Timecode
2000
- USA - 97 min. - Feature, Color
Director:
Mike Figgis
Genre/Type:
Drama, Avant-garde / Experimental, Office Comedy, Showbiz Drama, Ensemble Film
Flags: Profanity, Mild Violence, Substance Abuse (Alcohol, Drugs), Sexual
Situations
MPAA Rating: R
Themes:
Romantic Betrayal (was Your, Love Triangles, Down on Their Luck, Crimes of
Passion, Boardroom Jungle, An Actor's Life, Filmmaking, Alcoholism
Tones:
Wry, Poignant, Gritty, Moody, Tense, Paranoid, Deadpan, Bleak
From
story by: Figgis, Mike
Produced
by: Red Mullet Production
Release:
Apr 28, 2000 (USA)
Released
by Screen Gems; Time Code (Columbia)
Plot Synopsis
Director Mike Figgis helmed this ground-breaking
experimental feature, filmed with four synchronized digital video cameras in
four separate locations. The story, outlined in advance but otherwise improvised,
was enacted in a single continuous take, like a stage play, with the unedited
images from all four locations presented on the screen at once. Figgis and his
crew chose the best single run-through, and the result is the film's final
release version. The story focuses on four main characters around the casting
sessions for a film called Bitch of Louisiana to be directed by Lester Moore
(Richard Edson): Alex Green (Stellan Skarsgard), the studio executive
overseeing Moore's project; his wife Emma (Saffron Burrows); gangster Lauren
Hathaway (Jeanne Tripplehorn); and her unfaithful lover Rose (Salma Hayek).
These characters' paths cross as murder, infidelity, and dirty dealings are
interrupted by an earthquake and its aftershocks. Time Code 2000 also features Kyle
MacLachlan, Holly Hunter, Julian Sands, Steven Weber, Danny Huston, Viveka
Davis, and Laurie Metcalf. - Mark Deming
Review:
Almost
by default, Mike Figgis' audacious experiment with the powers of digital video
is one of the director's better efforts. The design of the film - four
continuous takes, onscreen at once - virtually guarantees that something
interesting will be happening at least 25% of the time. At its best, there's
too much to absorb in one sitting. Figgis' choice of improvisers, however, proves
to be a mixed bag. Stellan Skarsgård and Holly Hunter shine in scenes which
require them to be honest, sardonic, and even tragic; Julian Sands and Salma
Hayek, meanwhile, show a heretofore unseen comic side. On the other hand, femme
fatales Jeanne Tripplehorn and Saffron Burrows essentially twiddle their thumbs
for much of the film and overact when they get the opportunity to say or do
anything. For all its claims of "invention," Timecode is actually
conventionally engrossing: with its simplistic plot - involving infidelity and
insensitivity at a slick Hollywood production company - the overall result is
like watching a juicy soap opera through four grainy surveillance cameras. - Michael
Hastings
Cast;
Xander
R. Berkeley - Evan Watz
Golden
Brooks - Onyx Richardson
Saffron
Burrows - Emma
Viveka
Davis - Victoria Cohen
Richard
Edson - Lester Moore
Aimee
Graham - Sikh Nurse
Salma
Hayek - Rose
Glenne
Headly - Therapist
Andrew
Heckler - Auditioning Actor
Holly
Houston - Alex's Assistant
Holly
Hunter - Executive
Danny
Huston - Randy
Daphna
Kaster - Auditioning Actor
Patrick
Kearney - Drug House Owner
Elizabeth
Low - Penny
Kyle
MacLachlan - Scott "Bunny" Drysdale
Mia
Maestro - Ana Pauls
Leslie
Mann - Cherine
Laurie
Metcalf - Dava Adair
Suzy
Nakamura - Connie Ling
Alessandro
Nivola - Joey Z
Zuleikha
Robinson - Lester's Assistant
Julian
Sands - Quentin
Stellan
Skarsgård - Alex Green
Jeanne
Tripplehorn - Lauren Hathaway
Steven
Weber - Darren Fetzer
Production Credits:
Dustin
Bernard - Producer
Gary
Scott Marcus - Producer / First Assistant Director
Annie
Stewart - Producer
Tony
Cucchiari - Cinematographer
Mike
Figgis - Cinematographer / Producer / Screenwriter / Composer (Music Score) /
Director
James
Wharton O'Keefe - Cinematographer
Patrick
Alexander Stewart - Cinematographer
Anthony
Marinelli - Composer (Music Score)
Charlotte
Malmlof - Production Designer
Louise
Hammar - Musical Direction/Supervision
Jennifer
Gentile - Set Designer
Donna
Casey - Costume Designer
Phil
Dupont - First Assistant Director
John
Watson - First Assistant Director
Greg
Zekowski - First Assistant Director
Rob
Janiger - Sound/Sound Designer
Amanda
Mackey Johnson - Casting
Cathy
Sandrich - Casting
Patrick
Dodd - Supervising Sound Editor
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