Release date: 5/30/2008
Roadside Attractions
Directed by
- Tarsem Singh
Produced by
- Tarsem Singh
- Ajit Singh
- Tommy Turtle
Written by
- Tarsem Singh
- Dan Gilroy
- Nico Soultanakis
Cast
Lee Pace
- Roy Walker/Red Bandit
Catinca Untaru
- Alexandria/Red Bandit’s daughter
Before discussion of the movie even begins, there is a necessary and sexy discussion regarding David’s beard, it’s transformation and the future of his facial hair.
Initial comments by the hosts:
Darrell thought it was a very strange movie (in a good way!) that sucked you in, in the way that it kept falling into the fantasy and Alexandria’s (Catinca Untaru) imagination of what Walker’s (Lee Pace) story meant to her (how she translated it in her young mind). He also thought that between the sounds and the visual beauty of the film, you kept falling down this rabbit-hole, not knowing where it was going to end. David adored the movie and loved that this film fully explored the visual medium. He was very impressed with the fact that there were no special effects used in the movie. He was less interested in the story in the hospital, but thought it was still fantastic.
The hosts all agreed that the little girl stole every scene she was in. Because most of Untaru’s acting consisted of reacting to what was given to her and not having very much of a scripted dialogue, she gave a very natural performance. Tony said that when he finished the movie, he was still processing it, and it wasn’t until later that he could fully embrace how good the movie was. The hosts all appreciated how the film was less about the story itself and more about the relationship between Walker and Alexandria.
One thing that resonated with Darrell was the way that Walker used and manipulated Alexandria to procure drugs for him (morphine), as an addict does. Tony and David argued that neither of them felt that Walker was an addict, but was only trying to kill himself.
The manner in which Alexandria pulled the characters (the hospital workers in dual roles) into Walker’s story was reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz and very well done. The hosts also liked how Walker used his relationship with his Evelyn and Sinclair/Odious to shape his story for the little girl.
Tony and Darrell brought up how the sounds of the outside world would bleed into the story and impact it, as sometimes happens in dreams. They also liked how Walker had to keep adapting the story to keep Alexandria interested, as one would have to do for a child. Another fantastic piece was how Alexandria believed the story was real throughout most of the film, but when Walker began to kill off the characters at the end, she insisted that Walker was making that part of the story up.
The hosts all enthusiastically recommend this film
Trivial bits and pieces:
This movie was inspired by the Bulgarian movie, Yo ho ho.
The film was shot on 26 locations over 18 countries.
Catinca Untaru initially believed that Lee Pace was really a paraplegic, and Tarsem Singh found that this brought an added level of believability to her dialogue, so he decided to keep almost the entire cast and crew under the same impression. It was difficult to keep up the lie, as a makeup artist almost passed out from shock after walking into a room to find Pace standing up.
The hospital scenes with Untaru were shot in chronological order, as the child’s English improved over time; she grew taller and lost her two front baby teeth before filming started.
Alexandria’s misinterpretation of the letter E as the number 3 in the “morphine” note written by Walker was an actual mistake by Untaro. Singh realized he could adapt that into a clever twist in the story.
Your Producers for this episode were:
- Tony
- Darrell
- David
This episode was recorded: 5/9/2012
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