Celebrations of the Ordinary

The Drifter is a thumb-time hitchhiker and full-time vagabond. Known only as Alan, he sleeps on strange streets and familiar beds, wandering from woman to woman, ending all his relationships with an easygoing "Ciao, baby." Except for that, he has little to say, and less to laugh about. His idea of humor is to retell the ancient jape of the man who asked his mistress, "Do you smoke after?", and received the answer, "I don't know. I'll look next time." Alan, whose ordinariness is well portrayed by Off-Broadway Veteran John Tracy, meanders from Manhattan's Lincoln Center at the beginning to Long Island's Montauk Beach at the finale. Like the man who makes it, the journey is without aim or purpose--but not without poignancy.

The son of a concert pianist who pays him to stay away, the drifter composes pleasant little themes for the ladies he sleeps with--a slow-witted waitress, a sloe-eyed French chanteuse (Sadja Marr). The singer has a little boy who may be Alan's and who, like the drifter, improvises every moment as it comes. In the end, Alan tries to create a theme for the child, and finds his fingers inarticulate. It proves to be the one relationship that he cannot end with "Ciao, baby."

The story of the movie, told at the leisure-time pace of a soft summer's day, is as thin and as fragile as a sea shell. But despite its faults, The Drifter rarely drifts into obscurity or self-indulgence, thanks to the inventive, impressionistic camera work of Director Alex Matter and Photographer Steve Winsten. As sensitive as a light meter, Matter, who also wrote the scenario, gains his greatest effects with celebrations of the ordinary: the special glint of Manhattan sidewalks at night, the raucous antics of a flock of gulls, a barefoot walk on the beach, a wave of wind through scruffy dune grass. Implementing the images is a witty, memorable score by Ken Lauber which ties together the film's disparate insights.

Produced on a budget of $125,000, The Drifter was one of only three U.S. movies shown at the 1966 Venice Film Festival, won no prize (it was shown out of competition). But for moviegoers who like to look for the emergence of new cinema talents, the film is one to watch. As a screenwriter, Alex Matter needs help. As a director, he needs only another--and better--story.

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