Philip Hartman’s artifact of New York’s pre-gentrification East Village follows a down-and-out jukebox operator who wanders the cheap tenements, dive bars, and derelict streets of the East Village in search of a mysterious woman in a striped dress.
The Lower East Side of the 1980s was an arts scene never to be repeated, an explosion of creativity that played out within a one-half-square-mile zone when rents were obscenely affordable, inspirational energy was seemingly infinite, and the party would never end. Of course, it did end, or maybe just moved on—but not without leaving behind some perfect time capsules from that particularly magical period and place. One of them is director Philip Hartman’s 1985 film No Picnic, which will be shown at Upstate Films’ Starr Cinema in Rhinebeck on June 25.
In film noir-style black and white, the movie follows the story of a sullen, down-on-his-heels jukebox operator named Macabee as he wanders the pre-gentrified neighborhood’s gritty, late-night streets in search of a mysterious woman. Eerily atmospheric, this intoxicating black comedy is soundtracked by the music of contemporaneous East Village bands the Student Teachers, who featured Chronogram contributor Bill Arning on lead vocals, and the Raunch Hands, who appear in the film. As the owner of the much-missed scene hub the Great Jones Cafe, Freeman was straight in the thick of the 1980s LES milieu, and his work has the Downtown lowdown in spades.
No Picnic will screen as part of Upstate Films’ ongoing Close Up series at its Starr Cinema in Rhinebeck on May 25 at 7pm. A talk with director Philip Freeman will follow the film. Tickets are $11.50 ($9.50 for students and seniors; $7.50 for those under 16).
