Time Code

[Jim Morrison <jim_morrison@sprynet.com>]

Hi List,


Anybody seen the movie Time Code?  I rented it last night and wished I'd
seen it on the big screen when it was first released.  I think anyone
interested in Gould's "polyphonic" radio shows should give this movie a
chance, not for it's supposed content (a comedy/drama of the  High Hollywood
Opera type, you know, sex followed by adultery while on drugs, making a
film,  auditions ,  limos,  violence, satire, ad men, skinny blondes
desperate for acting parts, drunken men they audition for) but for the
technique of the film, which is clearly it's true subject.

I was about to write a short description the style of the film, but why do
that when I can copy and past.

"Time Code" was shot entirely with digital cameras, hand-held, in real time.
The screen is split into four segments, and each one is a single take about
93 minutes long. The stories are interrelated, and sometimes the characters
in separate quadrants cross paths and are seen by more than one camera. This
is not as confusing as it sounds, because Figgis increases the volume of the
dialogue for the picture he wants us to focus on and dials down on the other
three."

This film's constant overlapping of four storylines of course reminded me of
Gould's radio shows.
And just as obviously, the non-two-takeness of the project is very
un-Gouldian.


Anyone that wants to talk about this film feel free to send me an email.



The most understanding reviews of the ten or so I've read are, IMHO

http://www.nytimes.com/library/film/042800time-film-review.html

and somewhat surprisingly one by Roger Ebert at

http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews/2000/04/042805.html


Once again, if you see the film, don't focus on the plot, as some reviewers
have done.
That's missing the big point of the film and a bit unkind to.  (Sort of like
criticizing
The Lion King movie for not having real people in it, but only cartoons.)

The main point of the film is its structure.  The people are mainly rather
cliched
characters carrying lights with them to illuminate the architecture that
contain them,
an architecture suggestive of Gould's radio shows.

Bye,

Jim

(whose been away on the clavichord list watching people swap recipes as well
as talk about music.  :)