Between the lines (1977) film review
A review by John A. Walker (2010), the author of Art & Artists on screen.
Although this American comedy and drama from the 1970s is about journalism and professional and personal relationships rather than art and artists in general, it merits inclusion in any discussion of art in cinema because it has a striking sequence featuring an artist. The film was made by MidWest Films and is about a diverse group of youngish men and women employed by a small circulation, alternative
newspaper called The Mainline located in the Back Bay area of Boston, Massachusetts. The paper, loosely based on the early editions of Boston Phoenix, was founded at the time of the counterculture and radical politics during the late 1960s but is now in decline both ideologically and financially, and on the brink of being taken over by more ruthless, commercially-minded publishers. Under the pressure of social and economic change, the idealism of the staff is waning and individual selfishness becoming more evident.
Fred Barron, an American, wrote the screenplay based on a story by himself and David M. Helpern. Barron is now a BBC television writer and producer but began his career as a journalist on a Boston newspaper and so Between the Lines was informed by personal experience. Joan Micklin Silver (b 1935), an American filmmaker, directed it. She also had experience of working on an alternative newspaper, The Village Voice. The actors included John Heard, Michael J. Pollard, Stephen Collins, Gwen Wells, Lindsay Crouse, Jill Eikenberry, Bruno Kirby and Jeff Goldblum. Some of them were later to become stars. Goldblum is a tall American film actor (b. 1952, in Pittsburgh) noted for his expressive face and quirky style, and his roles in science fiction movies. He plays Max Arloff, the paper’s rock music critic, with terrific verve. Arloff is a witty and humorous hustler who is always short of cash and uses his position to sell review records and to attract young women.
Many scenes take place in the cluttered offices of the newspaper. At one point, the outside door opens and a rough looking character with shoulder length hair dressed in blue dungarees enters, picks up a secretary’s typewriter from her desk and hurls it to the floor. He then hands a card to the shocked secretary, which states: "You have just witnessed a work of conceptual art by Herbert Fisk." ("Performance art" would have been a more accurate description.) He remarks that his action is entitled "End of Communication" and he wants to be interviewed by reporter Harry Lucas. Arloff is the first member of staff in the room to react and he responds in kind by pulling a notice board from the wall and saying: "I call that paper in flight." Fisk responds by punching and kicking the constantly malfunctioning coffee vending machine and calling his action "Kicked coffee machine with punches". Arloff ripostes by punching his fist though one of the office’s plaster walls and entitles his action "Wall removed with fist and fingers". Fisk then tips the coffee machine over, plants one foot on it and names it "Dead coffee machine". At this point Stanley (Lewis J. Stadlen) the paper’s obnoxious advertising manager enters to find out what is happening. Arloff rips Stanley’s shirt open to reveal his bare chest and calls his gesture "Stanley exposed". Pollard, who plays a man who sells the newspaper in the streets, then writes "Ha!" on Stanley’s chest. Fisk finally realises he cannot get the better of Arloff and walks out with the parting remark "amateurs". After he has left, Arloff comments: "He calls himself an artist." (He might have added: "a shallow and publicity hungry artist.")
Raymond J. Barry (b.1939), who began his career in 1966 with Living Theater and is now a well-established stage and screen actor, played Fisk; curiously, Barry is also a painter and sculptor. He produces colourful and complex abstracts.
The kind of art parodied in the film was created as part of the Fluxus movement and the Destruction in Art Symposia, which took place in London and New York in 1966 and 1968. For instance, the New York artist Jean Toche (b.1932) became notorious for smashing in public such objects as typewriters. Rafael Montanez Ortiz (b.1934) also from the USA, was another specialist in destruction; he attacked pianos with an axe.
The Fisk sequence is unusual and memorable, first, because it is about a conceptual or performance work of art (only rarely represented in movies); and second, because it is hilarious. Otherwise, Between the Lines is a well-observed study of character and human relationships at a time of flux that is both amusing and poignant.
Fred Barron, an American, wrote the screenplay based on a story by himself and David M. Helpern. Barron is now a BBC television writer and producer but began his career as a journalist on a Boston newspaper and so Between the Lines was informed by personal experience. Joan Micklin Silver (b 1935), an American filmmaker, directed it. She also had experience of working on an alternative newspaper, The Village Voice. The actors included John Heard, Michael J. Pollard, Stephen Collins, Gwen Wells, Lindsay Crouse, Jill Eikenberry, Bruno Kirby and Jeff Goldblum. Some of them were later to become stars. Goldblum is a tall American film actor (b. 1952, in Pittsburgh) noted for his expressive face and quirky style, and his roles in science fiction movies. He plays Max Arloff, the paper’s rock music critic, with terrific verve. Arloff is a witty and humorous hustler who is always short of cash and uses his position to sell review records and to attract young women.
Many scenes take place in the cluttered offices of the newspaper. At one point, the outside door opens and a rough looking character with shoulder length hair dressed in blue dungarees enters, picks up a secretary’s typewriter from her desk and hurls it to the floor. He then hands a card to the shocked secretary, which states: "You have just witnessed a work of conceptual art by Herbert Fisk." ("Performance art" would have been a more accurate description.) He remarks that his action is entitled "End of Communication" and he wants to be interviewed by reporter Harry Lucas. Arloff is the first member of staff in the room to react and he responds in kind by pulling a notice board from the wall and saying: "I call that paper in flight." Fisk responds by punching and kicking the constantly malfunctioning coffee vending machine and calling his action "Kicked coffee machine with punches". Arloff ripostes by punching his fist though one of the office’s plaster walls and entitles his action "Wall removed with fist and fingers". Fisk then tips the coffee machine over, plants one foot on it and names it "Dead coffee machine". At this point Stanley (Lewis J. Stadlen) the paper’s obnoxious advertising manager enters to find out what is happening. Arloff rips Stanley’s shirt open to reveal his bare chest and calls his gesture "Stanley exposed". Pollard, who plays a man who sells the newspaper in the streets, then writes "Ha!" on Stanley’s chest. Fisk finally realises he cannot get the better of Arloff and walks out with the parting remark "amateurs". After he has left, Arloff comments: "He calls himself an artist." (He might have added: "a shallow and publicity hungry artist.")
Raymond J. Barry (b.1939), who began his career in 1966 with Living Theater and is now a well-established stage and screen actor, played Fisk; curiously, Barry is also a painter and sculptor. He produces colourful and complex abstracts.
The kind of art parodied in the film was created as part of the Fluxus movement and the Destruction in Art Symposia, which took place in London and New York in 1966 and 1968. For instance, the New York artist Jean Toche (b.1932) became notorious for smashing in public such objects as typewriters. Rafael Montanez Ortiz (b.1934) also from the USA, was another specialist in destruction; he attacked pianos with an axe.
The Fisk sequence is unusual and memorable, first, because it is about a conceptual or performance work of art (only rarely represented in movies); and second, because it is hilarious. Otherwise, Between the Lines is a well-observed study of character and human relationships at a time of flux that is both amusing and poignant.
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