See This: Kelly Reichardt's Ode

By Rob Christopher in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 24, 2011 4:40PM

Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy, and Meek's Cutoff are three of the finest American films made in the last decade. They also happen to be the last three films directed by Kelly Reichardt. But there was a long spell between her first film, River of Grass, and Old Joy, the one that would put her on the map. During those twelve years, like so many other filmmakers, she struggled to get funding for another feature. So she made shorts, including Ode, a featurette which gets a rare screening on Sunday.

Faithfully adapting both the Bobbie Gentry song "Ode to Billie Joe" and its feature film spinoff (which starred Robbie Benson), Ode flashes back to the secretive teenage love affair between the outcast Billie Joe and a Baptist pastor’s daughter, Bobbie Lee. Shot on Super-8, it strikingly employs the format’s soft focus and a hyper-saturated color palette, calling to mind vintage Ektachrome photographs, as well as memories grown hazy over time. The acting skills of the young leads are variable, and the dialog is occasionally too contrived. But Reichardt’s largely understated handling of what is essentially a story of puppy love colliding with gay confusion serves as an interesting contrast to fellow Portland filmmaker Gus Van Sant’s more pretentious and heavy-handed approach (My Own Private Idaho, we're looking at you.)

Even on such a small scale (the movie is only 48 minutes long) she creates a vivid atmosphere of Southern ripeness and humidity that prefigures the attention to pastoral landscapes in later films. It’s no surprise to learn that she’s a Florida native--the lush vegetation and thrum of insects is palpable.

Ode is not officially available, so this screening is a rare chance to connect the dots of one of contemporary American filmmaking’s most exciting oeuvres. Bonus: the score is by Will Oldham, and also features Yo La Tengo covering a Sun Ra tune.

Introduced by Elena Gorfinkel, Assistant Professor in Art History & Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Ode screens at White Light Cinema at The Nightingale (1084 N. Milwaukee Ave.) on Sunday, 7pm. Admission: $5-7 sliding scale.