Juxtaposing horrific archival war footage from multiple nations with vapid cocktail party chatter. A 1964 Vietnam-era cinematic plea against war and fascism.
EN
“The message behind Rogosin’s didactic editing is clear: he is indicting the partygoers for their glib indifference to warfare, the threat of nuclear annihilation, and human suffering, a pointed criticism with rising urgency at a time when U.S. involvement in Vietnam was intensifying. If On the Bowery exudes Rogosin’s quiet empathy for the dispossessed, and Come Back, Africa raises his frustration to a crescendo, Good Times, Wonderful Times aggressively launches his indignation in all directions.
Rogosin channeled his previous experience with nonactors into orchestrating the party scenes. Participants included the editor of a British woman’s magazine, the head of an advertising agency, and a Manchester businessman. In a self-reflexive turn, Rogosin also appears periodically as a carefree partygoer. An artist, Molly Parkin, was enlisted as a foil to the cast’s business types and instructed to serve as a ‘catalyst’ for conversation. As the film progresses, she draws out and even challenges some of the more outlandish political statements made by her fellow revelers. It is unclear to what extent the partygoers were witting or unwitting subjects (this potentially unfair treatment prompted Andrew Sarris to pan the film in the Village Voice in 1966), but Parkin’s ability to provoke uncomfortable dialogue anticipates the cringe reality comedy of Sacha Baron Cohen and Nathan Fielder, once again demonstrating Rogosin’s acumen in finding figures through which he could mold reality for his own imaginative purposes.”
Tanya Goldman1
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Tanya Goldman, “Lionel Rogosin, Between Empathy and Outrage,” The Criterion Collection, 24 October 2024.
