I've written about Martin Scorsese's "After Hours" several times here (see below). For me, it's just the perfect movie. It's funny, it's dark, it's about downtown New York and frustration with a bit of Punk Rock and a bit of transgression. Really, it's got everything.
For the longest time, for any friend of mine who was moving to NYC after college, I would DEMAND that they watch the film, just so they knew what it was like and what they were getting into. That may have been a bit of a surreal advice, given the film's bleak, Kafka-esque narrative, but for a while, it did really capture the vibe of downtown Manhattan.
That vibe is gone now, of course. Even if you walk around the streets of SoHo in the dead of a rainy summer night, you're not going to experience that frontier atmosphere of desolation that oozed out of "After Hours." That SoHo is long vanished.
I start to think of "After Hours" pretty much at the start of ever summer here in NYC, when the air gets heavy, hot and thick and the nights seem to wind on forever, and after those last two posts about SoHo, it seemed fitting to re-address it.
I've mentioned it in other posts on the subject, but for the longest time, "After Hours" wasn't available on DVD, and I could never quite fathom why. As it happened, in the mid-90's, Griffin Dunne (the film's protagonist) actually lived down the street from me. I drunkenly accosted him one night in front of the Cedar Tavern and demanded an explanation as to why that was the case. He politely talked his way out of that confrontation, but always looked the other way from that point on when we passed on the street.
When the movie finally came out on DVD in 2004, I was elated, but ultimately let down. I had such high hopes for a trove of illuminating extras, but it was pretty standard. I suppose Criterion could still release their deluxe edition of it, but I'm not holding my breath for that.
In any case, if you haven't seen it and you're a fan of this weblog, go check it out at once. Virtually everything this blog holds dear is embedded within.
Meanwhile, here is one of the extras that came with the DVD...
More about "After Hours" from me...
The Sounds of "After Hours"
Long After "After Hours"
Kiki Bridges Revisited
SoHoliloquy
One Year Later & the Terminal Emerald
Top 11 Favorite Movies Filmed In and Depicting NYC
No More Moondancing
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