mannhunter a écrit :
il faut dire déjà que le film n'est jamais sorti en salles aux States,à cause d'une polémique stupide (certaines personnes ayant jugé le film "raciste",parfois même sans l'avoir vu ...Tavernier en parle brièvement dans ses "50 ans de cinéma américain")...
C'est plus de la frilosité due au contenu engagé du film (ajouté à la scène de l'église, dont personne, à part Fuller, ne voulait, et aux grossieretés prononcées devant les enfants, qui apparemment, étaient interdites par une loi ).
"Il y a un très mauvais climat aux Etats-Unis entre les noirs et les Red-Necks(...). Les distributeurs ne veulent pas d'ennuis dans les salles de cinéma. C'est pour ça que le film n'est pas sorti aux états-unis. La Paramount avait acheté le scénario. Ils savaient très bien que ce serait un film controversé. NBC devait distribué le film. Ils ont changé d'avis en trois jours: le film était "inapproprié". Cette histoire pourrait faire un livre à elle seule. Il y a tellement d'éléments politiques en jeu.
Si vous êtes contre mon film au niveau de ce qu'il dit, vous êtes un raciste. C'est clair." Samuel Fuller
Sinon, pour la petite histoire, ce serait Curtis Hanson qui aurait recommandé Fuller pour réaliser le film. Hanson développait le script pour Polanski, comme ce dernier s'était désisté, que Fuller (avec qui il était ami) lui avait, à l'époque, suggérer quelques scènes, et qu'il n'avait que 18 jours pour écrire le script (et devancer une grève de la "Screenwriter's guild"), Fuller s'est retrouvé dans le bateau (alors qu'il devait réaliser un autre film qui, pour le coup, ne s'est jamais fait).
Comme d'autres ici, c'est le premier Fuller que j'ai vu, j'ai beaucoup d'affection pour ce film, et j'attend avec impatience un DVD digne de ce nom pour remplacer ma vilaine VHS toute pourrie.
"All right Mr DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up"
N. Desmond
"There comes a time that a piano realizes that it has not written a concerto."
L.Richards
"Chapter one: The night was humid and heavy"
Owen
Griff Bonnell a écrit :Sinon, pour la petite histoire, ce serait Curtis Hanson qui aurait recommandé Fuller pour réaliser le film.
et le producteur Jon Davison.
Nous avons les mêmes sources, j'ai l'impression. "Il était une fois... Samuel Fuller" ?
"All right Mr DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up"
N. Desmond
"There comes a time that a piano realizes that it has not written a concerto."
L.Richards
"Chapter one: The night was humid and heavy"
Owen
Excellent bouquin, non? J'ai eu l'impression d'entendre la voix (si particlière) du réalisateur résonner dans ma tête à chaque page.
Et puis, quelle vie!
"All right Mr DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up"
N. Desmond
"There comes a time that a piano realizes that it has not written a concerto."
L.Richards
"Chapter one: The night was humid and heavy"
Owen
Griff Bonnell a écrit :Excellent bouquin, non? J'ai eu l'impression d'entendre la voix (si particlière) du réalisateur résonner dans ma tête à chaque page.
Et puis, quelle vie!
Je n'ai lu que le début et le (petit ) chapitre sur "white dog" pour l'instant ,j'ai reçu le livre la semaine dernière.
Mais oui,ça a l'air passionnant...c'était une sacrée personnalité,Fuller!
Criterion is working on a licensed, legitimate release with special features and the usual pristine Criterion video.
I emailed Criterion and they confirmed they are working on a White Dog DVD to be released sometime in the near future. They could not give me a hard date.
Confirmation (plus fiable qu'une info IMDb ) dans la newsletter "Eclipse" d'août 2007 :
In 2008 Criterion will release a Samuel Fuller movie that was deemed too controversial to release by its studio—and that was allegedly based on the true story of a pet once owned by Breathless star Jean Seberg.
"I didn't go to film school. What I did was I started... In fact instead of going to college, I started writing about movies and taking pictures of the people that made them. I wrote something about Sam Fuller that he liked. I then met him and we really hit it off. This was when I was 19. Over the years we just became friends. He was just a very generous friend and a kind of mentor in a way, if you will.
Then I stared developing my own filmmaking career and as coincidence would have it I was sort of developing this two pronged career. On the one hand, I was trying to direct. On the other hand, I was writing more successfully on bigger projects.
