Seattle in Mind
Jan. 8th, 2011 01:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
randy_byersA label called Shout Factory has released a 25th Anniversary Special Edition of Alan Rudolph's 1985 film, Trouble in Mind. It's not exactly the Criterion treatment, but it's a good presentation of one of my very favorite films. I've written about the movie before. As I wrote then, one of the attractions of the film is that it captures a portrait of Seattle as it looked when I first moved here the year before. To some extent, 25 years later, that Seattle is gone, so here I'm presenting images of that lost city as seen in the film.
I've always assumed that this shot from the opening credits was from the Union Street Station, but I'm not completely sure. It could be the King Street Station, which shows up later in the film too. This is also one of numerous shots in the film that echo Blade Runner (1982) in some way. There's a concerted effort to mix up the time signifiers in costumes and cars and so on, and the Blade Runner imagery signals a science fictional future.
This shot from the waterfront depicts a fictional bus company. The viaduct in the background was badly damaged in the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, and it's scheduled to be torn down in the next couple of years. The figures in the nearer background signal World War II (the helmet) and the Depression (the men keeping warm around a barrel fire). Meanwhile, a figure out of noir talks to some punks.
The first time I watched this movie, in 2006, at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
akirlu's recommendation and on her videotape copy, this shot from Wanda's Cafe showing the Frontier Room in the background made me go downtown, stand on that corner, and look up the hill to see if I could spot the location of the cafe, which is the central hangout in the film. Sure enough, there it was, now a real estate office or something else normally invisible. In 1985 the Frontier Room was a notorious dive bar where you could get cheap, strong mixed drinks. Now it's a more upscale BBQ joint, at least from what I can discern on their Flash-ridden website.
In my early years in Seattle I used to ride the ferry to Bainbridge Island just for the view of the downtown skyline that you could get from the middle of Elliott Bay.
This is the best shot I could find to give you some sense of what the skyline looks like now. Not massively different, but different.
At least two scenes were shot with the Kingdome in the background. The Kingdome was demolished in 2000 and replaced by an open-air stadium called Qwest Field. Can't say I miss it as a place to see games. The air in there was always dead as a mackerel and dry as a popcorn fart. On the other hand, I did see Griffey play there.
It wouldn't be a Seattle film without a shot of the monorail, which is in itself a signifier of a retro-future -- the future as seen from the perspective of the 1962 World's Fair. Meanwhile, many of the cars seen in the film are models from the '70s.
I would have sworn that Charlie's Tavern was on Leary Way out toward Ballard, but according to Clark Humphrey's Vanishing Seattle it was actually at 6th and Pike downtown. It's unclear to me whether it still exists, but Google suggests not.
The neon sign of the Camlin Hotel shows up twice in the film, both times truncated. I'm guessing this is some kind of in-joke, but I don't get it. Possibly this is the hotel where the cast and crew stayed? The Camlin was then famous for the Cloud Room -- a penthouse piano bar that I never made it to, although I tried twice -- now converted to penthouse units.
The Market Theater was under the Pike Place Market, and I saw at least one movie there in the '80s: Paul Verhoeven's The Fourth Man (1983), made in the Netherlands before he came to Hollywood. I'm not sure if they show movies there anymore, but I met an actress-barista last year who does improv comedy there.
Rudolph has some fun with Seattle's most iconic piece of architecture. I'm not sure there's a straight shot of it in the whole film.
And this is how the downtown streets always look in my memories of the '80s, when I used to go down to the Central Tavern in Pioneer Square to see bands like the Butthole Surfers and the U-Men. It was always night time, and it was always raining. That much hasn't changed, or so it always feels this time of year.
Another typical view of the downtown street scene. Always an abandoned feeling in those days. I feel that I should be able to identify the street from the buildings in the background, but my recognition fu is not powerful enough. It's quite possible that this street looks pretty much the same now, although that area did get gentrified during the dot-com boom.
I believe this is the only shot of the Pike Place Market in the movie, and it's a model of the market that's part of a miniature streetscape being built by the protagonist, Hawk, played by Kris Kristofferson. I think the model Seattle in the film is a quiet commentary on representation, but it's so subtle that I'm not sure I understand it. Then again, much of the film is mysterious, like a dream that troubles the mind.
The King Street Station has received a substantial facelift since this shot, and it's in the middle of another one. When I moved here, the economy was on the rocks and the city had a depressed feel. Beginning with the dot-com boom, capital flowed into the city in a major way, transforming everything. One of the nice aspects of this is that rail has started to establish itself again as a mode of mass transit in these parts. The King Street Station is at the center of at least three different rail systems now.
And one of the beauties of living in Seattle is that you can head east on Interstate 90 (which goes all the way to Boston) and be in the mountains 30 minutes later.
Before you know it, you're in the forest of the night.
'During our modest theatrical release way back when, most queries aimed my way concerned time, place and tone. Defining these concepts was very important to audiences and critics alike, even the admirers. Where was it supposed to be set? And when? Was it film noir or retro-futurity slapstick melodrama gangster romance? And why was the societal outlook so bleak when contemporary forecasts were uniformly rosy? After all, this was 1985, Morning in America!
'My smartass response was always that the film is set in Rain City. Its time is when past meets future, but not the present. The physical surface is deliberately invented and stylized, the scenario and characters intentionally made from old movie parts. A kind of yesterday's version of tomorrow. And that pesky tone? Simultaneously humorous and serious. But with genuine emotions.'
-- Alan Rudolph, liner notes for the new DVD
I've always assumed that this shot from the opening credits was from the Union Street Station, but I'm not completely sure. It could be the King Street Station, which shows up later in the film too. This is also one of numerous shots in the film that echo Blade Runner (1982) in some way. There's a concerted effort to mix up the time signifiers in costumes and cars and so on, and the Blade Runner imagery signals a science fictional future.
