LIGHTNING OVER WATER

Germany, 1979, 91 minutes, Colour.
Nicholas Ray, Wim Wenders, Susan Ray, Ronee Blakley, Tom Farrell.
Directed by Nicholas Ray and Wim Wenders.

Lightning Over Water is an unusual, odd and generally interesting documentary feature. It is a film allegedly about directors Wim Wenders and Nicholas Ray. The film is most revealing about Ray - who is in his terminal illness time and is dead by the end of the film. It is an insight into Ray, his attitude towards his death by cancer and a tribute to him. The film is a portrait of Ray as well as a postscript to his life and career.

German director Wim Wenders has had a successful career including such films as Wrong Movement, King of the Road and The American Friend in which Nicholas Ray had a guest role. while in Hollywood to make Hammett, he went to New York to meet Ray, realised that he was dying and this became the subject of a projected film to be made by the two. The film starts with the echoes of the gangster film as a man arrives in a New York street ? but it is Wenders going to Ray's house to discuss the film. Wenders discusses his film throughout and is photographed reflecting on what he is doing. He remarks that at times it becomes impersonal as he is involved in the making of the film and its techniques. However, he does participate in discussions with Ray and encourages him to reflect and act as well as capturing him in various places e.g. home, lecturing, hospital bed. The crew are also to be seen throughout the film and are involved in its action. The points that Wenders makes about the realisation of Ray's illness, treatment and death are important for the insight into the director.

Nicholas Ray had an important career in Hollywood from the late 1940s until his collapse while making 55 Days At Peking. He made a number of significant films which have been studied and written about extensively. Ray did not fit into Hollywood although he remarks that he enjoyed it for a time. He moved away and filmed his last major films Savage Innocents, King of Kings, 55 Days At Peking in Europe, especially Spain. Towards the end of his life he made a guest appearance in Milos Forman's Hair. Living in New York, he concentrated on art as well as trying to make a final feature film called We Can't Go Home Again (some of which is screened during this feature). We see something of his family and friends. He reflects on the past but the emphasis is definitely on the present. In his ageing and illness he seems a generally agreeable man, forthright in his manner, articulate in his speech and reflections about work and life. This is seen in his lecture after a screening to Vassar students of The Lusty Men. In discussing to the camera his attitude to Lighting Over Water, he remarks that it is "a film about a man who wants to bring himself all together before he dies, a regaining of self-esteem." Somewhat exhibitionist in his final outbursts, forthright in his approach to life, courageous in death, it is a good tribute to him.

Ray emphasises the American theme that people want a home of their own and that there is a great yearning for coming home. He illustrates this by the sequence shown from The Lusty Men with Robert Mitchum returning home. His own feature focusing on the disturbances especially in Chicago and protest in the late '60s is called We Can't Go Home Again.

The film highlights the relationships between Ray and the members of the crew and his family. There is an atmosphere about New York which is photographed from above, from the streets, from the water. There is a symbolic junk sailing through the harbour at various stages of the film.

The film focuses on the reality of terminal illness, treatment, dying - as seen in the long sequence of Ray's waking up, the overtones of the hospital, his Lear-like rage in his performance from the hospital bed stage and his final speech and confrontation with the camera. His final words to camera are: "Cut and don't cut".

The epilogue has the members of the crew discussing what has been the experience for them of making the film and of making a toast and tribute to Ray. It is suggested that they burn the junk - but one of the crew burns a match from top to bottom - perhaps a symbol of the small light that Nicholas Ray was yet significant. An interesting example of filmmakers working on themselves.