One of the earliest independent film successes in America, both in terms of box office and critical acclaim at international film festivals (including Oscar nominations for direction and screenplay), was director Frank Perry's issue oriented David And Lisa, produced by Paul M. Heller (My Left Foot), which was the first starring vehicle for two young actors of great potential whose careers eventually fizzled: Keir Dullea, who would reach his career apogee in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Janet Margolin, who a year later would star as Woody Allen's wife in his directorial debut, Take The Money And Run. These days, Perry is most well known for his unwitting camp classic Mommie Dearest. But, back at the start of his career, Perry was what might be termed a social realist filmmaker who made several other films in that vein with his then wife, Eleanor Perry, who wrote the film's screenplay, adapted from the book, David And Lisa, by Dr. Theodore Isaac Rubin.
While there have been any number of films dealing with mental illness and institutions (Harvey; John Cassavetes' A Child Is Waiting; One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest; Girl, Interrupted, to name the most memorable) few have been as well wrought as this- from the screenplay (remarkable in its prescience and sensitivity, given its year of release), to the acting, to the political commentary, to the 35 millimeter black and white cinematography, by Leonard Hirschfield, which renders many of the shots as sort of moving Ansel Adams photographs of cityscapes . While Lisa clearly is the more disturbed of the two protagoists, neither youth would, today, be institutionalized, although they would likely be overmedicated since preschool, and given an assortment of irresponsible diagnoses, in this age of made up alphabet soup armchair maladies of autism for kids who are merely a little slow, or ADD (or ADHD) for kids who are a little hyperactive. David would be diagnosed as having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), while Lisa seems to be suffering from some sort of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Her subtly lascivious and sexual touching of the statues in the museum, which echoes a brief scene of her fondling her own breast (albeit covered) after she realizes her attraction to David, clearly suggest sexual abuse, not true schizophrenia, nor anything worse. Thus, their reunion at film's end does not really suggest that love can conquer mental illness, but that it can help alleviate some of the problems that teenagers have faced since time immemorial, and which adults have often misconstrued. And, we have no reason to believe that David and Lisa will be released from the school anytime soon. Their admissions of love, without directly stating it, simply suggest that they have gotten over the worst in their lives, and can continue with their full recovery.
Reputedly, the film was shot for about $185,000, but made over a million dollars in rentals after its 1999 release, by Fox Lorber, on VHS and DVD. Unfortunately, the DVD is rather standard. The only 'extras' are some written filmographies of the three major characters, and director Perry. This film was also remade in 1998, by Oprah Winfrey, as a mawkish telefilm starring Sidney Poitier as the psychiatrist, and the execrable Lukas Haas as David. The original is better, and soap opera fans should note that Karen Lynn Gorney (then only fifteen), the original bad girl Tara on All My Children, and later to star in Saturday Night Fever, as Stephanie Mangano, plays the small role of Josette, another student at the school.
All in all, this is a very good film, and one that without the advent of mass market DVDs would likely have had its negatives wither away in some vault. Instead, it can be seen not only as an important American film, historically, but one that entertains even as it enlightens, that rarest of artistic achievements.
While there have been any number of films dealing with mental illness and institutions (Harvey; John Cassavetes' A Child Is Waiting; One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest; Girl, Interrupted, to name the most memorable) few have been as well wrought as this- from the screenplay (remarkable in its prescience and sensitivity, given its year of release), to the acting, to the political commentary, to the 35 millimeter black and white cinematography, by Leonard Hirschfield, which renders many of the shots as sort of moving Ansel Adams photographs of cityscapes . While Lisa clearly is the more disturbed of the two protagoists, neither youth would, today, be institutionalized, although they would likely be overmedicated since preschool, and given an assortment of irresponsible diagnoses, in this age of made up alphabet soup armchair maladies of autism for kids who are merely a little slow, or ADD (or ADHD) for kids who are a little hyperactive. David would be diagnosed as having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), while Lisa seems to be suffering from some sort of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Her subtly lascivious and sexual touching of the statues in the museum, which echoes a brief scene of her fondling her own breast (albeit covered) after she realizes her attraction to David, clearly suggest sexual abuse, not true schizophrenia, nor anything worse. Thus, their reunion at film's end does not really suggest that love can conquer mental illness, but that it can help alleviate some of the problems that teenagers have faced since time immemorial, and which adults have often misconstrued. And, we have no reason to believe that David and Lisa will be released from the school anytime soon. Their admissions of love, without directly stating it, simply suggest that they have gotten over the worst in their lives, and can continue with their full recovery.
Reputedly, the film was shot for about $185,000, but made over a million dollars in rentals after its 1999 release, by Fox Lorber, on VHS and DVD. Unfortunately, the DVD is rather standard. The only 'extras' are some written filmographies of the three major characters, and director Perry. This film was also remade in 1998, by Oprah Winfrey, as a mawkish telefilm starring Sidney Poitier as the psychiatrist, and the execrable Lukas Haas as David. The original is better, and soap opera fans should note that Karen Lynn Gorney (then only fifteen), the original bad girl Tara on All My Children, and later to star in Saturday Night Fever, as Stephanie Mangano, plays the small role of Josette, another student at the school.
All in all, this is a very good film, and one that without the advent of mass market DVDs would likely have had its negatives wither away in some vault. Instead, it can be seen not only as an important American film, historically, but one that entertains even as it enlightens, that rarest of artistic achievements.