Johnny Suede
| Johnny Suede | |
|---|---|
Johnny Suede theatrical poster
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| Directed by | Tom DiCillo |
| Produced by | Yoram Mandel Ruth Waldburger |
| Written by | Tom DiCillo |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Jim Farmer |
| Cinematography | Joe DeSalvo |
| Edited by | Geraldine Peroni |
| Distributed by |
Miramax Films Paramount Pictures |
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Release date
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August 1991 (Locarno Film Festival) |
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Running time
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97 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $500,000 |
Johnny Suede is a 1991 American film the directorial debut of Tom DiCillo, and stars Brad Pitt, Catherine Keener, Calvin Levels and Nick Cave.
Johnny Suede is a young man with an attitude and an immense pompadour, who wants to be a rock n' roll star like his idol Ricky Nelson. He has all the stylistic accoutrements, except a pair of black suede shoes. One night, after leaving a nightclub, like manna from heaven, a pair of black suede shoes falls at his feet. Soon afterward, the recently completed Johnny meets Darlette, a sultry bohemian with whom he beds down for the night. In spite of Darlette's abusive gun-toting boyfriend, Johnny begins to see Darlette every day. But when Johnny is forced to pawn his guitar for rent money, Darlette mysteriously leaves him. Johnny's pal Deke fronts him the money to get his guitar out of hock, and the two form a band. Depressed about Darlette's desertion, he wanders aimlessly, and he meets Yvonne, a woman much wiser than Johnny who teaches him that there are things in life much more important than a pair of black suede shoes.
Around 1985, while taking acting classes in New York City, DiCillo was impressed with the local punk movement and the resurgence of rockabilly led by acts like Elvis Costello, The Stray Cats and The Clash. Spinning personal experiences into monologues, he created a character whose vulnerability is obscured by a superficial fifties era cool, exaggerated to the point of foolishness. DiCillo first wove what he had into a one-hour one-man show, before setting the first draft of the screenplay to paper. Eight months later he had completed the fourth draft. Having received positive feedback from his friend Jim Jarmusch, DiCillo approached German television, ZDF, who gave him eighty thousand dollars. Additional funding came from the National Endowment for the Arts for twenty-five thousand dollars, as well as a Panavision package and help with the script from the Sundance Lab. Around 1988 to 1989, while at the Cannes Film Festival, DiCillo stumbled into a deal with a South African producer wherein he sold worldwide rights to his film for three hundred thousand dollars; an arrangement he would later call, "A shaky thing but still I felt it was worth the risk so I decided to go ahead with it."
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