:
David Lynch,
John Boorman,
Wim Wenders,
more...
:
Costa-Gavras,
Costa-Gavras,
Gabriel Axel,
more...
see all cast/crew...
: Fox Lorber
: Foreign, Spain, Scandinavia, Experimental/Avant-Garde
: 88 min.
: English, French
: English
see additional details...
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In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Lumière brothers' first films, filmmakers Sarah Moon and Philippe Poulet challenged 39 renowned international directors to each complete a 52-second film using the original Cinematographe camera under the conditions endured by the brothers. The result of the project was this film, Lumière et Compagnie. The film stock used was homemade from a slightly altered version of the Lumières' recipe. No synchronized sound was allowed and only natural lighting was permitted. The participating directors included John Boorman, Costa-Gavras, Peter Greenaway, Lasse Hallström, Spike Lee, David Lynch, Liv Ullmann, and Wim Wenders. Among the actors who performed in the films were Liam Neeson, Lena Olin, Aidan Quinn, and Alan Rickman. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
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| An interesting project... which needed an editor
by figtree
February 4, 2005 - 5:21 PM PST
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3 out of 3 members found this review helpful
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I generally agree that the results reached by these forty directors are of wildly uneven quality.
It also appears to be a consensus that the strongest entry is David Lynch's bizarre sci-fi collage, but I'd say closely followed by:
*) Zhang Yimou's nice reversal of the "old-fashioned" setting initially presented... and one of the few pieces with any sense of humor...
*) Helma Sanders' beautiful four-dimensional 'painting with light' which makes a virtue of the film stock's limited range of contrast...
*) Claude Lelouch's vertiginous kiss as camera technology evolves in the background.
I also found some of the simpler ones quite charming, including:
*) Jaco van Dormael's portrait of a kiss by a pair of special lovers,
*) Peter Greenaway's floating numbers of time
*) Wim Wenders' quiet and simple re-visitation of his angels
*) Jerry Schatzberg's snapshot of urban scavenging
and
*) Bigas Luna's portrait of a nude woman nursing in a field.
However, the vast majority of the pieces are dull, redundant [couldn't those guiding the project have communicated with each filmmaker about their intentions to avoid such frequent duplication?], pretentious, and worst of all humorless.
The worst offenders tend to be the most self-conscious pieces [which coincidentally have the most annoying soundtracks], including Spike Lee (leading candidate for most self-obsessed father of the year), Liv Ullman (hers is the least inspired of the dozen or so camera-filming-camera pieces), and Kiju Yoshida (who pompously announces he will demonstrate the impossibility of capturing an image on film).
In short, well worth a look, with some brilliant moments, especially for students of film and film history... but keep a grain of salt and your fast-forward button handy. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.70)
96 Votes
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