Percy Adlon’s e-mail to José Riba of “La semaine de la critique”

Dear José,

Nobody liked SALMONBERRIES. It became what some call a cult. Nobody wanted LEAVING LAS VEGAS … well.

Now, nobody likes Hawaiian Gardens. I chose a musical way of storytelling. Little circles that ignite each other. It goes against the consumer’s story line reception formula. Yes, it is innovative. But not in the sense of throwing all kinds of garbage at you. It is innovative in the way it is structured and because I don’t believe in solutions. The ambiguous actions of a young, smart, and curious Latina, and the money, New Market driven Germanic brain of a misguided, miserable young man. A double portrait of two very different kids of our time. Open to many questions, unsatisfying. But the skin of our world is still beautiful, like the song, Can’t find my Way, written for my film by Bob Telson and sung by Javetta Steele. I will happily send it to you, only asking you and you colleagues to go beyond your first impression, which is probably a bad one, and tell me why you don’t like it.

With my best regards

Percy Adlon

Percy,

I definitely like you a lot! Great sense of humor and you are not afraid of risk, just a feeling. You mention two movies very special to me, I like very much “Salmonberries” and we selected “Leaving Las Vegas” with my Spanish colleagues from the San Sebastian Film Festival long before the Oscars! Ask Mike Figgis about it. So, when are we receiving “Hawaiian Gardens”?

We are in France: Semaine de la Critique…

Best regards,

José

José,

I’ll send it today.

Percy

Dear Percy,

I just quickly want to congratulate you to Hawaiian Gardens. A wonderful film which fascinated me from the first to the last shot. Light-handed, effortless and elegantly told. A very good portrayal of characters and milieu, particularly the American scenes (and people) are exceedingly beautiful. What I especially liked of the love story is that first she falls in love with him, but he doesn’t really want to, then it hits him but meanwhile she has (some) scruples. By the way, the idea of the computer-software and the writers-theft is a great one, and Valeria Hernandez is a discovery, new and fresh (I don’t recall seeing her anywhere else before).

I am happy for you that the film succeeded so well.

Klaus Eder

Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique (FIPRESCI)

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