Johnny Suede

Infobox Film | name = Johnny Suede


caption = "Johnny Suede" UK DVD cover
director = Tom DiCillo
producer = Yoram Mandel
Ruth Waldburger
writer = Tom DiCillo
starring = Brad Pitt
Catherine Keener
Calvin Levels
Nick Cave
music = Jim Farmer
cinematography = Joe DeSalvo
editing = Geraldine Peroni
distributor = Lions Gate Entertainment
released = August, 1991 (Locarno Film Festival)
runtime = 90 min.
language = English
budget = $500,000 US (est.)
imdb_id = 0104567

"Johnny Suede" is the 1991 film directorial debut of writer-director Tom DiCillo. It starred Brad Pitt and Catherine Keener with cameos from Samuel L. Jackson and Nick Cave.

Plot Summary

Johnny Suede is a young man with an attitude and an immense pompadour, who wants to be a rock n' roll star like his idol Ricky Nelson. He has all the stylistic accouterments, except a pair of black suede shoes. And one night, after leaving a nightclub, like manna from heaven, a pair of black suede shoes falls at his feet. Soon afterwards, the recently completed Johnny meets Darlette, a sultry bohemian whom he beds down for the night. In spite of Darlette's abusive boyfriend with a gun, Johnny begins to see Darlette everyday. But when Johnny is forced to pawn his guitar for rent money, Darlette mysteriously leaves him. Johnny's pal Deke fronts him the money to get his guitar out of hock, and the two form a band. Depressed about Darlette's desertion, he wanders aimlessly, and he meets Yvonne, a woman much wiser than Johnny who teaches him that there are things in life much more important than a pair of black suede shoes.

Background

Around 1985, while taking acting classes in New York City, DiCillo was impressed with the local punk movement and the resurgence of rockabilly led by acts like Elvis Costello, The Stray Cats and The Clash. [Tom DiCillo interview, quoted in Stephen Lowenstein, ed., "My First Movie: 20 Celebrated Directors Talk about Their First Film" (London: Penguin Books, 2002), p. 31, ISBN 0-14-200220-8.] Spinning personal experiences into monologues, he created a character whose vulnerability is obscured by a superficial fifties era cool, exaggerated to the point of foolishness. DiCillo first wove what he had into a one hour one-man show, before setting the first draft of the screenplay to paper. Eight months later he had completed the fourth draft. [Tom DiCillo interview, quoted in "My First Movie", p. 32.] Having received positive feedback from his friend Jim Jarmusch, DiCillo approached German television, ZDF, who gave him eighty thousand dollars.Tom DiCillo interview, quoted in "My First Movie", p. 35.] Additional funding came from the National Endowment for the Arts for twenty-five thousand dollars, as well as a Panavision package and help with the script from the Sundance Lab. Around 1988 to 1989, while at the Cannes Film Festival, DiCillo stumbled into a deal with a South African producer wherein he sold worldwide rights to his film for three hundred thousand dollars; an arrangement he would later call, "A shaky thing but still I felt it was worth the risk so I decided to go ahead with it." [Tom DiCillo interview, quoted in "My First Movie", p. 36.]

Pre-production, early casting and the search for Johnny quickly followed. By August 1989, having not found what they were looking for in New York, DiCillo and his casting director, Marcia Shulman, went to Los Angeles, where Brad Pitt was the second to last guy seen. DiCillo recalls, " [He] didn’t have much on his resume. In fact he only had two things; he’d done a small Canadian TV series and he’d just finished shooting what he’d listed as his only real film credit — something called Thelma and Louise that no one had heard about because it hadn’t even been edited yet."Tom DiCillo at [http://www.tomdicillo.com/blog/?p=110 Tom DiCillo Blog] ; last accessed January 30 2008.] Convinced Pitt was Johnny Suede, DiCillo forced the casting on his South African producer, who was shortly thereafter replaced by Ruth Waldburger when the South African's option expired. The film was ultimately shot in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 30 days, from November to December 1990.

The movie reportedly grossed $55,000 in the US, against a production budget of $500,000, making it a financial bomb. [ [http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1991/0JSUE.php Johnny Suede - Box Office Data, Movie News, Cast Information - The Numbers ] ]

Trivia

*Tom DiCillo was originally going to play Johnny Suede himself.
*Steve Buscemi was originally cast as Deke.

Notes

External links

*Imdb title|id=0104567|title=Johnny Suede
* [http://www.critical-film.com/reviews/J/Johnny_Suede/Johnny_Suede.html Critical analysis of "Johnny Suede" by Critical-Film.com reviewer Scott Wood]