Review by Gary Tooze

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• The Connection Home Movies (6:27)
• A Conversation with Albert Brenner (4:40 )
• Connecting with Freddie Redd (27:32)
• The Connection-Behind The Scenes. (5:50)
• The Connection trailer (1:36)
• Carl and Max at the Chelsea (4:17)
• Two 45rpm songs: Who Killed Cock Robin (2:10) and I’m in Love (1:55)
• One of the bonus features listed on the box cover was a 29-minute radio interview. Due to the poor quality of the sound (and the fact that it didn't really pertain to THE CONNECTION), it was left off at the last minute. However! you can now listen to it for free on Milestone's Vimeo site HERE.

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Description: THE CONNECTION is one of the most vital, fascinating films of the American independent world. Created by a woman director, Shirley Clarke, at a time when they were in very short supply, the film shattered stereotypes in just about every conceivable way. And yet, the film remained unseen for many years.

Shirley Clarke was a vital part of the burgeoning post-war American film movement. She was one of the first signers — and the only woman — of the New American Cinema manifesto in 1961. For her first feature film, she decided to take on a controversial play by Jack Gelber that was running off-Broadway. The Connection was a play within a play within a jazz concert. It portrayed a group of drug addicts, some of them jazz musicians, waiting in a New York loft apartment for their drug connection. A producer and a writer, meanwhile, have entered their lives to study them and write a play about them. The brilliantly written Beat dialogue was blended with jazz music written by the great pianist Freddie Redd.

Clarke changed the character of the writer to Jim Dunn, a young, preppy filmmaker out to make a name for himself by documenting the "scene." As Clarke was best friends with the hot new indie directors, she added a level of humor by poking fun at the cinema vérité movement. She also chose to keep the play's one-set constriction, but she combined the French New Wave’s mobile camera with a whirling choreography of movement and jazz to create an exciting, kinetic film that was acclaimed at the Cannes International Film Festival as a masterpiece. Yet even knowing the avant garde nature of the play and her film, little could Clarke recognize the furor the film was about to create.

Although Hollywood had previously depicted drug addiction in the recent years, it was mostly of the good men gone bad scenario with tragic endings. THE CONNECTION, with the raw, graphic depiction of drug addicts that Gelber wrote for the stage, A hit at Cannes, it was promptly banned by government censor boards for indecent language and a struggle ensued to have it theatrically screened in the United States. After a two-year battle, the producers and director ultimately won in court and as important as it was judicially, it was sadly a case of too little too late as the film lost its timeliness and failed at the box office. But among filmmakers, it was highly influential. The film has been out of distribution since the early 1980s.

Arthur Ornitz's black-and-white cinematography sparkles on the screen, and the performances of Freddie Redd and saxophone legend Jackie McLean sound impeccable in the new UCLA restoration. The release of THE CONNECTION is one of the cinema events of the year!

 

 

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

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The Connection Home Movies are 16mm, 6.5 minute, footage courtesy of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. an interesting vintage inclusion. We also get a lot more - 5 minutes in a conversation with Albert Brenner - in charge of art direction in The Connection. Connecting with Freddie Redd spends almost a 1/2 hour with the pianist and composer reflecting on his work in The Connection. There is six minutes of The Connection-Behind The Scenes which features Jack Gelber and his son Jed, said to have been shot on the last day of filming. There is a trailer, Carl and Max at the Chelsea and two, audio-only, 45 rpm songs: Who Killed Cock Robin (2:10) and I’m in Love (1:55). NOTE: one of the bonus features listed on the box cover was a 29-minute radio interview. Due to the poor quality of the sound (and the fact that it didn't really pertain to The Connection), it was left off at the last minute. It is, however, available on Milestone's Vimeo site HERE.

BOTTOM LINE:
Magnificent. Shirley Clarke's first feature effort is absolute brilliance. The Connection is a total gem - I feel privileged to have seen it looking and sounding so marvelous. The Milestone Blu-ray (and I love the cover!) is top-shelf. I was thankful to actually see this film at all and this 1080P will prove to be the best way to watch it in your home theater. Very strongly recommended!