Cool News
ONE HOUR PHOTO Screening & Romanek Speaks!!
Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I love these screenings held for college students where the filmmaker speaks afterwards. I’ve been to many of these at the AFI over the years, and this one would have been fun to see.
Hey there Harry I just got out of another screening here at USC. I wrote in with a Windtalkers review a little bit ago. Tonight One Hour Photo was screened and accompanied by the film's director Mark Romanek and editor Jeffrey Ford. I was excited to see this movie. I had seen the trailer on Apple’s website and heard decent things about it at Sundance. For those who don’t know Romanek is the music video director behind Nine inch Nails’ “closer” and “The Perfect Drug” as well as Madonna: The Video Collection. He has also worked with No Doubt, Mick Jagger, and others. This is his first feature film and I was interested to see how his music video experience would translate into film.
Going into the movie I was anticipating a very stylized film and that is what I got. There are a lot of wide-angle shots and quirky color hues, and beautiful composition in the frame. It is quite pretty but very un-MTV. The editing and pacing of the film is much slower than I expected, but works. To his credit he didn’t try and make a 2 hour music video, he tried to make a movie. The film is told episodically and framed with bookends in the narrative.
Robin Williams plays the lead character in another one of his recent “darker” roles. I saw Insomnia and Death to Smoochie both of which I thought he played to the best of his ability given the material. Williams has a very restrained role in this movie, even more so than the aforementioned Insomnia. Williams plays a lonely one hour photo clerk at a suburbian SAV-MART grocery store. The film opens with a scene of Williams in an interrogation room with a police officer (Eriq La Salle) questioning him. The police officer asks why and how he could do such a thing to the Yorkin family. The officer holds an envelope of pictures that Williams has taken, but Williams does not get to see them and neither do we. Right from the beginning we know he has done something.
The first act is very slow. I would go as far as to say the first two acts are very slow. But don’t leave the theater because the intensity spikes towards the end as real world forces toy with Williams’ character more and more. It’s a punch that needs precious time to build up, and I think it delivers.
Romanek has tried to create a dreamlike quality within the framework of the film. He plays with time and space, but not in a drastic way. The movie is essentially from Williams’ POV. The premise involves Williams as an 11 year photo employee who has watched the Yorkin Family grow through the pictures that he develops for them. Williams’ character is a very lonely man and projects himself into the happiness of the family he sees on film. Then things go awry and a decent thriller of a movie emerges.
This film is different which means you haven’t seen anything like it. Romanek admitted that one of his goals in making the film was to do something different, to be a bit weirder and unique. In that I think he has succeeded.
Romanek owes a lot to the Germans who scored the film Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil. These are the same geniuses behind Run Lola Run and the Princess and the Warrior. The sound design is quirky and experimental as they dynamic duo use a 40 man string orchestra as well as Synthesized sound. The score made me think of Requiem for a Dream in addition to their previous two films. The score helps to create much of the tension (isn’t it usually the case though) and greatly complements Romanek’s style (or is it the other way around?).
In all I am glad that I saw the film. This is going to be a film that some people simply won’t like based on the way it looks and the pace of the film. One sore spot for me though was that there is ambiguity in the ending. Romanek said he wanted to let the audience decide certain things which is a device that makes little sense in one of his scenarios. Romanek is the writer and director of the film and took complete credit for the end product. He said the script underwent little change and that the studio let him run with his ideas. So if you love it, hate it, or are simply indifferent you know who to thank or blame for what you see on screen.
TTFN,
The OGDPOh, man, I need to see this film. I’m holding out for a theatrical viewing first, and don’t want to see one of the tapes floating around town. The temptation... oh, the temptation...
"Moriarty" out.
-
+ Expand All
-
Jul 19, 2002 10:24:36 AM CDT
congratulations on that being first thing.....really, amazing wo
by aaronhayden
Anyway, this movie sounds good. I've seen nothing but positive reviews so far, although this person was not too thrilled about the end.
