In association with Filmmaker Magazine next Monday’s Podcast spends some time discussing the merits of collaboration in cinema.
I bring this up because the podcast uses as an example ‘Big Fan’; the first film directed by Robert D. Siegel, (screenwriter of ‘The Wrestler’), which is screening at The Belcourt from this Friday:
Now, I excoriated ‘The Wrestler’ on this podcast. In fairness to that production if I hadn’t been aware of all the hype that said ‘The Wrestler’ was a real movie, (instead of a seemingly computer generated retread of several Rocky pictures), then am sure I would have enjoyed it as an entertaining Mickey Rourke B-Movie.
Anyhew, ‘The Wrestler’ didn’t do it for me. So now comes ‘Big Fan’ – directed by the writer of ‘The Wrestler’ – and it’s kinda great.
Why?
Collaboration: ‘Big Fan’ is shot by Michael Simmonds – the cinematographer behind all of Ramin Bahrani’s films. Actually, behind is not the right word – as Ramin said when he was a guest on the show, Simmonds had a hand in the pics during pre-production, the actual shooting of course, and post.
Bahrani’s three brilliant films show how much he appreciates Simmond’s talent. And on ‘Big Fan’ Michael Simmond’s photography elevates what would have been a small, melancholy little character study into a story that feels like a universal commentary on our U.S. in the midst of this Great Recession.
His careful framing of car parks, of buses and strip clubs – of structures and peoples slowly degrading is brilliant. The colour pallet is desaturated and grubby, and is mercifully free of the blue/teal look that is slathered on pics today.
Sure it’s not the feel good picture of the year – but it’s one of the best I’ve seen in the last couple of months. You should see it if you’re still interested in films for adults, for movies that try to understand this world instead of pretending it doesn’t exist.
