And A Score By Aaron Copland!
Until today, the only “Something Wild” I’d ever heard of was Jonathan Demme‘s. But this month Criterion is releasing another: Jack Garfein‘s “Something Wild,” from 1961. Boilerplate: “A complex exploration of the physical and emotional effects of trauma, ‘Something Wild’ stars Carroll Baker, in a layered performance, as a college student who attempts suicide after a brutal sexual assault but is stopped by a mechanic (Ralph Meeker)—whose kindness, however, soon takes an unsettling turn. With astonishing location and claustrophobic interior photography by Eugen Schufftan, an opening-title sequence by the inimitable Saul Bass, and a rhythmic score by Aaron Copland, Garfein’s film is a masterwork of independent cinema.â€
