Kino Lorber has announced a December Blu-ray release of The Last Lullaby. For a film we made independently in 2008 and shot in and around Shreveport, it's a pleasure to know that it will have a new life with viewers.
I recently sat down with the film again after many years away from it. I found myself watching not only the story, but the spaces around it: the silences, the pauses, the moments when the film refuses to explain exactly what has happened or tell the audience what to feel. When Max Allan Collins and I first began discussing the material in 1999, I never wanted to make a typical movie. I was drawn to the possibility of a crime story that could also be quiet, awkward, tender, and sometimes difficult to place.
That instinct shaped the film's contrasts: hard and soft, loud and quiet, violent and sweet, urban and rural. We kept the camera close to the people and places around Shreveport, then let the landscape shift beneath the story. Some of the violence happens outside the frame. There are long stretches without music. The viewer has to lean in and piece things together. That approach owes something to filmmakers I admired, including Godard and Lynch, but it also came from wanting to leave room for the audience.
I recorded a new commentary with Max and moderator Heath Holland, and the conversation gave me a chance to talk more openly about those choices and the film's influences. Watching it again, I can see both what I was reaching for and the places where the film remains unresolved. I'm glad it still resists an easy label.
I'm grateful to Kino Lorber, to Max and Heath, and to everyone who helped make the film. More release details will follow. For now, I'm happy The Last Lullaby is finding its way back into the world.
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