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)

Synopsis

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 film director and the President of Nicholas Ray Foundation. Born 1951 in New Haven, Connecticut. While working as Jason Epstein’s assistant conducting trial research on the “Chicago Seven,” she met Nicholas Ray who was planning an adaptation of the very same trial; they later married. She was involved with “City Blues,” “New York After Midnight,” among other projects of Nicholas Ray’s final years. After his passing in 1979, she made great efforts for the production of the restored version of “We Can’t Go Home Again.” In 2011, the 100th anniversary of Nicholas RAY’s birth, completed the restoration along with directing the documentary “Don’t Expect Too Much”, both of which premiered at the 68th Venice International Film Festival. She wrote the book, “I Was Interrupted: Nicholas Ray on Making Movies” in 1992.