When someone releases a totally self indulgent passion project, I tend to raise an eyebrow. I always give a nod of the head to anyone with the balls to really push things. A person with the gumption to do what hasen’t been done. I’ve come to repect Sally Potter a lot for doing things like this, doing her part to advance this art form we call cinema. Well, this new genre she calls “Naked Cinema” I really can’t describe it unfortunately. Think of it as cross between those video diaries on The Real World with the melodrama of a soap opera… plus a blue screen.
In the movie… a schoolboy uses his cellphone camera to shoot intimate interviews with people working at a New York fashion house and secretly posts them on the internets. Result: a bitterly funny expose of an industry in crisis, during a week in which an accident on the runway becomes a murder investigation, and denial leads to devastation.
Why not have a movie… with one set. One camera and one angle? This is what RAGE does and does surprisingly well. Though I think the excellent camera work and slighting irritating bluescreen would have been a moot point if it weren’t for great performances from Judi Dench, Eddie Izzard, and others… especially Jude Law in drag. He needs to do that more often.
The movie starts off pretty slow but really ramps up at about 45 minutes. But then it seems like not enough. But that’s just how it goes.
Wolfen Films 