The Berlinale retrospective dedicated itself to coming-of-age films in 2023. International cinema greats were asked to suggest their favorite films. Wes Anderson submitted LITTLE FUGITIVE. Not very known today, it won the Silver Lion in Venice and was nominated for an Oscar for the Best Writing in 1953. Seven year old Joey from Brooklyn is in the charge of his older brother Lennie for a day. Lennie has other plans. With his friends, who are already annoyed by Joey’s clinginess, he wants to go to Coney Island. The beach and the fantastic Steeplechase Park with its world-famous roller coaster is enticing. When the boys play a mean trick to scare little Joey away, he quickly disappears into the fray.

What makes LITTLE FUGITIVE so special for Anderson, and before that Truffaut or Kubrick, is the camera work. With a 35mm camera attached to his stomach, cameraman Morris Engel follows the little protagonist through the crowd. Besides the child actors, the mother, and two carnies, there are no actors. At eye level with Joey, the camera follows the real hustle and bustle of a New York summer day. Engel later worked with his future wife, photographer Ruth Orsky, and writer Raymond Abrashkin (aka Ray Ashley). The trio filled all of the important positions: writing, directing camera, producing, editing. Almost with no dialogue, Joey’s adventure unfolds in beautifully set black and white images. Masses of people on the beach bathed in light. Stalls, animals, the notorious parachuge jump, the lights of the big wheel in the evening sky. Joey eating a huge watermelon slice, collecting deposit bottles, or riding a pony. The moving and humorous details open a past microcosm from the childlike, slightly scared, but also curious, perspective.

Clarissa Lempp

Translation: Elinor Lewy