Lady in White
Starring: Lukas Haas, Len Cariou, Alex Rocco
Writer: Frank LaLoggia
Director: Frank LaLoggia
Synopsis:
Halloween, 1962. Little Frankie Scarlatti is locked in a classroom closet by a couple of bullies after school. In the wee hours of night, he witnesses a reenactment of a young girl being murdered in the closet, and strangely, she sees him too. Right after, a dark figured man comes busting through the cloakroom door, searching for something inside a nearby floor vent. Frankie's presence is eventually discovered by this man, ensuing an attack that leaves the boy unconscious. Once he is rescued by police and his Father, a school janitor is arrested under suspicion. As time goes by and Frankie is recovered, he realizes that there is now a link between him and the ghost of the murdered little girl he encountered Halloween night.
Rant:
Every once in a while, a film comes along that was obviously made with such care and passion that it seems ultimately flawless to you, even through the minor imperfections it may have. Whether it be that one actor that put a bit too much ham in the role, or maybe from things you didn't notice from first glance, but learned about later on. Nevertheless, the good still outweighs the bad, and the film is a timeless treasure. Lady in White is one of those films. Frank LaLoggia makes this movie feel perfect to me because much of the story is actual pieces from his childhood, carefully placed over an urban legend. Keep in mind, this is in not really a horror film; the central subject is the grievance of loss, and how to overcome it. Sure, there are thrilling and ghostly aspects, but for me, it's a childhood thing. It resurrects old memories I had long forgotten, and it choked me up here and there because of that.
A lot of the characters in Lady in White --particularly Frankie's family-- are written off of people from LaLoggia's life --not to mention he himself does the film narration, as well as appears in the film opening as Frankie, uncredited. Frankie and his older brother Geno are interpretations of LaLoggia and his brother --the difference being the reversal of Frankie being the younger of the two. Probably the closest renditions are the two grandparents, Papa Charlie and Mama Assunta, all the way down to their bickering and Papa trying to sneak cigarettes around the house. Moments like these in Lady in White are directly lifted from LaLoggia's memories. In addition to characters, the movie was filmed in and around Rochester, New York, his hometown.
****Spoilers Begin→Interesting to note: the secondary story of a black janitor worker at the school being wrongfully accused for Frankie's attack in the cloakroom caused LaLoggia some harsh criticism for implanting such a subject. All he was trying to do was correctly convey the era of time Lady in White was taking place. LaLoggia has distinct memories of similar stories, racial riots and separatism, so he really just figured it was a fitting element.←Spoilers End****
****Mild Spoilers****
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The collaborative effort between writer/director Frank LaLoggia and cinematographer Russell Carpenter is astounding. The two storyboarded every section of Lady in White well before they began shooting. This aspect of the movie is damn near as strong as the characters and the people portraying them. The opening title sequence is beautiful; endless, high up shots pouring down on a vast city bridge and then to an autumn filled country drive. The small stuff counts a lot, too, such as a bad ass POV bicycling shot of Geno, while the two brothers are rushing to school. A scene in Frankie's classroom epically captures the Halloween spirit, by lighting the shot in a way to help the decorative setting match the seasonal atmosphere outside --it's worthy to note that the atmosphere of Christmas is displayed later, also very adequately. Once Frankie is trapped inside the cloakroom, there's an in-camera shot --meaning no use of optical FX-- focusing on a cemetery that sits next to the school, while day transcends into night. Also, the dream sequence of Frankie's Mom's funeral is all done in one shot; it's quite exceptional, considering how it drifts from the funeral home to the family living room --achieved by open/close paneling in the wall, which was closed before the camera makes it's full circle. It's kind of difficult to describe the moment, because words can't convey a true appreciation of the moment. I could go on and on in this department, so let me just say that Lady in White is completely beautiful, in terms of camera direction.
****Safe to Read****
Kudos to Mali Finn and Lynn Stalmaster for casting; most actors chosen seemingly fell right into the roles they were portraying. LaLoggia makes mention in the commentary of having Lukas Haas (The Tripper, Witness) in mind for playing Frankie from the get-go, and he's picture perfect. He chimes in with realistic reactions of childhood fears, happiness, sadness and the trials of growing up. Making it more believable is Haas and Jason Presson (Gremlins 2) working together to build the structure around an all too lifelike younger brother vs. older brother relationship. ****Spoilers Begin→Alex Rocco (The Entity) is equally on point as a loving father suffering from loss and nearly losing a son.←Spoilers End**** Renata Vanni and Angelo Bertolini portraying the bickering grandparents bring a large part of charm, helping make this story so down to Earth. If I had to say anyone feels out of place, it would be Katherine Helmond, as Amanda. Not to give too much away, but for her part she comes off maybe a bit cheesy. It's not that she's really bad, and it's certainly not enough to take me out of the film. Hell, it may not even be her fault. Admittedly, I had a hard time getting her Who's the Boss character out of my head from first glance.
On to effects. First off, I for the life of me cannot understand how anyone can mistake the Dracula mask --created for the film-- that Frankie wears for Richard Nixon. Really? Anyway. There's strong usage of blue-screen and black-screen effects for the ghostly element and backgrounds. A lot of scenes display double optical, sometimes even triple optical (using live action, set piece miniatures and matte paintings all in one shot), to make some parts work. For the little girl ghost, black screen was used, then she was layered over a previously filmed --with a lock-down camera, in order to match everything up-- empty shot, to give that transparent look. Most of the time, these visual effects work. ****Spoilers Begin→In a scene where Frankie loses consciousness, there's some great eye candy to feast on of him losing touch with life, seeing brief instances of his family's reactions. It's very fairytale-like. However, the finale uses it over-extensively, in my opinion. There's just too much going on during the cliff scene, where the ocean at the bottom was added after blue screen matting. However, even if I felt taken out of the experience for a bit, the finale is fitting; it's actually beautiful, tapping back into the element of rebuilding from loss.←Spoilers End****
Frank LaLoggia also wrote the music for Lady in White, which was composed by a 70 piece orchestra for the film. It's amazing. Music that staples the sense of childhood adventure and fear of what lurks in the shadows. It all fits the movie so well.
Random:
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1) Nixon, my ass. Looks like Dracula to me.
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2) Example.
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3) Candy Corn, a Halloween staple. Something I always like to see on the shelves, but barf in my mouth a little at the thought of the taste. If I hated Halloween, this is the candy I would hand out.
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4) The Lukas Haas Punch™ will straight lay your ass out!
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5) Hah! That's all.
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Aside from the minor issues I mentioned above, Lady in White is a most excellent film. It's just one of those rare moments where so many things come together working to the film maker's advantage. I'd also like to add that Frank LaLoggia fought tooth and nail to get this theatrically released without cuts made, other than his own. He turned down a few major studio companies, due to this. It's a crying shame that he only directed one more film after this. I have a feeling he would've been a favorite director of mine, and I'm strictly basing my assumption off of how I feel about this one film. It's straight up beautiful.
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