The Noah

April 13, 2009 5:06 AM

In 1975, Greek film executive Daniel Bourla completed work on his sole directorial effort, The Noah. Inspiration for the film stemmed from a meeting Bourla had with scenarist Carl Foreman, in which Bourla observed that “if one really had something to say in a film, he could do it with one man and a fly in a room”. Bourla wrote a postapocalyptic script about the last man to survive a nuclear war.

Though the film was a small, low-budget production, prep and shooting dragged on as Mickey Rooney came and went from the film. The Noah finally went into production in the mid-60s with Stalag 17 Oscar nominee Robert Strauss in the title role. Due to conflicts with Strauss and the very ambitious sound design, the film wasn't completed until 1974, when Bourla believed that with the ending of Vietnam it lost its significance. The Noah finally premiered on CUNY-TV twenty years later. FilmThreat.com columnist Phil Hall caught this broadcast, and the film became a cause celebre at the website. This led to its DVD release in 2006 -- almost forty years after the film was initially shot.

posted by pxe2000 (5 comments total)

Looks bleak. Like it would crush me. MUST SEE NOW.
posted by Minus215Cee at 6:36 AM on April 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

It plays like an episode of The Twilight Zone if it were a feature film. This is one of my favorite subgenres, so that's a very good thing.
posted by pxe2000 at 7:01 AM on April 13, 2009

Sounds interesting. I've only checked out a couple of the links, but I don't want these great stories from the “if one really..." one to go unnoticed:

I wanted a Polish-speaking man to record on tape a command for a cavalry attack against German panzers and I visited a Polish bar. While I was explaining what I wanted to the bartender, a man, sitting next to me, informed me that the actual commander of this attack was now living in New York. I did locate the one-armed former cavalry colonel and it is his own voice giving the command in the film.

... I took “The Noah” to Cannes film festival for a screening, with $76 in my pocket. I may have been innocent but not blind. When I saw the market atmosphere of Cannes, I didn’t even bother opening the film cans. I took my $76 to the casino, turned them into $270, had a nice French dinner, returned to the casino, transformed the $270 (minus dinner cost) into $1,700 - and I used that cash as a deposit for the purchase the U.S. distribution rights of a funny porno film that I had seen.

posted by languagehat at 9:20 AM on April 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

I have seen this movie and would like to comment.
posted by Henry C. Mabuse at 9:26 AM on April 13, 2009

What did you think, Henry?
posted by pxe2000 at 2:40 PM on April 13, 2009