Paper Moon (1973)

Film: Paper Moon

Director: Peter Bogdanovich

Country: USA

Released: April 1973

Runtime: 102 minutes

Genre: Road Movie

Studio: Paramount

Influenced: John Hughes, Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson, Michael Mann, Sean Baker

Another product of New Hollywood, Peter Bogdanovich started out as a film critic and had his first brush with cinema on The Wild Angels (1966) by Roger Corman, the spiritual figurehead of the movement. Corman also produced Bogdanovich's first major film, Targets (1968), a strange but innovative picture starring Boris Karloff, which drew critical acclaim. He then directed The Last Picture Show (1971), an adaptation of Larry McMurtry's novel shot in black & white, which was a major critical and commercial success. His next project, the screwball comedy What's Up, Doc? (1972) with Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal, cemented his status in the industry and Bogdanovich's next project at Paramount was supposed to be a western with an all-star cast, including John Wayne, but the project fell through.  

Instead, next came Paper Moon. Set in the era of the Great Depression, the film is a charming and sharp-witted blend of drama, road movie and family dynamics that is as about as wholesome as cinema gets. The influence of classic films like Chaplin's The Kid is clear to see. Based on the successful novel Addie Pray (1971) by Joe David Brown, Paper Moon's screenplay was adapted by Alvin Sargent, with a plot that revolves around con man Moses Pray (Ryan O'Neal) and a young girl named Addie Loggins (Tatum O'Neal). After the death of Addie's mother, Moses gets involved with the girl under the pretext of being her father, though the validity of his claim is a running question throughout the movie. Together they embark on a road trip across the Midwest, getting caught up in various con tricks and shenanigans to make money, exploiting Moses' skill for deception and Addie's childlike innocence.

At the age of ten, Tatum O'Neal became the youngest person ever to win an Oscar, getting the prize for Best Supporting Actress. Paper Moon offered a refreshing perspective by featuring a young girl as the shrewd and cunning character, a trope usually associated with adults, and the performance by Ryan O'Neal's real-life daughter is nothing short of incredible. The film marked the start of a new era in which child actors were not only seen as cute and innocent but could deliver complex performances. PJ Johnson's performance as Imogene is also a key part of the Paper Moon's charm, and I also love the cameo by Randy Quaid. Midway through the film, Moses and Addie meet Trixie Delight (Madeline Kahn), an exotic dancer and con artist who tries to manipulate Moses. Addie, threatened by Trixie's presence and her relationship with Moses, devises a scheme to have Trixie abandoned, demonstrating her savvy and determination to keep Moses to herself.

Bogdanovich's decision to shoot in black & white was partly motivated by his desire to evoke the 1930s setting of the film, but he also saw it as a way to minimise the movie star quality of Ryan and Tatum O'Neal with their blond hair and blue eyes, and focus more on character over style. The director's depth of field shots clearly show a great debt to Citizen Kane and Orson Welles, with whom Bogdanovich had a close personal and professional relationship, while the clear contrast and definition of the black & white cinematography resulted from the use of red and green filters by pioneering cinematographer László Kovács. Several Bogdanovich films paid homage to movie history, with Nickelodeon (1976) a love letter to silent movies and At Long Last Love (1975) a nod to the golden age of musicals, but nothing the director did would match Paper Moon for its visual style and its magic performances.