Niente dura per sempre

Never officially released, neither theatrically nor on home media, Tom Schiller's surreal science fiction fantasy Nothing Lasts Forever stars Zach Galligan as an eager young artist struggling to find his creative outlet in a New York City under the tyrannical rule of the Port Authority. Shot in black and white (for the most part) and with the sound recorded in mono, the film replicates the Classical Hollywood style of the late '30s and early '40s to create a dreamlike work that, had it been made during the indie boom of the '90s, would have easily found a cult following. Featuring strong supporting work from the likes of Dan Aykroyd, Lauren Tom, Apollonia van Ravenstein and Bill Murray – not to mention a midpoint shift in narrative that will leave an unsuspecting viewer reeling – Nothing Last Forever is an oddity of a film, perhaps too unusual for its time, that deserves, at the very least, a proper worldwide release.

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Many films which are hard/possible to see/find are more interesting in the stuff you hear about them. The actual film is a letdown.

Not so here.

This film (which stars people who I know, from the lead, on) is really quite good.

First, unlike the others who've commented, I'm not one who acts like viewing it is akin to attaining a 'power-up', or such from a video game, and in that beir, alone is worth seeing. The entertainment business if my bread and butter (who I am is irrelevant. Don't try to figure out from my name).

Saying this, even though I'm not impossibly old , I think the business has fine siren the toilet in the past couple of decades - how, why, I'm not here to discuss that, either - and I find watching films made from the beginning (yes, currently I'm studying early films), up to the early 80's is my forte.

I can't stand any films made based upon comic books (though I DO read and enjoy - primarily Neil Gaiman), or that are mostly dpendent upon effects.

The route of films I miss are adult oriented (not porn. Think anything from a Douglas Sirk, a Marcel Ophuls, etc)- they have a story, emotion, gravitas.

I'm a grown-up, and I want to be emotionally touched and moved - bit by whizz-bang b.s.

That sort of brings me back to why I really admire this film.

Yes, it is a gimmick, in that is a very good... recreation of a 1930-40's film (it includes hundreds of clips - primarily used as establishing shots - from genuine films of that period, and I think that to get clearance in them all is the rain it's not seen). There's several moments I even had to hit myself (metaphorically) to 'wake up', and realise I'm not watching a film from back then.

From the opening - a pre-code MGM logo - the fun really plays with you, time-wise. I never saw more than a tiny bit of Woody Allen's Zelig (made around this time), which also plays with tune (he is 'inserted'into old film, and remember; this was before digital effects, the end-result was really amazing looking. Same here).

The film's story you can read about anywhere. I'm amazed at how I was repeatedly 'lost' as to what I was watching ('wait; is this an old 40's film?'), and had to pinch myself.

If you can see it, do so.

Zach Galligan of Gremlins fame, stars in this strange lost film, from a former SNL writer, Tim Schiller, in the 80's. This was produced by Lorne Micheals, and features cameos from Dan Akroyd as a Holland Tunnel inspector (who uses the only instance of profanity, this movie is PG) and Bill Murray as the villainous Captain of an interstellar bus which transports the elderly to the moon. Galligan is a young man whose been abroad for years, and returned home only to find that the New York Port Authority has seized control of the city, due to traffic problems. Galligan is a naive but kindly upstart who knows only that he wants to be an artist. After failing the mandatory "art test" used to determine, who is an artist and who isn't, he is forced to work at the Holland Tunnel with Akroyd, but not for too long, as he meets a fellow artist, falls in love and is taken through a short montage of the new york art world. The setting is essentially timeless, at one point, it suggests the thirties, at another they mention the 50's as part of the past, and at one brief moment, there's a strong hint of 80's, but the film is shot in black and white mostly, and made to resemble a science fiction from an earlyish period from the last century, 30's, 40's??? The plot takes a few turns from here which are surprising and fantastical and not to give away too much, but unfortunately since this movie has NEVER been released on home video or DVD(and doesn't seem likely too), I'll give a way a little more of what's to come...New York as you know it may be an illusion, the homeless are the secret masters of the city and possibly more, and the elderly have been taking routine bus trips to the moon since the 50's, they have chips in their heads which make them say "Miami" every time they even think the word "Moon", so they can't tell anyone. All of these plot elements are told with a matter of factness and a touching sweetness, at no point does this film become cynical, mean, perverse, or pretentious (not something most films as rare and surreal as this can claim). Others have rightly compared it to both Terry Gilliam and Woodey Allen at their most fanciful, but there's a sweetness to this, which gives it a charm all of its own. It's completely unique, very clever, and unusually heartwarming. See it by any means necessary, and as the secret society of bums commands,"Fear not, love all".

A wide-eyed young man (Zach Galligan) arrives in New York with aspirations of becoming an artist. Once inside the confines of the city (which is VERY confined in this totalitarian society) he's prepped to become a working stiff, but an eccentric homeless person whom he has been overly generous to eventually guides the boy to his true fate.

The only thing stranger than the fact that this picture has barely been seen anywhere (officially, anyway) is that it was financed by a major studio. "Nothing Last Forever" is not a movie that mainstream '80s moviegoers would have flocked to see. Quite the contrary, if it had been widely released there's absolutely no question that it would have been an epic bomb... which is exactly the appeal.

Filmed mostly in black and white (with a few color sequences), it's simultaneously an homage and a parody of classic films. There are many breathtaking visuals and wonderful performances (from an amazing cast) and the film manages to get stranger as it rolls along, blending shadowy noir with kitschy sci-fi and light drama with heavy farce. As another reviewer pointed out, it's difficult NOT to draw comparisons to Terry Gilliam's "Brazil," which was made on a grander scale but is equally as offbeat, surreal and impossible to accurately describe. In other words, like that film, "Nothing Lasts Forever" is truly a work of art.

Here's hoping MGM will one day give the movie the lavish release that it deserves. While it'll never be a multi-billion-dollar draw, there's definitely a huge cult audience waiting to discover this lost gem.

Since a version of this film was "leaked" - if that's the right term -- to YouTube a few days ago, it's had a second life worthy of the film's own protagonist, liberated from a job yelling at bad drivers in the Holland Tunnel to a bravura performance at Carnegie Hall. There have been many evocative or pastiche films of the classic era -- Woody Allen's Purple Rose of Cairo, Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge, or Gary Ross's Pleasantville -- but none has more vividly, sweetly, and yet ironically invoked the magic of the movies as has this film. Don't be distracted by the Dan Ackroyd or Bill Murray cameos (fun as they are): keep your eye on the veterans, who've been in more films than you can count, and who bring their considerable powers to bear here: Sam Jaffe (The Day the Earth Stood Still, Bedknobs and Broomsticks); Paul Rogers (Billy Budd, The Homecoming) and the incomparable Imogene Coca, all part of a secret underground league of New York artists who seek to aid any who will give their all, unreservedly, to the cause of art. This film deserves an immediate DVD/BluRay release -- one can only imagine how richly it will shine -- and shame on MGM, Turner, Warner, and all who have kept this gem in their dark, dim, Gollum-like cavern of oblivion.