Film The Region One DVD of Mike Figgis film 'TimeCode' is highly recommended. For those who missed it's tiny run in cinemas, Figgis essentially made four films simultaneously and projected the four of them in each corner of the visible screen, the characters and plotlines cleverly stepping between them all. It's a bewildering experience, but with clever sound mixing, our eyes and ears are drawn to the important character moments and plot points. At special screenings and premieres, Figgis actioned these mixes live, like a DJ gauging which parts of the action the audience were interested in and adjusting the noise accordingly. Cleverly, one of the special features on the DVD replicates this by offering the raw sound of each sector of the screen. It's effectively a cinematic version of the old Atari 2600 cartridges with 54 different games splattered on the side of the box -- that's 54 different versions of the same game. With TimeCode, although the view effect the action, by playing about with the sound mix they can change their experience in hundreds of ways, selecting which aspects of the story they want to concentrate on in that viewing. This has the effect of being able to enjoy the nuances of some of the performances, and some of the genius improvsation. After seeing this you will believe Julian Sands is a great actor. See, it's that element of surprise again ...

No comments: