David Chase, the creator of "The Sopranos" makes his feature directing debut this fall, with Not Fade Away. (Technically his feature writing debut came in the form of a 1972 horror movie called Grave of the Vampire.)Starring John Magaro, James Gandolfini, Will Brill, Jack Huston, and Bella Heathcote, Not Fade Away takes place in the 1960s and tells the story of a local garage band. Inspired by the Rolling Stones, they have visions of making it big and changing the world, though real life, jobs, girlfriends, education, and other things eventually get in the way.
Chase presents the movie as a mood and memory piece, mainly, which essentially means that it has no plot, that the characters never really come to life, and there's no real emotional pull to the material. The actors are mostly unknowns, and it's difficult to tell them apart or remember who they were afterward.
At one point, two of the main characters go to the movies to see Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow Up. One of them complains that nothing is happening, while the other tries to find the mystery between the plot threads.
If Not Fade Away aspires to be that kind of movie, it really isn't. It's the kind of movie where, in a scene where something actually happens, like a motorcycle accident, the entire event stands out so much that it's not surprising at all.
I suppose that if you were alive during this time and have a visceral connection to it, you might enjoy the film, but for younger viewers, it's a bit dull. It plays like a slow-moving coming-of-age film with some cool old tunes on the soundtrack.
In any case, seeing the film gave me the chance to interview Mr. Chase. Following is my article as I submitted it to the San Francisco Examiner.
It's fairly evident from watching "The Sopranos" that David Chase is a rock 'n' roll fan, and he has brought this love to his big-screen directing debut, Not Fade Away, which opens this week in Bay Area theaters.
Chase is best known for his career as a writer in television, working on shows like "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" and "The Rockford Files" before creating the groundbreaking "The Sopranos," which ran from 1999 to 2007.
Yet, though Chase likes to watch "Mad Men" and "Boardwalk Empire" today, he considers himself more of a movie guy.
Not Fade Away tells the story of a 1960s-era, Rolling Stones-influenced rock 'n' roll band that never achieved success, but still generated its fair share of drama between band members, family, and girls.
Chase describes his own experience playing bass and singing in a band. "Like in the movie, [our band] pooled our money and made a demo. And that was it," he says.
"Other than that, we never did anything," he continues. "We never played a date in front of people. It would have ruined it. We played in the basement. We were our own audience. We considered ourselves a big supergroup in our town. It was all in our head."
Not Fade Away is unique in that it's not plot-focused and has no stars, though "Tony Soprano" himself, James Gandolfini, appears in a small, pivotal role.
While making his movie, Chase considered movies from the era, like Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow Up -- a clip of which is featured in Not Fade Away. Two characters watch it in a movie house and ponder its moods and mysteries.
"I respond to movies where there's a great deal of mood and texture, and plot kind of comes out of the behavior," he says.
To tell his story, Chase didn't specifically channel specific events from his past, but rather looked to memories. "The events of the movie are not exactly the events of my life," he says. "But the feelings and the emotional weight of it, how I felt about things at the time, how it felt to be in love, how I felt about music. That's all there."
He says that the music of the time played a huge part in shaping everything. "It's extremely powerful," he says. "It really comes down to the whole human experience. Are we going to go with our worst or our best instincts? And rock 'n' roll has both."
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