Alone. Life Wastes Andy Hardy

Experimental filmmaker Martin Arnold uses an optical printer to playfully manipulate micro-moments from an Andy Hardy film.

Arnold slows down, reverses, loops and reorders images (and sound fragments) from the MGM film to reanimate subversive subtexts in the gestures of this corny romance: Andy (Mickey Rooney) engaging in suggestive play with his mother, who seems to be receptive; Judy Garland coming between them; Mother jealously intervening; Father smacking Andy around.

It's beautifully subversive and benignly cruel. Arnold's exquisite craftsmanship and penetrating insight makes it hard to ever see these scenes the same way again. Or perhaps he allows us to truly see, as with a psychoanalytical/cinematic X-ray machine, the Oedipal tensions that always lurked beneath the surface of the happy Hardy home. (See Arnold's 1993 PASSAGE à l'ACTE for a similar treatment of a scene from "To Kill a

I saw this film in Art Cinema class, and I laughed my ass off. I can't really explain the sense of humor this film pulls off. It's just funny. My favorite part is when Andy kisses the girl, and his mother gets jealous. You just have to see it to believe it. Incredible!

Martin Arnold, an experimental filmmaker working in Austria, uses an optical printer to playfully manipulate several micro-moments from an early Andy Hardy film. Arnold slows down, reverses, repeats, loops and recuts images (and their accompanying sound track) from the MGM film to reanimate subversive subtexts in the gestures of this corny romance: Andy (Mickey Rooney) engaging in suggestive play with his mother, who seems to be receptive; Judy Garland coming between them; Mother jealously intervening; Father/Judge Hardy smacking Andy around.

It's beautifully subversive and benignly cruel. Arnold's exquisite craftsmanship and penetrating insight makes it hard to ever see these scenes the same way again. Or perhaps he allows us to truly see, as with a psychoanalytical/cinematic X-ray machine, the Oedipal tensions that always lurked beneath the surface of the happy Hardy home.

Arnold's follow-up film does the same with a single scene from TO KILL

No clue what the purpose of this disaster was supposed to be. At the least, I found it annoying. I cannot imagine anyone paying to see this, to buy this or even rent it. If you hate the old Andy Hardy movies, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland you might find something entertaining in it. I think it is back to the drawing board for whoever wasted their time making this film. Perhaps they can find some other icons to mutilate? In order to fulfill the required minimum I must continue to write here although the other comments seem much shorter. Not much left to say except please don't encourage this type of experimental film making. The soundtrack alone will make you queasy.