User:JMDP/Sandbox 2

Approaching Omega is a 1983 American comedy film written, directed and produced by John Dorr.

Cast

 * Harry Hart-Browne as Andy
 * S. A. Griffin as Jack
 * Robin Fuentes as Evelyn
 * Nita Talbot as Nita
 * Jacquelyne Hyde as Jackie

Development
On April 24, 1982, former film critic and video filmmaker John Dorr inaugurated the EZTV Video Theatre at the West Hollywood Community Center. A pilot program which ran six weeks during the Summer, the EZTV Video Theater allowed Dorr to show his new feature Dorothy and Alan at Norma Place taped on consumer-level Betamax video, as well as his two first ones, Sudzall Does It All! (1979) and The Case of the Missing Consciousness (1980). Other videos produced alongside Dorr and under the banner of EZTV were also shown, including Richard Moyer's Rimbaud in L.A., an adaptation of Christopher Hampton's play Total Eclipse, Ken Camp's three-part gay soap opera As the World Burns, and Terry Mack Murphy's adaptation of his own play The Other Woman. Following the success of the screenings, Dorr was looking to open a permanent place in Los Angeles, and started work on his following screenplay which he would shoot to show there.

GRIFFIN : Dorr had known stage actors Harry Hart-Browne and S.A. Griffin (then known as Steve Griffin) since the late 1970s. Both of them acted in supporting parts in Richard Moyer's Rimbaud in L.A., one the earliest EZTV productions, shown at the EZTV Video Theater pilot program in 1982.

HHB : Dorr told him he had written a part for him.

Dorr wrote the part for S. A. Griffin

Production
GRIFFIN : Shooting, on the weekend, took almost a year. It happened in the Angeles Crest Mountains, in Switzer Falls. Errors happened but Dorr decided to keep them in the film.

HHB : Dorr drove slowly the actors. He coached S.A. to be unpleasant. Dorr wanted "movie stars", and HHB asked Talbot and Hyde. Dorr invented the scarab story after the beetle story of Carl Jung References Laverne & Shirley Dorr filmed alone the ladybugs scene.

In December 1982, trade publication Drama-Logue reported that Dorr was shooting his « mystic comedy » Approaching Omega in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Release
Approaching Omega was part of the opening program of EZTV video productions shown at the new, permanent EZTV Video Gallery, on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, starting on June 1st, 1983. Screenings were organized at 9pm, within a line-up including varied productions, such as the Hour 25:SFTV interview show, The Animal Show by Phoebe Wray, short film Crushed Lilies directed by T. Jankowski and shot by Dorr, resident soap opera Faculty Wives, taped play-of-the-month Last Quarter Moon, and gallery installations.

After the early run, the tape was programmed again starting on November 3, 1983. Screenings were then organized at 7pm and 9pm, with Dorr's feature preceded by Crushed Lilies.

Contemporary
Dan Sallitt, in the Los Angeles Reader, praised the tape as a « entertaining and playful manipulation on the conventions of storytelling », noting the narration's forays in genre. While he found the acting « uneven », calling Griffin's « the most solid » and writing that Hart-Browne « often is appealing but sometimes should drop down a few energy levels », he concluded his review saying how « the enjoyable improvisations and [John] Dorr's witty, self-knowing dialogue play nicely against the vast, ominous natural setting ».

Michael Dare, in the Los Angeles Weekly, described it as « a delightful exercise in unconventional storytelling » and as « a creative home video that's at its funniest when its characters self-consciously talk to the camera ». Highlighting the comedy, he wrote that « the actors are fun to watch [and] the dialogue tongue-in-cheek ».

Abbie Bernstein praised it as « a delightful narrative hike through the woods », writing that « Dorr has captured some of the friendly charm of The Big Chill on a more modest, intimate level », specifying that « his camera seems to find nature just as wonderful as his characters do ». She described the actors as « engaging and authentic », highlighting Hart-Browne as « enchantingly elfin and unpredictable ».

Later appraisal
Ten years after its first showing, the film received attention in France, thanks to Cahiers du cinéma Los Angeles correspondent Bill Krohn, who provided friends with VHS of Dorr's four features. After watching the films with Serge Daney, Biette published a piece in the third issue of Trafic in August 1992, « » Recollections and poems from Dorr were published in the next issue of Trafic in November 1992, barely two months before his passing.