Yesterday I was looking at the underside of the footbridge at Richmond Lock. It was past high water but the three barriers were raised and I was trying to see how they are concealed, they were invisible and there doesn’t seem to be room. Then it happened.
I’d hope to see it one day but it still came as a surprise. The barriers are held horizontally beneath the bridge when not deployed making them almost invisible. Slowly they tilted to the vertical and descended into the river. It is a mighty engineering feat.
Earlier I saw this poster on the towpath.
It might be absolutely brilliant, at least if it lives up to the Director’s hype when he was interviewed in The Independent.
“What was your goal with Kaufman’s Game? What drew you to this project? I know you have many literary influences; perhaps you can name a few by title.
Helier Bissell-Thomas outside the British Film Institute on Southbank, in London.
My goal with Kaufman’s Game was to make a powerful feature-length movie (my first one) without the luxury of a million dollar budget, A-List cast, or major studio support. I wanted this film to showcase the cinematic Film Noir aesthetics I am interested in while maintaining the commercial viability of the thriller genre brand. In my view, these forms are nearly one in the same, stylistically speaking, the thriller genre having developed from Noir over the decades.
My love of the writings of Franz Kafka and Raymond Chandler drew me to working in contemporary Film Noir, you might call this “Neo-Noir,” I suppose, but most moviegoers recognize this type of film as a “Thriller” or a “Psychological Thriller” these days. The way I see it, genre titles have more to do with the packaging and selling movies. Producers rely on recognizable “types” to pitch movies to the right audience.
As a teenager, I read Robert Rodriguez’s Rebel Without A Crew about the making of his brilliant micro budget debut El Mariachi. I think this is perhaps the best memoir to date of the mentality a first-time film director must adopt in order to get an indie movie off the ground, against all the odds. Rodriguez’s book is a truly inspiring read, one I kept very close while making this movie. Catching The Big Fish by David Lynch was helpful too.”
Worth a try if you can download it, as it probably will not be on general release everywhere or for long. Here’s the trailer.
Morning Christopher,
I’m afraid if the amateur Barry Normans of the world are anything to go by, a wider reception for Kaufman’s Game does not seem likely…
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2238758/reviews?ref_=tt_ov_rt
Best,
Alistair