One of these projects I was hired to do was an adaptation of Romain Gary's novella, White Dog. At the time I was writing it Roman Polanski was going to direct it. Then he got into his legal problems and a lot of things happened, but basically the script sat on the shelf for several years at Paramount.
Now, I had talked to Sammy about it at the time I was writing it because he knew Romain Gary and was interested in the story. We had just kind of chatted about it. Then about 5 years later they took it off the shelf and contacted me to see if I would be interested in rewriting it. They wouldn't let me direct it, though. I tried to get it and direct. When that failed rather than rewrite it for somebody else, I said "Well, why don't you get Sam Fuller to direct this?"
There was a strike, oddly enough it was kinda like right now, there was a strike looming and they were in a hurry to make some pictures. Sam, I knew, was not only available, but eager for work. They hired him and then they hired me to work with Sam and write a new script. We needed to write it in 3 weeks because of this potential strike.
So, I ended up in the dream position of collaborating with this guy whose work I had so admired over my entire movie going life who was also a friend of mine. The thing that was unique about it was it was actually the only time Sam ever cowrote anything with anybody. And of course the goal was to produce the script that Sam wanted for his movie because, naturally, this was now a Sam Fuller movie. We used some of the structural elements from my original script, but basically we started over again.
It was a great experience professionally and personally. The unfortunate thing about it is, as you know, the picture came under this cloud of controversy which was totally absurd. It was based on remarks made by people who had never even seen the movie. The picture literally became sort of too hot to handle and Paramount... they didn't release it, they shelved it. Then it was sold to network television and again people made some controversy about it and it was pulled from that showing. Yet, it was released around the world to really tremendous reviews and in the last few years has surfaced intermittently in the United States.
It's tragic. The thing that's so sad about it is it turned out to be the last movie Sam made in Hollywood. Sam fuller, and I say this as somebody, not just a friend of Sam's, but also somewhat of a knowledgeable film fan. I don't think there's any filmmaker who over the course of his career dealt with the racial texture of the United States in as inventive and thought-provoking of a way as Sam Fuller did. Literally, when you start thinking about that aspect of it and go through his movies one after the other, he deals with the ethnic mosaic that is our country. For him to be tarred with a completely absurd charge of racism was not only unfair, but it was ridiculous. The whole point of White Dog is that racism's something that is taught. Of course, the dog is a metaphor, that it can even be taught to man's best friend. So, on the one hand it was a high point of my career, but emotionally it was really disappointing what happened to the movie and to Sam after the fact.
You know, the amazing thing, I have to say one last personal thing about Sam, the amazing thing about it is as disappointed as he was with that and other career setbacks that he had during the length of time I knew him, he never betrayed anger. Disappointment yes, but no bitterness. That was one of the inspiring things about Sammy that no matter how many hardships he faced he would just go back out to his office and his Royal Upright Typewriter and just keep on working on his scripts."
Second film de Samuel Fuller que je découvre après un the big red one qui ne m’avait pas laissé de grand souvenir (faudrait vraiment que je le revois). Malgré tous les éloges entendus ici et là, je ne m’attendais vraiment pas un tel électrochoc. L’histoire de ce chien victime d’un dressage raciste est simplement incroyable d’originalité. Le portrait du chien (magnifique travail de dressage) et les relations qu’il tisse avec les différents personnages sont émouvants à souhait. Le propos pessimiste est simplement renversant avec un final ébouriffant bien que prévisible (de toute façon le film ne pouvait se finir autrement). J’ai du mal à remettre de l’intensité distillé par la mise en scène (les scènes de dressage, la traversée de la fourrière, le 360° annihilant toute espoir, le gamin qui disparaît du second plan juste avant que le chien ne le voie) s’en sortant même dans l’utilisation des artifices les plus improbables (les ralentis royal canin). Tout à fait stupéfiant et je suis sûr qu’il va bien vieillir dans ma tête
"Les contes et les rêves sont les vérités fantômes qui dureront, quand les simples faits, poussière et cendre, seront oubliés" Neil Gaiman
Un film magnifique. C'est d'ailleurs grâce à une critique de mannhunter que j'avais eu envie de le voir. Je ne l'ai jamais regretté !
Très fort, d'une grande justesse et d'une sensibilité frappante. Un film très courageux également, à l'image de Fuller lui-même.
Je vous recommande également très chaleureusement le livre de Romain Gary "Chien Blanc" dont le film est tiré.
...Tavernier en parle brièvement dans ses "50 ans de cinéma américain")...
) chapitre sur "white dog" pour l'instant 
,j'ai reçu le livre la semaine dernière. 
