Ten years ago, with filmmaker Harrod Blank, I co-founded ArtCar Fest, a showcase for vehicular art in Northern California for the past ten years. It's an esteemed tradition. For the 1938 International Exhibition of Surrealism, curated by
Marcel Duchamp,
Salvador Dalí built a taxi that rained on the interior and had snails crawling all over various objects inside.
I have made six ArtCars over the past 23 years, and
Ed "Big Daddy" Roth saw two of them. In the Truck-in-Flux I met him at the 1994 Blessing of the Cars in LA, and a couple years later at the Houston ArtCar exhibition. Ed saw the
Buick-of-Unconditional-Love at
Hot August Nights in Reno and in San Francisco. Ed really liked ArtCars, and we quote him on our website: "ArtCars are born of the American impulse to think free." Ed was disappointed, however, that I didn't know the order in which V-8 pistons fired.
Tales of the Rat Fink is a great introduction to Ed Roth's life and work, leading to a few quick questions for director
Ron Mann.
What's your Rat Fink connection that led to the making of this movie?
Well, I was a card carrying member of the International Rat Fink Party. I was a weirdo kid. And I identified and idolized everything Roth.
Were you able to meet with Ed?
Yeah, a few times. We first met at a car show in Reno called
Hot August Nights. I remember that Roth complained that too many of the customizers were into older cars - where instead they should be working on their Toyotas! Roth impressed me because he was always forward-looking.
Your use of animation to move the film along and breathe life into the archive photos is inspired. It's the perfect medium to showcase Roth's style of caricature, and it's deftly done.
When Roth passed away, I was devastated, so I just put the film away. I made a couple of films but I was constantly rethinking - refinking? - how to bring Ed's story to life. I looked at what I did have - instead of what I didn't have. Besides footage of Roth which I shot at a Rat Fink tribute, I had hundreds of photographs from Ed's archive. I was fortunate to meet a young and brilliant animator named
Mike Roberts - who was also a car guy! We just basically riffed off of Roth's art work and created the visual equivalent of a 60s novelty song.
The anti-Disney and surf culture influences are talked about at length, but I didn't notice any mention of Beatnik culture. Was Roth influenced by Jack Kerouac or Lenny Bruce, or even Mad Magazine?
Neil Cassady loved going fast, but from what I can tell, Roth only used high octane. Instead of influence, I would say confluence. I think that there were many fronts to what became the counterculture, and Roth, as a designer, was one of those fronts.
Roth had a decidedly blue-collar take on art, and I noticed that in your film Ed disparaged "fine painting" as personified by Robert Williams. On the other hand, his work was pretty far out and avant-garde, as evidenced by the cultural impact he had on future artists. Do you have an insight as to how Ed saw himself in the context of the art world?
Roth was a hot rodder. There was lots of iron in his work, but no irony, like in pop art.
I particularly like your emphasis on Tom Wolfe's portrayal of Roth as a true artist and on how using the automobile as a medium captures the kinetic nature of America. Did Ed reference art movements at all such as surrealism or pop art?
Roth saw his cars a rolling sculptures but they actually worked mechanically as a car.
John Goodman was the perfect choice to play Big Daddy. How did he and all the other big names get involved?
I called up John's agent and I got a call back in ten minutes, which is unheard of in Hollywood. When I met John at the studio, I asked him why he agreed to do this and he said that Roth was a hero of his. Strangely, he met Roth at a car show in New Orleans who told him that if there was ever a movie made of his life, he wanted John to play him!
I loved the scene from Leave It to Beaver showing Roth-like Monster sweatshirts. I think The Munsters is another early TV show that demonstrates how the Rat Fink legacy infiltrated mainstream popular culture. Has there been feedback to your film from the contemporary TV shows & films that channel Roth's spirit such as Monster Garage, Pimp My Ride or Monsters, Inc.?
Matt Groening told me that Roth was a huge influence on him.
So what's next?
I'm working on a film about mushrooms and how they can save the world. I just go where the mushrooms tell me to go - and I'll leave it at that!
Your cart
© 2006 All Media Guide, LLC. Portions of content provided by All Movie Guide®,
a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.