The Wedding Party

Mr. De Niro's first film, credited Denero. It's his first because it was filmed in 1963 and only released in 1969. Unknown actors in the cast, except for a very young Jill Clayburgh (19 years old) who, although she doesn't have too much screen time, she is the most compelling. De Niro does not make much difference in his role, he is only present in the landscape, it could have been anyone in his place. First Feature Film directed by De Palma too. Zero stars!

I had heard for many years that this film was pretty bad, especially considering the talent involved. Took me decades to finally get the time to see it; it just never seemed to bubble up to the top of my must-see list despite my being a huge fan of De Niro, DePalma, and Clayburgh. Well, I'm here to say don't listen to the critics: it's actually a pretty good film.

Okay, I will admit part of why it's good is that one sees it now thru the lense of the careers the principal participants had after they made this. Further, I suspect many are disappointed expecting De Niro to always be operating at 'Taxi Driver' and 'The Deet Hunter' level and Clayburgh shining as she did in 'An Unmarried Woman' and 'It's My Turn.' But the truth is that both have some very fine moments here and both are engaging despite thr fact that the gentleman who plays the groom, Charles Pfluger, seems like he would be the one to rise to stardom (he never made another movie). Jennifer Salt ('Sisters') also appears in the film, lensed the same year as she appeared in 'Midnight Cowboy' (1969).

The film, about a group of people assembling in a large house for a long weekend for a wedding, seems like it was probably too long and too boring so DePalma and company found myriad of ways of punching up the proceedings: fast motion, comic music, sound effects. But all this seems pretty effective.

The thin plot idea was better mined by Robert Altman in his film 'A Wedding' (1978), an ignored masterpiece in my book, but 'The Wedding Party' is a fun, funny and diverting if sometimes shallow and even lax night at the movies. Don't expect too much and you might be pleasantly surprised.

This film is very slow paced and dated. I got this as I am a huge fan of Brian De Palma and must, simply must see everything he does and did. This film however is not very good. I would like to pawn it off on the fact that De Palma did not direct the whole thing and was just one third of the team but that would be a lazy cop out. This movie is slow because he and the others are new and inexperienced at film making. This was one of his first movies if not the first and you can tell he is a virgin as far as film-making goes. This movie does a few high points. Their is the typical fast forward motion that most De Palma films have in this but I think it was more to save film in this than to be artistic, but it was out of this that the fast forward shots for Carrie, Hi, Mom, and Greetings were born. Their is also a highly funny portion in this movie with an Arab ex boyfriend of the bride who comes to visit. I love this part of the movie the groom is trying to pass the bride off to the Arab so he can free himself from the shackles that will be marriage, but the Arab does not bite and gets the heck out. This movie is also good because it has early performances by Robert De Niro and William Finnley. They are great as the grooms guest and I love that they are in this. Watch this movie for De Palma's growth as a filmmaker but stay away if you are just an average movie goer.

I chose to watch the DVD because Robert De Niro was included in the cast. It turned out that he was a member of the supporting cast in a role of no great importance. It was however of historical interest to see him in one of his earliest roles.

Charles Pfluger played the role of Charlie a frustrated young man uncertain if he should fulfil his wedding commitments. Many a man has had an attack of the jitters just before marriage so he will have many sympathizers. The film is broken up into chapters each covering the events that lead up to the marriage ceremony. In the lead role Charles Pfluger outshone all the actors The film is a farcical comedy that uses accelerated motion to get laughs. The nonsensical behaviour of men overloading a car with luggage and falling out of the car as they do so was shear clowning and not particularly funny or clever. Speeding off and then returning to pick up luggage which had fallen off was pathetic.

I don't know what they were doing in the cutting room. There were some abrupt changes which suggested some of the frames had been omitted.

One thing is certain . The music dominated the film. It was deafening at times and drowned out the dialogue. This may have been intentional especially in the dinner scenes and party scenes in which everyone talks at once and nobody listens or replies. This is typical of all parties where drinks flow freely.

Many of the actors tried hard to become amusing characters by assuming annoying voices that were very false and did not ring true.

On the whole a disappointing comedy.

The weakest De Palma's film, as Murder a la Mod, Greetings & Hi Mum are still interesting underground movies worth seeing, not this one, clearly poor.