Personal Problems
1980 film directed by Bill Gunn
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Personal Problems is a 1980 film described as a "meta soap opera" directed by Bill Gunn and written by Ishmael Reed that depicts the life and romantic relationships of a nurse (played by Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor) living in Harlem. The film was originally intended to be broadcast on television, but the public television network PBS and others did not pick up the soap opera.[1] It was shown across the United States at smaller screenings throughout the 1980s until it found renewed popularity after a screening in the late 2000s at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.[1] The film was restored in 2018 by Kino Lorber and rereleased at the Metrograph theater in New York City.
- Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor
- Sam Waymon
- Walter Cotton
- Jim Wright
| Personal Problems | |
|---|---|
2018 re-release poster | |
| Directed by | Bill Gunn |
| Written by | Ishmael Reed |
| Produced by | Walter Cotton |
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography | Robert Polidori |
| Edited by | Bill Gunn |
| Music by | Carman Moore |
Release date |
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Running time | 165 minutes |
| Country |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | $40,000[1] |
The original soundtrack by composer Carman Moore was released for the first time in 2020 by Reading Group.[2]
Cast
- Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor as Johnnie Mae Brown
- Walter Cotton as Charles Brown
- Sam Waymon as Raymon
- Jim Wright as Father Brown
Production
Some of the characters in Personal Problems were initially developed to be featured in a radio soap opera, but this later evolved into a thirty-minute video soap opera directed by Gunn and written by Ishmael.[1] The only scene from this original thirty-minute version to appear in the 1980 version was a monologue by the character played by Sam Waymon.[1]
The scenes in Personal Problems were shot using a videocassette recorder which was a new technology at the time (previously most films were shot using film stock).[3]
Gunn was known for his improvisational style of directing and was known to let actors improvise during filming, with director of photography and cameraman Robert Polidori stating: "Bill was interested in improvisation, which made it a little harder to shoot" and "Bill would set up scenes as an experiment. He'd set up tensions and see how the tensions turned out".[1]
Reception
Glenn Kenny of the New York Times said of the film: "For all its rough edges, Personal Problems retains a vitality and an integrity that practically bounds off the screen." He also praised the film for its intimate depiction of African-American life in New York, stating, "it's intimate to the point of awkwardness."[4] K. Austin Collins, writing for Vanity Fair, praised the movie as a "textually incomplete but spiritually overflowing accomplishment" and described it as "more than a clean narrative" which provided windows into a woman's life; "windows broad and intelligent enough to encompass a wide swathe of Black life generally, but free of neat narrative conclusions."[5] Chuck Bowen of Slant Magazine gave the film four stars and applauded Gunn and Reed's intimate portrayal of the characters, stating: "Gunn and Reed collapse conventional notions of reality, providing simultaneous glimpses into the minds of dozens of characters, lingering on scenes and informing them with confessional intensity."[6]