RENT CONTROL

US, 1981, 90 minutes, Colour.
Brent Spiner, Elizabeth Stack, Leonard Melfi.
Directed by Gian Luigi Polidoro.

Rent Control is a Film Festival feature. A small-budget New York production, it illustrates the quality of film-making by independents - with the comparisons of feature films and studio work. The non-name cast is very good, the production budget is small - however there is much good humour and pleasing observation of life in the large American city.

1. An interesting example of independent film-making? Production qualities? Colour photography, use of locations, editing? Non-name cast?

2. The conventions of the feature film about life in New York with its difficulties? Housing, caravans? Marriages and break-ups? Relationships? The employment situation?

3. The focus on the hero: Leonard - his living in New York, his looking for an apartment, the relationship with his wife, the cosmetician she is living with, the child in Canada in the camper, relationship with girls and their not warming to him, his seeking for inspiration in his writing career? The put-upon American hero?

4. The sketch of Leonard's wife, child, the cosmetician? The attention to detail and the humour of the characters as well as the pathos?

5. The details of Leonard's looking for an apartment - and the characters that he encounters? His social life and his relationship with girls?

6. The basic plot - its episodic nature, character sketches? Humour, sentiment, drama?

7. How perceptive a look at New York in the early '80s? The American way of life? The American dream - and the humdrum details of day to-day life?