James Franco seeks to re-create the forty missing minutes of CRUISING in collaboration with Travis Mathews
INTERIOR. LEATHER BAR (James Franco & Travis Mathews, 2013)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
March 5-13
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
www.interiorleatherbar.com
In his 2013 autobiography, The Friedkin Connection, writer-director William Friedkin delves into his controversial 1980 film, Cruising, explaining, “I cut at least half an hour from the club scenes and the murder scenes. I had purposely let these scenes of pornography and violence run long, knowing they’d be cut and I’d be left with the story I wanted to tell. Despite these cuts, the film pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable in an R-rated film, something the critics were quick to point out.” Cruising, which stars Al Pacino as an undercover cop hunting a serial killer in New York City’s underground gay community, was a critical and financial flop; the Variety reviewer wrote, “If this is an R, then the only X left is actual hardcore.”
INTERIOR. LEATHER BAR runs March 5-13 at the IFC Center as part of FrancoFest
Cut to Interior. Leather Bar. Last year, James Franco and San Francisco filmmaker Travis Mathews (In Their Room) decided to re-create what the never-screened forty minutes of missing footage might have been like. Franco hired Val Lauren, who played Sal Mineo in Franco’s Sal, to take on the Pacino role, surrounded by a cast of leather-clad actors who were told to pretty much go wild, no holds barred. And they do, as Franco and Mathews show graphic gay sex and S&M. After one particularly intense scene, Lauren expresses his doubts to Franco. “You think that this should be in movies, that people should be able to see this?” he asks. “Sex should be a storytelling tool, but we’re so f$%king scared of it,” Franco answers enthusiastically. “Everybody talks about sex, but then, ‘Don’t dare put it in a movie.’” But Lauren, and Variety, is right; this kind of graphic sex, whether gay or straight, does not belong in an R-rated movie. Most of the sixty minutes of Interior. Leather Bar are spent showing how happy Franco is as he pushes the envelope proudly, pontificating on society’s morals and hang-ups, and how Lauren is questioning his decision to star in the film, talking things over with his wife on his cell phone. What might have been an intriguing concept at the start ends up being Franco’s Brown Bunny (Vincent Gallo’s unwatchable 2003 film highlighted by real oral sex between him and former girlfriend Chloë Sevigny). The ubiquitous Franco can be sly, funny, and clever, especially with his own image — which includes a strong relationship with the gay community — but he’s truly annoying in Interior. Leather Bar, on a misguided, pointless mission that goes nowhere. The film is having its U.S. theatrical release March 5-13, being shown with Franco’s The Feast of Stephen and Mathews’s original I Want Your Love, as part of the IFC Center’s FrancoFest, consisting of features and shorts made by and/or starring Franco, in addition to a DCP projection of Cruising. Franco and Mathews will be on hand to discuss their collaboration following several screenings on March 5, 7, and 8.