Photo courtesy of Film Center of Art Institute. While still in high school Wicker began to write and sell works of short fantasy and horror fiction. During a period of five years over twenty stories appeared in various literary magazines. From these well crafted stories one can see the early talent he had for storytelling. Furthermore his stories were woven with the type of lush gothic imagery that would become one of his many stylistic signatures. Wicker's early film career was fueled by an unbelievable passion for the art and craft of cinema. Entering film school with a broader knowledge and respect for the history of film than most professors. His enormous talent and originality quickly distinguished him apart from the rest. Two months into his first year he released Vendetta. A man's mission to avenge his young sons murder, after the killer is set free. Wicker's cinematic voice was established in the first frame of his first film. Vendetta was hard hitting, gritty, emotional, and nothing like a student film. Wicker may have been a brilliant writer but there was no denying he directed with the camera. [Charlie used the lens like none of us had ever seen before.]- Says Yahuda Berkowitz, (former classmate)[I saw Vendetta my third year of film school (Wicker's first) it was a very intimidating experience me. The next day I changed my major from direction to production management.] High contrast lighting, extreme mood evoking angles, and his now trademark mid-shot jump cuts laid the ground work for his enormous influence over the Chicago independent film community.
It was during this time that Wicker founded the Dead Filmmakers, a production group that worked and produced films outside of (but allowed them to release) Columbia College-Chicagos department of film.
In 1993 Vendetta earned Wicker his first Grand Jury Prize (Silver Sprocket Award) from the Chicago Filmmakers. The Grand Jury prize would be given to him every year for the next five years. Wicker never attended any of the award ceremonies to collect the prestigious prize. In fact he rarely attended screenings of his own films.
In 1993 Wicker shot Alternate Realm, which was his first film using color film stock. He brought My Cold Dead Hand and Damn Clowns the following year to the screen. A disturbingly surrealistic account of a locksmith who kidnaps, tortures, and kills circus clowns for sport. The film garnered best picture at the Experimental Film Festival in 1994.
However it was during this time that he joined the extremely high brow film journal Gazette du Cinema which published five issues between March and November. He wrote a number of articles for the small publication, often using the pseudonym Hans Ford. This led to his founding of the Cine-Club and his election to the Film Center at the Art Institute-Chicago Board of Film Preservation.
1995 was the year he made the neo-noir Damnation of Faust an existential portrait of a contract killer who longs to be a concert violinist, and who happens to fall in love with a girl about to complete her vows as a nun. A narrative of interpersonal relationships poisoned by ambition, based upon the behaviorist theories of Albert Camus.
Later that same year with his growing reputation as a filmmaker the Chicago International Film Festival appointed Wicker as creative director for its retrospective film series. A year later he resigned from the position and the festival over a programming dispute. Outraged over the boards choice of Frank Capras (Mr Smith Goes to Washington) over Ingmar Bergman's (Winter Light). Wicker made is position clear in his resignation letter, [In light of recent events I find that I am no longer able to align myself with an organization whose views come in direct opposition with my own. Your refusal to recognize the indispensable contributions of master filmmaker Ingmar Bergman on world cinema troubles me deeply, and tears at the fibers of the human creative soul. It is an injustice I can no longer bare.]
By 1996 and the release of Musings of a Ridiculous Man saw him at the peak of his creative powers and established him as a major force on the Chicago film scene. The film was far darker and quirkier than anything he had done to this point. This magically powerful religious allegory, in which a man is mistakenly hunted by what he thinks is the image of death, blew everyone who saw it away. The film won almost every major prize in Chicago and several out of state festivals, and became a landmark film in the Chicago New Wave with its references to film noir, its jagged editing, and overall romantic/cinephilia approach to filmmaking. Charles Wicker began his professional film career with The Walt Disney Company as a development executive for Ricardo Mestres. Mestres (then president of Hollywood Pictures) enlisted Wicker right out of film school after seeing "Musings of a Ridiculous Man". Wicker supervised many hit films for Walt Disney Pictures including "Inspector Gadget", "101 Dalmatians", and "Flubber".
Although he found that the mainstream Disney films he worked on were far removed from his own sensibility, Disney let him have the freedom to work on his own personal projects. Fearing he would be locked into a studio he insisted his contract be open so that he could accept projects from other production companies.
He signed a deal with Universal Pictures in 1997. It was after the release of The Jackal that he, without explanation, ordered his credits to be pulled from all of his studio films. His films critical and commercial success allowed Wicker to work on any project he desired. Around this time his focus diversified and he would always have several projects in various stages of development. Not accepting a directing job to this point allows his writing and development talents to be lent to several films at a time. For Wicker to maintain such autocratic control over the work in hand, he needs total isolation. The power he has acquired within the film industry has forced productions to give him the freedom he needs. His only concern is an artistic one.
Much has been written (Daily Variety and the Hollywood Reporter) about the mythology of his personality traits and work methods. His reclusive and secretive nature are only over shadowed by his brilliance and passion for his art. The reaction of the Hollywood community is one of bafflement. His ambition and commercial success has caught their attention but his refusal to become one of the family and the distance he maintains from Hollywood continues to confuse. However, none of the people that have worked with him have ever questioned the merits of his methods.
[Charlie is an extremely difficult and talented person. We developed an extremely close relationship over the course of our collaboration and as result I had to live almost completely on tranquilizers, remarked Ricardo Mestres (producer). Jerry Greenberg (film editor) added, Every time I get through I a session with Charlie I have to go lie down.
He rarely gives interviews, almost never leaves his residence, and appears absent to a hungry multimedia. His clothes are famous for their simplicity (baggy) trousers, open necked shirts, and baseball caps. He communicates essentially by faxes and late night telephone calls.
In June of 2000, the Chicago Underground Film Festival celebrated Wickers influence on Independent film with a three day retrospective of his work. He stayed home. However, he did send a fax requesting they not show Damn Clowns! any longer. [Today I feel that Damn Clowns has neither rhyme nor reason. It was schnaps-idee, as the bavarians say, meaning that its an idea found at the bottom of a glass of alcohol, not always holding up when examined in the sober light of day.] The festival respected his wishes and the film was pulled from the program. Currently he lives in the Chicagoland area but lives three months of the year in a small town outside of Paris, France. Biography Written By Professional Research Compiled By Biographical Research Compiled By |
