Don't Expect Too Much

United States

2011

70 Min

Color, Black and White

English

Currently 3.2/5 Stars.
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CAST Nicholas Ray, Jim Jarmusch, Víctor Erice, Tom Farrell

ED Susan Ray

Venice (Out of Competition), New York (Special Events), Edinburgh (Films on Film)

Synopsis

PLEASE SUPPORT THE NICHOLAS RAY FOUNDATION’S KICKSTARTER TO FUND A NEW DOCUMENTARY ON THE FILMMAKER!

In this feature-length companion piece to Nicholas Ray’s We Can’t Go Home Again, Ray’s widow, Susan, examines her late husband’s stormy romance with Hollywood, his self-imposed exile in Europe, and his eventual return to America, where he began work on the wildly experimental magnum opus that would become his final cinematic testament. Incorporating never-before-seen archival picture and sound from the Nicholas Ray Archive, and new interviews with directors Victor Erice and Jim Jarmusch and many of the original cast and crew of We Can’t Go Home Again, Don’t Expect Too Much offers a revealing portrait of a great director’s life, work and lasting influence. North American premiere. –NYFF

Director

Susan Ray

Susan Ray is a writer, director, and founder/director of The Nicholas Ray Foundation. Born in 1951 in New Haven, Connecticut, she attended the University of Chicago, where she met Nicholas Ray, who then was making a film about the Chicago 7 Conspiracy Trial. She joined the film’s crew and continued to work with Ray after their marriage on WE CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN, CITY BLUES, NEW YORK AFTER MIDNIGHT, and LIGHTNING OVER WATER, among the projects of his final years. Since his passing in 1979, she has made repeated efforts to restore WE CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN. Finally, in 2011, the 100th anniversary of Nicholas Ray’s birth, the restoration of his groundbreaking last film was completed. Along with her supporting documentary, DON’T EXPECT TOO MUCH, she brought the restored WE CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN to premiere at the 68th Venice International Film Festival. She edited and introduced the book, I WAS INTERRUPTED: NICHOLAS RAY ON MAKING MOVIES.