-
"CLOSER" by Romanek is definitely in the top five, possibly the greatest. The montage of brilliant images is incredible, absolutely blows you away. But my personal fav is Spike Jonze's "Sabotage" with the Beastie Boys; I've never laughed harder at a video, and the attention to detail is top-notch. On the humor tip, Jonze's Weezer video with Fonzie rocks, but his Nirvana video on the Ed Sullivan Show is even better. The list of bad-ass directors continues: Fincher's Madonna videos, like "Vogue" and "Express Yourself" are great even if they're veering over into gayland. Herb Ritt's "Wicked Game" is damn sexy and perfectly compliments the moody song. I don't know the director of the relatively recent video where the guy's in the tunnel and keeps getting hit by the car? Is that a Radiohead song? Haunting; you can't turn it off. Of course, they would only show this at 3:00 AM on MTV due to content, but ironically this is the perfect time slot for this macabre work. There's so many more but I can't think of them now. Of course there's the old OLD videos, like the mid-80s, but these are mostly for kitsch factor. And the recent CGI-heavy videos of the past 5 years, most of which suck, although brilliant ones come along like the Korn video directed by Todd McFarlane (Freak on a Leash or Got the Life, can't remember?). And for the absolute greatest dance sequence ever on big screen or small, the zombie dance in John Landis' "Thriller," but that gets its ass licked by VH1 every other weekend so no need to even mention it. So many more, what do you guys like? Raimi's performance video for Alice in Chains' "Them Bones" rocks, if you want to talk about directors of film doing videos, but it's not in top 10 of all time. What else has Romanek done? Oh wait, did he do Nine Inch Nails' video "WE'RE IN THIS TOGETHER," from last year's 'The Fragile' double CD with Trent Reznor running in the pack of lookalikes in the city and then the desert (I'm thinking maybe it was Samuel Bayer, but not sure)? That was absolutely incredible, but of course I only saw it *once* on fucking MTV. Btw, Is MTV2 on ANYONE'S basic cable provider? Certainly not on Time Warner Cable, the bastiches. If you watch MTV late at night you see how many unique, quirky videos are being made for lesser bands, but MTV chooses to play cookie-cutter "hoochie" videos 90% of the time. Aah, what's the use in complaining about MTV? Anyhoo- here's to ONE HOUR PHOTO being cool.
-
Or am I going to have to sit through another year's worth of test-screening reviews? What's left to test, dammit?
-
and the movie opens differently. No police interrogation, no ER doc-as-cop, just a closeup of a family photo. It sounds like the "new" start already lets the viewer know Sy is in trouble. Bah, I say. The original opening was deeper and clued in the attentive viewer. Please don't dumb down this film, Romanek. The screener also had pieces from the Requiem score (and a NIN track from The Fragile) as placeholders, so I wonder what has taken their place.
-
Silly slang aside, I need to see this movie. This and The Two Towers. And Gangs of New York. This year has been sort of OK so far, but I think all the really good stuff is yet to come. I guess that someone is now going to tell me how fantastic AotC and Spiderman and Minority Report and Road to Perdition all were. Sorry, I'm hard to please. Minority Report came close, but I think the last half hour or so dropped the ball big time.
-
His first was called Static, from way back in 1985 - with an early appearance of Amanda Plummer -
A young man in a quirky small town is building a mysterious invention.
Sarring a young Kieth Gordon, who has himself gone on to make significant films.
Funny, and Extremely Affecting. -
The video with the guy in the tunnel constantly getting hit by cars is from a couple DJs who put out an album under the name U.N.K.L.E. DJ Shadow is one of them, I forget the other guy. The ending of the video is particularly cool. If you've seen it you know what I mean, though if you haven't seen it, I wouldn't count on ever seeing it on TV again since it wasn't real popular and it's a couple years old already. U.N.K.L.E. had several well-known guest stars on the album, one of them being Thom Yorke who sings the song in question here, "Rabbit in Your Headlights". It's a pretty good song with a really awesome video, which was directed by Jonathan Glazer. He's directed some other Radiohead videos, too, and that crazy "Virtual Insanity" video for Jamiroquai a couple years back. Want any other useless information?
