MFT: Arthur Penn, Warren Beatty - Mickey One

"Mickey One" is a film that doesn't give a fuck. It is directed by Athur Penn and starring Warren Beatty. It was released in 1965 to little fanfare and still remains an obscurity in the filmographies of both Penn and Beatty. It is footnote that lies deep in the shadows of next Penn / Beatty collaboration - game changing mighty-mighty "Bonnie and Clyde". Groundbreaking success of the latter led to diminishment of "Mickey One". It was written off as anything but a try-out, a test before the real deal. It doesn't seem to be fair but that's the reality. But that doesn't mean "Mickey One" is unworthy or outright bad. Quite the opposite. It is refreshingly weird beast of a film that dazzles by the mere fact of its existence.

Plot of "Mickey One" is relatively simple. Nameless club comedian gets into the trouble with mafia. He then flees and assumes the identity of Mickey One. He tries to lay low but it seems to be quite uncomfortable. Mickey One was born to stand-up and so after a while he returns to performing although he almost immediately starts to feel anxious about entire affair. Eventually he tries to sort things out with the mobsters only to get beaten. After that he says "screw this" and performs his act anyway consequences be damned.

"Mickey One" is a strange case of a Holywood film which is nothing like Holywood film and extremely proud of it. Things were complicated at the time when "Mickey One" was released. Theaters were filled with megalomaniac sword-and-sandals, po-faced costume dramas and senseless fluff of a comedies. Even Hitchcock passed his prime. New Holywood only started to emerge and was quite far from any kind of domination. Future masters like Peckinpah, Altman and Coppola already tried their hands at craft but their glory will come much later. Sure, there was also John Cassavetes who already released his mission statement film "Shadows" but he was thrusted into Holywood system and forced to play by the rules. Things were about to change but not yet.

In the meantime - there was a cinematic revolution going on in full swing Europe. French Nouvelle Vauge caught the world on fire and works of Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette, Eric Romer, Francois Truffaut and Claude Chabrol were bending the rules of filmmaking, challenging limits of cinematic forms and covering new and risque topics. These guys made cinema great again. They made it new and exciting - just like it was in the old days before corporates in the business suits took over. 

Arthur Penn and Warren Beatty were superbad fans of Nouvelle Vague and thought it would be a great idea to do no holds barred Nouvelle Vague film in US. And they could pull it off. Arthur Penn was already and established stage and film director. He was trusted, reliable man who could take responsibility and deliver satisfying results while not messing around. Warren Beatty was an up and coming white hot actor coming off 5 year long streak of commercial and critical hits. In his late 20s he was already a formiddable draw. It was easy to convince anybody to greenlit any project with such people involved. They knew the drill and played on it.

In its core - "Mickey One" is an endless supply of middle fingers and cussing to every conceivable cinematic convention especially those favored by Holywood system. There's some plot, there are so definitions of characters, there is some action. But it is delivered in a fundamentally different way. It ignores the Holywood rules of narrative.

Instead "Mickey One" just says "What's that shit? Fuck that shit!" and does something else. "Mickey One" dares to be different. And yet somehow remains relatively easy to follow even though it tries really hard to avoid any kind of convention. The plot "comedian gets into the trouble and tries to get away - poorly" serves as a starting point for showcase of cinematic equilibrism. It's a film of many things. It's a film that uses its own plot to show some stuff just because it looks kinda cool. It's a film about Warren Beatty doing a Jean-Paul Belmondo impression with shades of James Dean spliced with Orson Welles. It's a film where Arthur Penn throws every trick in the book just because why not and then makes up a couple of more on the fly that's what art is for. It's film that tries to up its cool jazz soundtrack by Stan Getz.