The Wedding Party (USA, 1969) 92 min B&W DIR-SCR-PROD: Brian De Palma, Wilford Leach, Cynthia Munroe. MUSIC: John Herbert McDowell. DOP: Peter Powell. CAST: William Finley, Jill Clayburgh, Robert De Niro, Jennifer Salt. (Troma)
As much as I love bad movies, I actually have little love for Troma pictures, because they try too hard to be bad. But I do admire the films made by others that they acquire for distribution. So as long as Troma’s main man Lloyd Kaufman spends time releasing older titles like this, Cry Uncle, and of course, the Al Adamson pictures, well God bless him!
This picture is impressionistic, episodic, and has very little plot thrust, but why should it be otherwise? It is set in the course of a small time in which a bunch of oddball characters get together for a wedding rehearsal. Brian De Palma’s first feature, shot in 1967, is better known today for having the first screen appearances of Robert De Niro and Jill Clayburgh in small roles. But I think it is more essential as a De Palma picture, as we tend to forget today his giddy experimentalism in his earlier underground films, made even before he did those thrillers in the 1970s. (Although three directors are credited, it is now accepted that De Palma was the chief creative force of this team.) Almost 40 years on, it is a small delight to have an unassuming movie like this remind us how much he liked to play with the film medium. In this case, many of the scenes unfold in hand-cranked silent film speed, complimented occasionally by title cards with quotations taken from “The Compleat Wedding Guide.”
Years before Robert Altman made A Wedding, De Palma made this ensemble piece which features early roles of his own stock company, such as Jennifer Salt and bug-eyed William Finley, who steals the show as motormouth Austin. There are no great revelations made about the institution of marriage, however. Simply, relatives from either side of the intended couple compare notes about their new family members, and the groom’s friends heckle him about his upcoming prison sentence in matrimony. It isn’t any great shakes, but it is lovely to see after all these years; we are reminded that De Palma has a light playful touch that he seldom gets to exercise anymore.
The DVD begins with a video featuring Kaufman at a wedding, in which some unknown people pretend that they are Robert De Niro and Jill Clayburgh, sharing their thoughts on this movie. Thank goodness for the chapter skip button.
Originally published in Vol. #1, Issue #16.
Greg Woods
Greg Woods has been a film enthusiast since his teens, and began his writing "career" at the same time- prolific in capsule reviews of everything he had watched, first on index cards, then those hardcover dollar store black journals, then an old Mac IIsi. He founded The Eclectic Screening Room in 2001, as a portal to share his film love with the world, and find some like-minded enthusiasts along the way. In addition to having worked in the film industry for over two decades, he has been a co-programmer of films at Trash Palace, and a programmer/co-founder of the Toronto Film Noir Syndicate. He has also written for Broken Pencil, CU-Confidential, Micro-Film, and is currently working on his first novel. His secret desire is for someone to interview him for a podcast or a DVD extra.