Sayles' work sweet as 'Honeydripper'

One may disagree with his politics, or find the occasional fit of sermonizing to be unseemly, but there is one undeniable fact of the career of John Sayles: He has never sold out. It's hard to imagine that he ever will.

Although the staunchly independent filmmaker's uncompromising approach has seen him struggle to get his films financed, finding top-drawer actors to star in his films (for scale) seldom has been a problem. Serious actors clamor to work with him, even if it means passing on a lavish payday.

"The biggest compliment that we get," says Sayles, "is when we ask these well-known and well-paid actors to be in our movies knowing they're not going to be well-paid because we don't have the budget, and they say, 'Yes.'

An indy icon, Sayles has proved an inspiration to scores of writers and directors whose vision exceeds their purses or their powers, but one can also discern the influence of his storytelling techniques in much bigger mainstream movies. His latest feature, adapted from his own short story, surprisingly has few recognizable names apart from Danny Glover and the musician Keb Mo.

"Honeydripper," a music-infused drama set in Harmony, Ala., in 1950, follows the owner (Glover) of a faltering juke joint who reluctantly hires a young electric guitarist in a last-gasp attempt to attract patrons. To a large extent, the film captures the transitional moment from the blues to rock 'n' roll.

"It's that moment in one place and one time that we heard the first couple of notes that anyone had ever heard of a solid-body electric guitar, the spread of which was so rapid and so quick to change the sound of music that you forget that it didn't exist in the public way until 1949," says Sayles, honored for lifetime achievement at the recent Savannah Film Festival. "It was developed on the East and West Coast at about the same time and spread like wildfire. In the movie, the kid builds his own guitar, and it's like Frankenstein's monster in the beginning."

Sayles and his companion/producer Maggie Renzi had a whole five weeks to shoot the picture. Nothing new; as Renzi says, they've experienced 30 years of making good movies on the cheap, "carving sculptures out of gravel."

"Because time and film are money, you don't want to do too many takes if you don't have too. It's important to edit in your head. It's not theater; it doesn't have to be a great or even a complete performance of a scene on the set. It can be made into a great performance in the editing room."

Sayles began as a fiction writer, producing two novels, "Pride of the Bimbos" (1975) and "Union Dues" (1977), and a short story anthology, "The Anarchist's Convention" (1979). Switching to screenwriting and script doctoring (in part to fund his own movies), Sayles took the plunge in the late '70s. Taking $60,000 in screenwriting income, Sayles directed his first feature, "Return of the Secaucus Seven" (1980), a poignant look at a reunion of 1960s activists on the cusp of adulthood. It put him on the map. He followed with "Lianna" (1982), a daring examination of lesbian awakening.

The highly original "Brother From Another Planet" (1984) was followed by a pair of pet projects, "Matewan" (1987) and "Eight Men Out" (1988). Sayles continued to forge an uncompromising path in the '90s with films such as "City of Hope" (1991) and the Oscar-nominated (Best Original Screenplay) "Passion Fish" (1992). Shifting gears, Sayles delivered one of the most evocative children's/family films ever made, "The Secret of Roan Inish" (1994).

Sayles enjoyed a rare commercial breakthrough with "Lone Star" (1996), a somewhat atypical film that earned him a second Oscar nomination for his original screenplay. It remains his most thoroughly realized picture, and a tough act to follow.

Films of more recent vintage — "Men With Guns" (1998), "Limbo" (1999), "Sunshine State" (2002), "Casa de los Babys" (2003), "Silver City" (2004) — all were well made, with solid performances. "Honeydripper," which spawned a real-life touring band of the same name, should be no different. The film will not hit smaller market theaters until after the first of the year.