Mel Howard
This experimental film, a self-described mix of reality and fiction shot in Greenwich Village and a Vermont commune, captures past and present moments from the life of Mel Howard, the film’s co-writer & co-narrator. Scenes chronicling Howard’s doomed romance with Scandinavian girl friend Turid Aarsted are interwoven with scenes detailing Howard’s relationship with his parents and with a former girl friend, as well as his failed attempts at moviemaking. One sequence depicts Aarsted leaving the thirty-seven-year-old Howard for the film’s cameraman, Paul Goldsmith, and includes a sex scene between the new lovers. In off-screen commentary, producer Kenneth E. Schwartz expresses concern about the film’s content. He reveals that he raised $50,000 for the project, complains to the viewer that the film was not supposed to be a “diary of freaky people.” Eventually he and Howard come to terms about the film’s direction and allow the film’s story to unfold unobstructed.
Release Date | 1973-01-29 |
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Runtime | 1h 25m |
Directors | Irving Horowitz, Paul Goldsmith |
Producer | Kenneth E. Schwartz |
Writer | Mel Howard |