The Woman Chaser

Director: Robinson Devor
Screenwriters: Robinson Devor

Institute History

  • 2000 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Writer/director Robinson Devor has an uncanny gift for satire, but The Woman Chaser is much more than a spoof. It is a comedy that goes from black to darker, its humor teetering just on the edge of the perverse.
Richard Hudson is a salesman, a seducer, and a man who lives by his wits. A used-car salesman by trade, he always has one eye on the bigger prize. One day a feeling of terror and revulsion seizes Richard: he realizes he’s wasting his life in the meaningless pursuit of money. His only hope is to pull his resources, both legal and not, and delve headlong into a project that will “tie up in a single package his reason for existing.” What else can that be in the City of Angels, but to make a movie? The realization that he has no experience in this art form would make a stronger man shudder, but not Richard.

The black-and-white photography and strategic use of locations add marvelously to the style. Los Angeles is captured in all its noir-sh splendor. Patrick Warburton as Richard, the roguish bear of a protagonist, plays each hard-boiled beat for maximum effect. In fact the whole cast is magnificent, each possessing just the right look and vocal inflection. (The mother/son dream ballet particularly is not to be missed.) Although film noir aficionados may cringe at the blatant tweaking of this celebrated genre, The Woman Chaser is actually a hybrid that delivers a very original slap of amusement.

Screening Details

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