This shot from the waterfront depicts a fictional bus company. The viaduct in the background was badly damaged in the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, and it's scheduled to be torn down in the next couple of years. The figures in the nearer background signal World War II (the helmet) and the Depression (the men keeping warm around a barrel fire). Meanwhile, a figure out of noir talks to some punks.
The first time I watched this movie, in 2006, at
akirlu's recommendation and on her videotape copy, this shot from Wanda's Cafe showing the Frontier Room in the background made me go downtown, stand on that corner, and look up the hill to see if I could spot the location of the cafe, which is the central hangout in the film. Sure enough, there it was, now a real estate office or something else normally invisible. In 1985 the Frontier Room was a notorious dive bar where you could get cheap, strong mixed drinks. Now it's a more upscale BBQ joint, at least from what I can discern on their Flash-ridden website.In my early years in Seattle I used to ride the ferry to Bainbridge Island just for the view of the downtown skyline that you could get from the middle of Elliott Bay.
This is the best shot I could find to give you some sense of what the skyline looks like now. Not massively different, but different.
At least two scenes were shot with the Kingdome in the background. The Kingdome was demolished in 2000 and replaced by an open-air stadium called Qwest Field. Can't say I miss it as a place to see games. The air in there was always dead as a mackerel and dry as a popcorn fart. On the other hand, I did see Griffey play there.
It wouldn't be a Seattle film without a shot of the monorail, which is in itself a signifier of a retro-future -- the future as seen from the perspective of the 1962 World's Fair. Meanwhile, many of the cars seen in the film are models from the '70s.
I would have sworn that Charlie's Tavern was on Leary Way out toward Ballard, but according to Clark Humphrey's Vanishing Seattle it was actually at 6th and Pike downtown. It's unclear to me whether it still exists, but Google suggests not.
The neon sign of the Camlin Hotel shows up twice in the film, both times truncated. I'm guessing this is some kind of in-joke, but I don't get it. Possibly this is the hotel where the cast and crew stayed? The Camlin was then famous for the Cloud Room -- a penthouse piano bar that I never made it to, although I tried twice -- now converted to penthouse units.
The Market Theater was under the Pike Place Market, and I saw at least one movie there in the '80s: Paul Verhoeven's The Fourth Man (1983), made in the Netherlands before he came to Hollywood. I'm not sure if they show movies there anymore, but I met an actress-barista last year who does improv comedy there.
Rudolph has some fun with Seattle's most iconic piece of architecture. I'm not sure there's a straight shot of it in the whole film.
And this is how the downtown streets always look in my memories of the '80s, when I used to go down to the Central Tavern in Pioneer Square to see bands like the Butthole Surfers and the U-Men. It was always night time, and it was always raining. That much hasn't changed, or so it always feels this time of year.
Another typical view of the downtown street scene. Always an abandoned feeling in those days. I feel that I should be able to identify the street from the buildings in the background, but my recognition fu is not powerful enough. It's quite possible that this street looks pretty much the same now, although that area did get gentrified during the dot-com boom.
I believe this is the only shot of the Pike Place Market in the movie, and it's a model of the market that's part of a miniature streetscape being built by the protagonist, Hawk, played by Kris Kristofferson. I think the model Seattle in the film is a quiet commentary on representation, but it's so subtle that I'm not sure I understand it. Then again, much of the film is mysterious, like a dream that troubles the mind.
The King Street Station has received a substantial facelift since this shot, and it's in the middle of another one. When I moved here, the economy was on the rocks and the city had a depressed feel. Beginning with the dot-com boom, capital flowed into the city in a major way, transforming everything. One of the nice aspects of this is that rail has started to establish itself again as a mode of mass transit in these parts. The King Street Station is at the center of at least three different rail systems now.
And one of the beauties of living in Seattle is that you can head east on Interstate 90 (which goes all the way to Boston) and be in the mountains 30 minutes later.
Before you know it, you're in the forest of the night.
'During our modest theatrical release way back when, most queries aimed my way concerned time, place and tone. Defining these concepts was very important to audiences and critics alike, even the admirers. Where was it supposed to be set? And when? Was it film noir or retro-futurity slapstick melodrama gangster romance? And why was the societal outlook so bleak when contemporary forecasts were uniformly rosy? After all, this was 1985, Morning in America!
'My smartass response was always that the film is set in Rain City. Its time is when past meets future, but not the present. The physical surface is deliberately invented and stylized, the scenario and characters intentionally made from old movie parts. A kind of yesterday's version of tomorrow. And that pesky tone? Simultaneously humorous and serious. But with genuine emotions.'
-- Alan Rudolph, liner notes for the new DVD
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no subject
Date: 2011-01-08 10:23 pm (UTC)http://pics.livejournal.com/juliebata/pic/000055rq
She took it on a ferry coming back from Tillacum village.
I've been to the piano bar at the top of the Camlin. It was nice.
Also, Julie stayed there on her 1981 visit, but was mostly sick and doesn't remember it very well.
Nice, sweet, post, great set of pictures.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-08 11:36 pm (UTC)Julie's visit in 1981 was probably before Selig's Phallus had been erected. I thought it went up after I moved here, but it's in the movie, so either it was built in 1984 or I just remember it going up from my many visits before I moved.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-09 11:37 pm (UTC)http://www.flickr.com/photos/hal_seattle/4962602603/in/set-72157605847029287/
The ones around it in the set show the skyline in isolation.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-10 01:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-10 01:12 am (UTC)