Thoughts : Personal Problems (1980)
Discovering a new director can often lead to awareness of a wealth of content. While recently diving into Bill Gunn, the diversity of his work really stood out to me, and the one piece that specifically caught my attention was his self-described ‘meta soap opera’, the sprawling and heavily dramatic Personal Problems.
Johnnie Mae Brown (Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor) is a nurse living in Harlem who is in the depths of an unhappy relationship with her husband Charles Brown (Walter Cotton). After long, stressful days, she comes home to an unhappy Charles, a small apartment, and an unwanted houseguest in the form of Father Brown (Jim Wright), her hard luck stepfather. Her problems multiply when her stepbrother Bubba (Thommie Blackwell) and his wife Mary Alice (Andrea W. Hunt) migrate to New York from California to escape and repair their own troubled past. With Charles being openly unfaithful to her, Johnnie Mae seeks out her own side romance in the form of Raymon (Sam Waymon), a local musician, but like most things in her life, she finds herself unsatisfied and unfulfilled. Just as Johnnie Mae is reaching her breaking point, Father Brown dies, which brings Charles’ family into the mix to confront Johnnie Mae and force her to face her reality.
The format of this film is very forward-thinking... even though An American Family and Scenes from a Marriage were both already in existence (and both released coincidentally in 1973), the “reality-based” storytelling device was still not a common one used in mass media outside of news or documentaries. The use of this format allowed the characters, specifically the character of Johnnie Mae Brown, to provide additional insight and context to the events of the film without the need for clunky exposition dumps to set up the interpersonal conflicts, which in turn allows the actors to reach their desired emotional levels more directly and in a more believable fashion. Specifically, the interviews provide subtext that would be impossible to get without the aforementioned exposition dumps, like the recollections of Johnnie Mae’s mother working as a housecleaner only to come home and vent her frustrations about having to clean more house, and how this is later mirrored in Johnnie Mae’s frustrations with her encumbering houseguests. In turn, the moments between Johnnie Mae and Raymon are given room to develop their own arc, rather than serving a secondary function for Johnnie Mae to voice said subtext.
With the use of this reality-driven format, the experimentation comes into play during the middle act of the film, where we are given a presentation of previously witnessed events as if they occur over a matter of weekdays. This breaking of the linear narrative not only drives home how mundane life has gotten for all parties involved in the echoing montage, but the reoccurrence of singular identical issues and conflicts drives home Johnnie Mae’s frustration and pain in the face of these expected issues and conflicts. Act three further breaks the format by adding the dramatic catalyst of Father Brown’s death, which brings out the most extreme versions of all characters involved as they face an inquisition from those attending Father Brown’s funeral. The tension reaches breaking points all around, which is a needed breakdown in order for all parties involved to build back up their fractured relationships. It is this blurring of the lines of reality in tandem with the extremely relatable drama that brings out the soap opera aspects of the project.
Video used in a motion picture format is definitely jarring at first, as motion blur and RGB split tend to be present, but at a certain point either the technology improved or my eyes got used to it, because the images improved. The freedom that video provided the cinematography allows more variety in the setups, which I am sure allowed the actors to stay at the volatile and energetic levels they present on the screen. It is quite impressive that the film was able to be cut together like a traditional film, as most use of video tends to result in limited coverage or cutting corners... this high quality of editing in contrast with the lower quality of video creates an uncanny valley experience in terms of how the viewer takes in the information presented, which almost forces them to hang on to the emotion and drama doled out by the actors. Casting Sam Waymon was a benefit in terms of soundtracking, as he is able to provide palatable in-world music to contrast the traditional scoring of Carman Moore.
Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor channels frustration, tenderness, aspirations, confusion and fierceness, among other emotions, into a highly tuned and laser-focused performance of a woman on the edge of lashing back out at the aspects of life that cause her pain. Walter Cotton plays as withdrawn and scorned as a compliment to Smart-Grosvenor’s performance, playing down when around her and allowing his brightness to shine among others to a highly effective degree. Sam Waymon is captivating in his talent and charisma, but eventually exudes equal detachment to that of Cotton, albeit it in a much more social manner, but with the lack of attention to Smart-Grosvenor translating all the same. Jim Wright attempts to bring a bit of levity and ‘salt of the Earth’ quality to the mix, while wonderfully twisting Smart-Grosvenor’s nerve. Thommie Blackwell and Andrea W. Hunt also bring comic energy into the mix, though Hunt does begin to evolve prior to their swift removal from the story. Supporting roles are filled in by Ishmael Reed (who developed the concept and initially wrote the film), Kip Hanrahan, Michele Wallace, Mizan Nunes, Alan Beckles, Margo Williams and many more.
While I’ve never had the courage to truly dabble in experimental filmmaking myself, I do appreciate it when it’s done by others, especially when it is done well. It has become crystal clear to me that Bill Gunn is an under-recognized genius with extremely forward-thinking sensibilities, and if asked to back up these thoughts, I know that I can easily point to Personal Problems as validation of these statements.