SMITHEREENS

US, 1982, 93 minutes, Colour.
Susan Berman, Brad Rinn.
Directed by Susan Seidelman.

Smithereens is a small-budget film about life in the east village of New York at the beginning of the 1980s. The focus is on a young woman who falls in love with a sensitive artist but is caught up with the punk style and the music of this rock era in New York. The smithereens, of course, refers to the smashing of one’s life. Direction is by Susan Seidelmann who made Desperately Seeking Susan, Cookie and She-Devil.

1. The title and its tone? Being broken into small pieces - from inside, through alienation. interaction with society? The band music symbol? The world blown up five years earlier? All floating round - and nobody knows?

2. New York and smithereens? The film as a voice of Americana? A piece of New York? The New York world as a microcosm? Structures. values, directions and people? The younger generation in smithereens?

3. The personal story and the contribution of the producer and director? The small budget? The cast and its quality - authenticity? Location photography? Authentic atmosphere? Detail? Characters within the environment? The skill of writing and direction in establishing characters within situations? The feel for characters and situations? The oblique commentary on society through characters? Insights, comments? Where did audience sympathies lie?

4. The use of the musical score: songs, lyrics and moods?

5. The impetus in the narrative: Wren and the introduction, the encounter with Paul. Wren's story and Paul's story? Aims, the passing of days, the characters encountered? Wren's fickle behaviour? Interchange between Paul and Eric? Wren's needs. use of others, selfishness, seeking each character, losing them? The end and Wren in smithereens?

6. The appeal of the film? For what audience? Younger audiences? Older? American audiences? Universal? The empathy for the characters and the situations? Sympathetic or critical response?

7. The portrait of Wren and the skill of writing, acting? Her stealing, running, the photos, the encounter with Paul? Her focus on herself? Background? Her being evicted and her reaction? The Peppermint Lounge? Farewells? The apartment and her stuff? Being locked? The landlady and good riddance. the window and the clothes being thrown out, the water? The kid with the bra? Her aims: the focus on Eric, his career as a singer? The kiss - and the later being ignored? Eric and his push, the dance, home, expectations? Sleeping the night? Eric's wife - and the later discovery? The quarrel? Her presence? The discovery - the cigarette? Friend and despair? Cecile and the bath? The phone? Hurt? The plans about Los Angeles? Eric and chasing him, re-meeting him? In and out of his life? The fight with the girl? Robbing Ed and betraying? Her going home to her sister - her reaction, her husband's reaction? Her going back to Paul? Moving in with him? Going to the movie? The humour of the horror star? Leaving, returning? The quality of the friendship, sharing, talk? Self-revelation? The possibilities - her incapacity for hearing? New Hampshire? The night - the van? The build-up and her leaving? Hurt: Cecile and her friend, Mike, the band? Paul finally gone? Her final walk. being picked up? In smithereens in the crowd? The detail of the characterisation, emphasis on manner, clothes and appearance, red paint etc? An individual character? Paul and his background from Montana, the chance meeting with Wren, not knowing anybody, the paint, going out. the angry phone call, the lift, the $600. following, helping burgle - the stocking? The prostitute and the sandwich? His hopes in life, type, home? His supporting Wren? Inability to take her ways any longer? The night together, hurt, leaving? The feel for the characterisation? A credible contemporary character?

9. Eric as a type, in himself, star, records, with Wren, with his wife, the fight, his leaving? Ambitions for Los Angeles?

10. Cecile and Ohio? Drink, the photo, seeing Eric, the bath? Her not being any help? Hating girls?

11. Wren's friend? Support?

12. The landlady and her opposition, the woman, the child?

13. Wren's sister, the home, Wren's turning up, the son, the car, the meal, the niece? The possibility of an ordinary life?

14. The background of prostitution in New York? Wren in comparison? moral standards and values?

15. The world of music? Eric? Cabaret performances? Wren's hopes and failures?

16. The importance of the squalid and dingy atmosphere, the cityscapes with their ugliness? The ugly New York lifestyle? Yet Wren liking it? Her wanting to move out a bit? Her rebellion, alienation, being against her roots? The future: television. Reagan, religion, disasters?

17. The values and stances of the film? As expressed in the characters, their tensions? Their hopes? In the music? In the symbol of the horror film? In relationships, feelings, selfishness? Standards?