artifact modern audiences could appreciate. It offers a fresh look at society and filmmaking trends of the adventurous '60s.
Making his first fiction feature, documentarist William Greaves chose the challenging assignment of becoming a filmmaker-provocateur, using a screenplay "Over the Cliff" as the basis to instigate a revolt among his actors and his crew against directorial tyranny.
This is set against the backdrop of auteur filmmaking, in which Jean-Luc Godard and especially John Cassavete were using cinema verite techniques in fictional formats. Greaves takes his crew to Manhattan's Central Park in springtime an repeatedly shoots the same scenes of a marital breakup, using a succession of free different couples in the roles.
"Take One" focuses on one thespian team, stage actors Patricia Ree Gilbert and Don Fellows (latter frequently seen as an American in British films of the '70s and '80s), who ultimately question the lack of direction Greaves is giving them. Hazard of the verite technique occurs when Gilbert storms off in disgust as Greaves interrupts her big scene before the payoff, and his camera crew is unprepared to capture on film the remainder of this high point incident.
What makes "Take One" uniques is a series of segments Greaves did not direct: after several days of shooting, the crew clandestinely assembles and films their own bull sessions (with the director absent) criticizing Greaves and pondering what can be done to save the "Over the Cliff" feature. Their comments are fascinating, and Greaves leaves this material in as part and parcel of his freeform filmmaking design.
Especially effective is sound man Jonathan Gordon's later eruption in which he tells Greaves to "drop the euphemisms" and lectures the writer-director on how his banal dialog would benefit from unexpurgated contemporary jargon.
This house revolt is exactly what Greaves wanted and demonstrates realistically, rather than satirically, how even the lowliest crew member often could give valuable input in a foundering production if such collaboration were encouraged (or permitted).
Use of split-screen techniques presents simultaneous different angles of the same "Over the Cliff" scene being shot as well as views of the crew. Film also documents the intrusion onto the set of an alcoholic who takes center stage briefly to inject his nihilistic, post-Beatnik but anti-hippie stream of consciousness.
Much of this film is quite funny though Greaves' Machiavellian approach to bamboozling his cast and crew is a bit hard to take at times. He reportedly shot enough footage for several features (a "Take Two" sequel is permitted in the end credits), and included among the cast not shown here is Susan Anspach in what would have been her film debut pre-"The Landlord".