By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1 cat
Director: Ralph Arlyck
Country: france, united_states
Year: 2006
Running time: 87
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0479916/
Bruce says: “Ralph Arlyck made a fifteen minute short film in 1969 called SEAN. The film was an interview with year old Sean Farrell. It screened with François Truffaut’s L’ENFANT SAUVAGE and Arlyck proudly displays a congratulatory note he received from Truffaut at the time. Much of the footage of this earlier film has been integrated into FOLLOWING SEAN. The relationship between Sean and Ralph began in Haight Ashbury when Ralph lived in the same apartment building on Cole Street, just off Haight. That is where the film begins. The film wanders back and forth from coast to coast as Arlyck reacquaints himself with the friends he made during his California years. He also tracks his own family weaving in old videos of his wife, parents and children.
“I’m not sure if I have ever seen a more inept documentary. I have the feeling that Arlyck is using his filmmaking to help make sense of his own life which has not turned out as successful or fulfilling as he planned. No matter how good the intentions of director Ralph Arlyck are, this film is a self-indulgent mess. Arlyck is not a good writer or narrator and mistakenly thinks that the mixing together of his family history and that of Sean Farrell’s make a fascinating backdrop for a discourse on life in America. There is lots of talk, mostly gross generalizations, about hippies, immigrants, communists and their values. Much time is spent on analyzing Sean’s dad’s need for freedom from all conventional demands.
“The hand held camera work is uninspired. The editing is nonsensical. Some of the footage seems tossed in as filler since it has nothing to do with any of the apparent themes. There is one bright light in FOLLOWING SEAN and that is Sean himself. He was a winsome child and is a lovely adult, responsible and engaging while harboring a somewhat wistful air. Sean is what kept me tuned in to the end. 1 cat”