Seymour (Jonathan Haze), a klutzy and naive young man, works at Gravis Mushnik's (Mel Welles) flower shop on skid row. His luck takes a decidedly different turn when he crosses two plants and creates a very special new species. A species that needs blood to survive. Looking on the bright side, the unusual flower makes the flower shop quite popular and Seymour's boss very happy. And Mushnik's daughter Audrey (Jackie Joseph) finally starts to notice Seymour. But soon a few measly drops of blood aren't enough for the now very talkative plant (favorite sentence: "Feed me!"). Fortunately our hero shows a tendency to accidentally kill people, which makes for a happy and healthy wonder plant. Of course, things can't stay perfect forever...
Finally a veritable classic. In the last few years the old story about the production time of Little Shop having only been about three days has been corrected, re-corrected and changed so often that I've lost track of the momentary count, so I'll say it was shot in three to five days, plus or minus one, two or three weekends. The script was definitely written in one night, under the influence of the deadly combination of alcohol and coffee I suppose, and it's well worth it.
The whole enterprise shows a sense of playfulness, a feeling of people just doing something for fun that films on a less impoverished budget can't and won't afford, so that the kind of experience it provides is still unusual today. The closest comparison today are certain Takashi Miike films, especially his work for the DVD market.
The playfulness makes it difficult for me to write much about Little Shop, it's a film to be experienced, not talked about.
So if you haven't seen it already, do it now. Since the film is in the public domain there is no excuse not to watch it here.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
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