I had my share of watching indie-movies over the years, and I've been making them too. So I know what it's all about. I rarely get impressed by either my own work or other peoples works, because we all have a tendency to fall into the same traps. That's why felt very impressed after watching Alex Bakshaev's Naked Trip, a movie shot in the UK with Jason Impley in the lead. It's not perfect, but the good things outdoes every negative thing in a majority.
Jason Impley is George (I think that's the characters name, but maybe I just imagine that afterwards) a sleazy chainsmoking scumbag filmmaker that fucks every woman he meets, buys whores and just treats everyone like shit. But at least he do it for the sake of art! Well, this time he's really shit out of luck, because people that invested money on his last arty farty-project really wants their money back now, and he has no other solution than to just get out of town... but not with out problems!
One of the biggest mistakes you'll find in indie-productions is the acting. It's easy to understand, because the only people who want to be in your movie is your friends, neighbours and relatives. Eh, most of them don’t even want to be in the movie and just don’t give a shit anyway! This is one thing that surprises me with Naked Trip, the acting is damn fine. It’s not one single bad actor in the whole movie and Jason Impley rules them all. The character is both an evil child and a sleazy old man in the same body. Most of the time he’s shit-talking and treating people like junk, but somehow there’s a passion in him to, a real person that just want to do something good. To create art and make it good.
The movie is dedicated to Jean-Luc Godard and Jess Franco, but it’s mostly Godard that shines through. The style is very much Godard, and the black & white cinematography looks most of the time great and very retro, even if it’s digital. The locations are chose after style, and it gives the movie almost an unreal look, a dream-like quality. Alex Bakshaev as a director was a blessing. The visuals moves forward like nothing else, and there’s no boring and uninteresting visual choices in the whole movie. Some odd angle here and there stands out as a bit awkward, but they’re very few. Bakshaev also let the actors work, which we’re grateful for. Some scenes have not cuts, and the actors goes on without loosing the energy or tempo. Gone is also the typical theatrical lines and acting-styles, which makes this movie seem more big and grand than it actually is.
The movie starts with a nazi-flag above a bed. If I remember it correctly, that’s the first thing we see in the movie and that really caught the attention. Later in the movie Jason Impleys character talks about using a nazi-flag to grab the audiences attention, and that’s just what they did – and it worked, without getting pretentious or stupid.
Naked Trip is a wonderful little movie, and I’m not the only one that wants to see more both from Bakshaev and Impley.
7 comments:
Sweet! Looks and sounds' interesting. Should perhaps try to dig this one put as I feel that there's a period of Independent shorts coming within he near future... ;)
Well, didn't think the DVD would make it so quick to you!
And yeah, Jason Impey is really called George Eastman:))
On Godard - I constantly refer to his films when talking to my editing staff as I check their lines in the avid. "Jumpcuts are great in Godard's flicks, but in this specific scene it looks like crap!" Most of them don't get the point, as they don't know who the heck Godard is - part of the problem I have with my job. There's nothing worse than a knob who likes working in TV because it's the cool thing to do, and not because they are interested in actually telling something or making a difference. THat's the passion that always comes out in the Independent shorts that are being made every single day of the year. Because some people actually want to make a difference and tell something.
J.
Dear CINEZILLA,
if you want to see NAKED TRIP I'll gladly post you a copy, just let me know your address
Alex, I'd love to. Drop me an email at killfinger (at) hotmail dot com and I'll send you it.
Cinezilla, what is it actually you do?
Oh, and for the record; I watched my first Godard film two days ago. xD.
I bought the Norwegian 10 film box set you can get cheap at the moment. :D
http://www.playx.no/
product-2-153630-10-0-0.html
It's only $27 including postage (also outside of Norway). All films have English subs.
Jack. That is a great boxset. I picked that one up too a few months ago, but the Swedish version, it's the same shit Studio Canal +. I gave the guy in the DVD shop a bolloxing, because I asked him if he knew anything about the prints and he replied yeah they should be nice as they are all DVD... Dickhead. if you work in a DVD shot at least try to know what the hell you are selling...
But it's a great set, and a few double Godard titles are all worth it just to get my hands on Prenom Carmen as it's one of my all time fave J.G. films.
I'm a producer of TV reality/documentaries and actually try my damnedest to work storylines and a little thing called CHARACTERS into the random material that usually comes back to the editsuite from the shoot. That's why they call it postproduction. We save the day over and over again. :)
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