MICKEY ONE
US, 1965, 93 minutes, Black and white.
Warren Beatty, Hurd Hatfield, Alexandra Stewart, Franchot Tone, Teddy Hart, Jeff Corey, Kama tail Fujiwara. Directed by Arthur Penn.
Mickey One is, so far, the only film that Arthur Penn has both produced and directed. Most critics, and the public, didn't like it, and was accused of being the worst type of arty film, self-conscious and pretentious. Penn himself says that he concentrated too much on ideas and themes without sufficient emphasis of these themes on real characters and coherent situations. Thus Mickey One himself is a symbolic representative of humanity as K was, for instance, in Kafka's - The Trial. In fact there are more than passing similarities between Penn's film and The Trial. Mickey One is a man of his environment, yet alienated; he is pursued and guilty, yet one wonders whether he is his own enemy. Mickey's encounters with people who are normal are quite strange; a clash between a symbol and reality. Penn has filmed the whole exercise in striking ways and this has the audience consciously aware of how clever the artist is: symbols, lights, costumes, Japanese artists, night-club patter, gangster-film techniques are all used.
Warren Beatty does his best as Mickey One. Interestingly, Hurd Hatfield of The Picture of Dorian Grey, makes a rare screen appearance. Alexandra Stewart, who turns up unexpectedly in British, French and Canadian films, is a very sympathetic Jenny. In Penn's canon this film comes between The Miracle Worker (1962) and The Chase (1966).
1. Did you enjoy this film? Why? Did you find it easy to follow?
2. What was the main theme of the film?
3. What symbols impressed you most? What did they signify? How did they work?
4. Most critics called the film 'pretentious', attacking its over-obvious end, and, at times, over-clever techniques and symbolism. Do you agree it was a self-conscious piece of 'art cinema'?
5. The world of Kafka comes to mind whilst watching this film - is this so? Living in a nightmare of fear and flight, alienated, anonymous, persecuted man; man of appearances and reality? Are these valid considerations for Mickey One? Was Arthur Penn trying to transfer contemporary existential anxiety and alienation themes to Detroit and Chicago?
6. How effective were the sequences during the credits? What did they suggest about the world, society, the individual? Did Mickey One represent modern man? Of what was Mickey One guilty?
7. What comment on organised religion and charity did the sequence of the meal and Bible reading make?
8. How did the physical environments of Chicago and Detroit contribute to the meaning of the film?
9. Was Mickey One a good comic? Note his talk with Jenny about acting and trying to be an ideal self.
10. What was the effect of the rehearsal without the audience, with the anonymous spotlight on him? Why did he run away?
11. What was the significance of the Japanese artist and his continual invitations? His work of art, "Yes", and its destruction?
12. Why were Castle and Fryer so anxious to have Mickey One at the Xanadu?
13. What had Mickey achieved when he finally opened at the Xanadu?
14. What was the meaning of the piano playing at the end - acceptance, success, failure, compromise?