-
Oh yeah, and NINTH! SUCK IT!
-
Jul 19, 2002 7:30:13 PM CDT
did anyone like the video for david bowie and trent reznor's
by phineasgage
i thought that video was significantly creepy, with that image of trent reznor shooting the car with an imaginary gun quite chilling. its a good song too! i think music video direction is an un-appreciated medium. aldo, fincher directed the video for 'judith' by perfect circle, you can see it on their site. Maynard rocks!
-
Don't get me wrong, Robin Williams is great and all (well, different, and change is good, right?), but he's let down by a story that never even tries to explain why he's stalking this woman, a director who focuses so much on his lead actor that you never have time to garner even the remotest bit of sympathy for the family he's "terrorising", a supporting cast straight from the TV School Of Overacting & Reacting (and accomplishing neither well) and a bad kid. So there. Hulk Hogan should have taken Williams' part - "Can I take them photos off you brother?"
-
I hope I feel differently because all of the problems you mentioned are the kinds of things I dismiss if I buy into the concept and execution of the film. Well, the bad kid might bug me, but according to what you say, he can't have that big of a part.
-
from what i here this movies sounds strangely familiar with a grat film called l.i.e. by michael cuesta. cuesta drected music videos, l.i.e. is also simplistic, & has an ambiguous ending. maybe im wrong. bt if you get a chance,check out l.i.e. on dvd.
-
is Bjork's 'Miss You', directed by John K, creator of Ren and Stimpy. Like 'Rabbit in your Headlights', however, it had a short life on telly because it was apparently too crude. Yeah, right. Let's just hear Nelly tell his bitches to take of their clothes then instead, shall we? ps some bands like Radiohead, and Beasties make consistently good videos
-
even though the screwed up talk back would have this on top of my previous one, but anyway. Tool's videos are always mind blowingly kick-FUCKIN'- ass. THey are directed/created by the guitarist who once worked in Hollywood, doing special effects for movies like Jurrassic Park and the Abyss. So awesome special effects+Brilliant music= amazing videos. PEACE
-
Have to know what this guy wrote about windtalkers before i can trust his opinion.
Readers Talkback
User Login
Top Talkbacks
- Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012 -- 439 total posts 159 posts
- WTF HOLLYWOOD: SOLARBABIES -- 144 total posts 142 posts
- Herc’s Seen Tonight’s Return Of THE WALKING DEAD!! Discuss Also DOWNTON ABBEY, FEAR FACTOR, PAN AM, ONCE, SIMPSONS, DYNAMITE, LUCK, SHAMELESS, BAIT CAR, THE GRAMMYS And More!! Sunday Is Sweeps Day 11!! -- 155 total posts 140 posts
- Avid Comic Reader Hercules Does Battle With Tedium During Kevin Smith’s COMIC BOOK MEN! -- 55 total posts 45 posts
- There's a STAR TREK video game that is going to lead into JJ's STAR TREK 2 apparently... -- 196 total posts 45 posts
- I am The Behind the Scenes Pics of the Day! No, I’m the Behind the Scenes Pic of the Day! -- 35 total posts 35 posts
- If the Behind the Scenes Pics of the Day drops her pen, pick it up, but don’t look at her legs or else it will be on your record. -- 60 total posts 34 posts
- New JUDGE DREDD post production footage pops up -- 127 total posts 32 posts
- To Commemorate The 3D Release Of STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, George Lucas Wants You To Know...Greedo Shoots First!! -- 513 total posts 29 posts
- The Sensorties Revisit The Friday Docback (And Still Smell)!! DOCTOR WHO Story #7 Again, The Coming Of Season/Series 7, And More!! -- 118 total posts 27 posts