STREAMING CINEMA
Down the East Coast — to France
Ex-pat fi lmmaker Robert Kramer’s last look at America
BY STEVE ERICKSON
No one could have predicted
how much the
COVID lockdown would
get American audiences
off new Hollywood releases’ consumerist
treadmill. Drive-ins have
experienced a surprise revival,
with new indie horror fi lms like
“Relic” and “The Rental” currently
playing there alongside revivals of
the likes of “Jurassic Park.” Given
that there’s little else to see, as far
as new releases, they’re likely fi nding
a bigger audience than they
would have under normal circumstances.
Another effect has been that theaters
like Film at Lincoln Center
have been presenting revivals of
fi lms largely unknown in the US.
They did it earlier in August with
two fi lms made in the ‘60s by Portuguese
director Paulo Rocha and
are now showing Robert Kramer’s
1989 hybrid docufi ction “Route
One/ USA.” In early September,
they will be streaming the fi rst
American release of Daniele Huillet
and Jean-Marie Straub’s excellent
“Sicilia!”
Kramer’s work is inseparable
from New Left politics. He was one
of the founders of the radical documentary
group Newsreel. His bestknown
fi lm “Ice,” made in 1970,
depicts a group of leftist revolutionaries
fi ghting a near-future fascist
America. But fi ve years later, his
three-hour “Milestones” tried to
take the pulse of the counterculture
in an environment growing
colder to such endeavors. It was
well received in France but ignored
or rejected by American audiences.
This response convinced Kramer
to move to Europe. From that point
on, most of his work was made in
Portugal and France.
In the summer issue of Cinema
Scope magazine, Jerry White
wrote, “About six months ago,
France was having a real Robert
Kramer moment,” referring to last
November’s Cinémathèque Françaiseretrospective
as well as the
fi rst video release of his 1980 fi lm
“Guns,” by Re:Voir.
In Robert Kramer’s 1989 “Route One/ USA,” fi ctional character Doc (Paul McIaac), on an odyssey from
Maine to Florida, interacts with real people.
Kramer, however, returned to
the US to make “Route One/ USA.”
The fi lm does something unusual,
having real people interact with
the fi ctional character Doc (Paul
McIsaac.) Doc makes his third
appearance in a Kramer fi lm, following
“Ice” and “Doc’s Kingdom,”
where he had increasingly come
to be a stand-in for the director’s
own experiences. As “Route One/
USA” begins, he rides on a ferry
approaching Manhattan, with the
Statue of Liberty and World Trade
Center coming into view. But as
the fi lm’s title suggests, it follows
Doc down the title highway, from
Maine to Florida.
“Route One/ USA” starts off
looking like a political documentary
and spirals out, becoming
more mysterious in its second
half. Kramer obviously shot far
more material than he could use.
As a result, we get brief glimpses
of Doc’s travels, often with no explanation
of exactly where he is.
The character drops in and out of
the fi lm in its last hour. Kramer’s
COURTESY OF ICARUS FILMS
presence as director, cameraman,
and occasional offscreen voice is
always felt.
The fi lm both feels part of a tradition
of road movies and breaks
with it. For one thing, Doc walks
down Route One instead of riding
in a car. Kramer seems enamored
of trains and their tracks.
Its images sometimes lean toward
avant-garde abstraction, as much
as “Route One/ USA” is fascinated
by people. Its relationship to character
is sketched in lightly rather
than spelled out fully. As Doc
watches a bingo game, he reminisces
about his mother; traveling
to an army base brings out memories
of his own military experience.
But McIsaac and Kramer had little
conviction in making him a “believable”
character. (While he was
based on Kramer’s own life, the
original idea for Doc came from a
documentary by art theorist John
Berger.) “Route One/USA” doesn’t
lose much when Doc vanishes
from it.
The tentative hope of “Ice” is gone
from “Route One/ USA.” Filmed
during the presidential campaigns
of 1988, the fi lm catches a glimpse
of both Pat Robertson and Jesse
Jackson running for that offi ce.
But the army recruiter who complains
about the permissiveness
of the ‘70s and praises the conservatism
of ‘80s men might be seeing
things as they are — at least
about the latter. Right-wing Christianity
dominates the country Doc
returns to, and racism has grown
ever more entrenched.
Kramer had a genuine curiosity
about American life in 1989.
The fi lm’s editing choices make his
opinions clear. He cuts between a
Latinx teenager talking about facing
jail time for riding with friends
in a car he didn’t realize was stolen
and a middle-aged white man
discussing how he’s been rewarded
by life in a comfortable suburb for
prosecuting juvenile offenders. But
“Route One/ USA” isn’t interested
in judging individuals. It also uses
cross-cutting throughout in more
allusive, less political ways, as
when Kramer edits between a man
talking about his experience returning
from the army and a brick
wall being built.
“Route One/ USA” plays like an
eccentric synthesis of Wim Wenders
and Frederick Wiseman. It has the
latter’s monumentalism but none
of his interest in spending hours
investigating institutions. In fact,
Kramer’s fi lm has trouble sticking
to the same subject for more
than a few minutes. Its structure
gets looser and looser as the end
of Route One approaches. While
Doc decides to settle down in the
US, Kramer saw what he wanted
from the country, went back to
France, and continued working
until his death in 1999. Although
“Route One/ USA” expresses a
clear, thoughtful political view, it
is closer to a poem than a State
of the Union Address or an issue
documentary.
ROUTE ONE/ USA | Directed by
Robert Kramer | Icarus Films |
Streaming at Film at Lincoln Center;
fi lmlinc.com
August 27 - September 9,28 2020 | GayCityNews.com
/lmlinc.com
/GayCityNews.com
