Main Cast: Brad Pitt, Calvin Levels, Alison Moir, Catherine Keener, Tina Louise
Release Year: 1992
Country: US
Run Time: 97 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Tom DiCillo directed this surrealistic black comedy starring Brad Pitt as Johnny Suede, a young man with an attitude and an immense pompadour, who wants to be a rock n' roll star like his idol Ricky Nelson. He has all the stylistic accouterments, except a pair of black suede shoes. And one night, after leaving a nightclub, like manna from heaven, a pair of black suede shoes falls at his feet. Soon afterwards, the recently completed Johnny meets Darlette (Alison Moir), a sultry bohemian whom he beds down for the night. In spite of Darlette's abusive boyfriend with a gun, Johnny begins to see Darlette everyday. But when Johnny is forced to pawn his guitar for rent money, Darlette mysteriously leaves him. Johnny's pal Deke (Calvin Levels) fronts him the money to get his guitar out of hock, and the two form a band. Depressed about Darlette's desertion, he wanders aimlessly, and he meets Yvonne (Catherine Keener), a woman much wiser than Johnny who teaches him that there are things in life much more important than a pair of black suede shoes. DiCillo based his independent comedy Living in Oblivion upon his experiences working with Brad Pitt on this film. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
Began as a one-man show by writer/director Tom Di Cillo, Johnny Suede is a charming stylized fable of an innocent would-be rock star, played convincingly by Brad Pitt. The fact that Di Cillo would later base the arrogant idiot leading man Chad Palomino in Living in Oblivion on this experience with Pitt makes Johnny's deadpan naïveté that more funny. With no talent and a pompadour hairstyle of cartoon proportions, Johnny prefers to linger in the illusion of the '50s teen idol rather than join the bleak modern world. As the cinematographer for Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise, Di Cillo similarly captures a desolate landscape in a seemingly barren city with empty streets and crumbling architecture. Attempting to help out the hapless Johnny is Freak Storm (played humorously by Australian rocker Nick Cave) and the rooted-in-reality Yvonne (Catherine Keener). Johnny's rock star dreams rise and fall as he steps into some surreal moments that could take the story in an interesting direction, but never quite do. Particularly annoying are the scenes in which it is obvious that Brad Pitt and his short-lived band are not actually playing their instruments. On the whole, Johnny Suede succeeds as an entertaining deconstruction of the myth of the macho teen idol by revealing a moron in holey underwear who knows nothing about sex, appropriately played by Brad Pitt at a point in his career prior to his own idol status. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Nick Cave - Freak Storm; John David Barone - Bernard; Joseph Barry - Cowboy; Richard Boes - Man in Tuxedo; Wilfredo Giovanni Clark - Slick; Cheryl Costa - Woman in Alley; Ashley Gardner - Ellen; Samuel L. Jackson - B-Bop; Tom Jarmusch - Conan; Ahmed Ben Larby - Cab Driver; Ralph Marrero - Bartender; Wayne Maugans - Ned Business; Peter McRobbie - Flip Doubt; Michael Mulheren - Fred Business; Dennis Parlato - Dalton; Evelyn Solann - Old Woman; Ron Vawter - Winston; Michael Luciano - Mr. Clepp
Credit
Laura Brock - Art Director, Marcia Shulman - Casting, Jessica Haston - Costume Designer, Tom DiCillo - Director, Geraldine Peroni - Editor, Steven Starr - Executive Producer, Ruth Waldburger - Executive Producer, Jim Farmer - Composer (Music Score), Patricia Woodbridge - Production Designer, Rhett Morita - Cinematographer, Joe Desalvo - Cinematographer, Yoram Mandel - Producer, Gail Stayden - Producer, Ruth Waldburger - Producer, Tom DiCillo - Screenwriter, Link Wray - Additional Music
Johnny Suede is a young man with an attitude and an immense pompadour, who wants to be a rock n' roll star like his idol Ricky Nelson. He has all the stylistic accouterments, except a pair of black suede shoes. And one night, after leaving a nightclub, like manna from heaven, a pair of black suede shoes falls at his feet. Soon afterwards, the recently completed Johnny meets Darlette, a sultry bohemian with whom he beds down for the night. In spite of Darlette's abusive gun-toting boyfriend, Johnny begins to see Darlette everyday. But when Johnny is forced to pawn his guitar for rent money, Darlette mysteriously leaves him. Johnny's pal Deke fronts him the money to get his guitar out of hock, and the two form a band. Depressed about Darlette's desertion, he wanders aimlessly, and he meets Yvonne, a woman much wiser than Johnny who teaches him that there are things in life much more important than a pair of black suede shoes.
Cast
Brad Pitt as Johnny Suede; DiCillio had initially intended to play Suede himself.
Around 1985, while taking acting classes in New York City, DiCillo was impressed with the local punk movement and the resurgence of rockabilly led by acts like Elvis Costello, The Stray Cats and The Clash.[1] Spinning personal experiences into monologues, he created a character whose vulnerability is obscured by a superficial fifties era cool, exaggerated to the point of foolishness. DiCillo first wove what he had into a one hour one-man show, before setting the first draft of the screenplay to paper. Eight months later he had completed the fourth draft.[2] Having received positive feedback from his friend Jim Jarmusch, DiCillo approached German television, ZDF, who gave him eighty thousand dollars.[3] Additional funding came from the National Endowment for the Arts for twenty-five thousand dollars, as well as a Panavision package and help with the script from the Sundance Lab.[3] Around 1988 to 1989, while at the Cannes Film Festival, DiCillo stumbled into a deal with a South African producer wherein he sold worldwide rights to his film for three hundred thousand dollars; an arrangement he would later call, "A shaky thing but still I felt it was worth the risk so I decided to go ahead with it."[4]
Pre-production, early casting and the search for Johnny quickly followed. By August 1989, having not found what they were looking for in New York, DiCillo and his casting director, Marcia Shulman, went to Los Angeles, where Brad Pitt was the second to last guy seen. DiCillo recalls, "[He] didn’t have much on his resume. In fact he only had two things; he’d done a small Canadian TV series and he’d just finished shooting what he’d listed as his only real film credit — something called Thelma and Louise that no one had heard about because it hadn’t even been edited yet."[5] Convinced Pitt was Johnny Suede, DiCillo forced the casting on his South African producer, who was shortly thereafter replaced by Ruth Waldburger when the South African's option expired. The film was ultimately shot in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 30 days, from November to December 1990.[5]
Release and reception
The film was entered into competition at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland, where it was seen by a distributor from Miramax who, convinced Pitt would become a film star, urged Harvey Weinstein to make the unprecedented step of purchasing the rights to a film he had not yet seen.[5]Johnny Suede won Best Picture at the festival, and the distribution deal was sealed.[5]
The movie reportedly grossed $90,091 in the US box office, against a production budget of $500,000.[6], though this was in one cinema - its widest release.
Notes
^ Tom DiCillo interview, quoted in Lowenstein ed., 2002, p. 31
^ Tom DiCillo interview, quoted in Lowenstein ed., 2002, p. 32.
^ ab Tom DiCillo interview, quoted in Lowenstein ed., 2002, p. 35.
^ Tom DiCillo interview, quoted in Lowenstein ed., 2002, p. 36.
