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!

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.

I enjoyed The Wedding Party for about half an hour to 45 minutes, but then it just kept going and I eventually felt a bit tired from it all. It revolves around the dynamics between people all involved with a wedding, but it's just not tight or clever enough to work as a great comedy for all of its run. It doesn't really seem all that interested in setting up memorable comedic scenarios and paying them off, and I think once I realised it wasn't really going anywhere, I kind of turned on the film.

Still, the manic energy and scrappy charm of it all sustains The Wedding Party for at least some of its runtime, but at the same time, it's a film I'd find hard to recommend to most people.

Being the first feature film with Robert De Niro (although not released for years later), this is worth the watch. De Niro's role isn't huge, yet amusing as one of two friends who first try to prevent another friends marriage only to later chase him down to force him into it. Any die hard De Niro fan will get a kick out of an early performance by arguably the best actor today.

This slight film is mostly going to be of interest to de Palma or Robert de Niro fans, but not many others. Shot in black and white, the tale of a man who plans to get married and has second thoughts, is peppered with more radical cinematography than the plot deserves: the speeded up walking and 'zany'/'madcap' car driving.

But the idea of a threesome of men talking through jump-cuts ended up being used to much better effect in de Palma's Greetings, which also starred a young de Niro again.

Also the film's strength or weakness - depending on your mood - is that much of it clearly was shot on film stock that had no sound, so the genius is that much of the film is 'silent' ie it only has accompanying music. This adds to the scenes when dialogue does kick into the film. Unfortunately, the insignificance of the improvised conversations hardly make you want to wait for the next such discourse.

Worth watching once, but don't spend too much on the ticket!