Creativity, vision and passion--micro-budget filmmakers need to rely heavily on these three qualities to make up for what they don't have in cash. Putting together a capable and committed cast, rounding up the appropriate equipment, and finding someplace to shoot are challenging enough. Add in money-leeching elements like costuming, special effects, and elaborate post-production and it's easy to see why so many film projects go uncompleted or unrealized entirely. When I first heard about "Chiaroscuro, Baby," a feature-length drama in the style of 60s black-and-white B-Reels, I was curious to see how filmmakers Anthony Kilburn and Halina Lubczanska of KillaCozzy Productions would re-create and maintain the period atmosphere. The answer, friends, is "very well and very cleverly."
Calvin is an aspiring painter in present-day Jacksonville, Florida, whose desire to please his girlfriend Nancy is in direct odds with his artistic integrity. Surrounded by eccentric friends whose actions range from scatter-brained to hedonistic to self-destructive, Calvin is confused about where his own loyalties and dreams truly lie. After Calvin produces a series of collages at Nancy's encouragement (she disapproves of his paintings of figures on salvaged windowpanes), big-time art dealer Arthur Prophet offers him a lucrative deal, even though Calvin dislikes the pieces he's produced. Things get murkier still for Calvin when he meets Marjorie, a vivacious photographer who encourages him to pursue his painting. The film follows Calvin as he struggles with his own personal choices while dealing with drugs, flawed friendships, and others' expectations of him.
The success of "Chiaroscuro, Baby" is twofold--it lies both in the strength of many of the performances as well as in its loving attention to detail in the production design.
Christopher Bolla brings a geeky magnetism to his portrayal of Calvin--Marjorie is right that his "awkwardness is vaguely entertaining;" in fact, it's downright endearing. It would be easy to play Calvin as the spineless nebbish in a sort of "Venus in Furs" scenario with Nancy as the vicious domme, but Bolla plays Calvin as someone who's confused, but fully-formed as a person. There are some moments of real sensuality between Calvin and the two female leads. The scenes in which Marjorie (played with smirky charm by Milan Alley) models nude for Calvin brim with unrequited sexual tension. On the more... erm... requited tip, Calvin's relationship with Nancy (Christianna White, who has some eerily Edie-Sedgwick-esque angles) is pathological, but there are moments of chemistry where one can see why the two have stayed together. Nancy is one crazy-ass bitch, and that's never far from the viewer's consciousness, but in the spirit of "Crazy Sex Is the Best Sex," she knows how to keep Calvin in her thrall by using her sensuality.
Regarding the production design, I know at least one of you is scratching his or her head at the juxtaposition of 60's style and 2000's setting. You didn't misread anything--the movie is, in fact, set in the 2000's but uses many tropes and cliches characteristic of the vintage films that serve as its inspiration. This juxtaposition might seem jarring, but it works as a sly commentary on the fetishization of counter-culture movements of the past. Subplots involving drug addiction, infidelity, homosexuality, and rape come straight from the "Cautionary Tale" films of the mid-1900s, but the way in which they're handled here reflects the ambiguity of the present. There have been some painstaking hours put in towards creating film and audio grain that succeeds in evoking a low-fi, mid-century look and feel. The cinematography is full of movement, avoiding static shots and adding a hand-held flavor to the proceedings.
"Chiaroscuro, Baby" isn't without its issues. At over two hours, there's room for the story to be tightened up, and while the filmmakers avoid the 60's B-Reel traps of "endless driving scenes" and "endless walking scenes," there's a sense that they had difficulty trimming material due to their affection for what they'd filmed. Also, while I enjoyed the fact that the film never settles into a groove of all-out "seriousness" or committed "satire," I couldn't help but feel I'd have loved the movie if it owned its comedic elements and amped those up by several degrees. This full-length trailer teases at what the film could've achieved if it went further down the satirical route:
Fans of 1960s social melodramas will find plenty to enjoy in "Chiaroscuro, Baby." The dedication of the filmmakers is clear in every scene, they're clearly a talented group of creatives, and they've produced a film with a unique and well-executed style. I'm eager to see what KillaCozzy Productions comes out with next!
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