Disappearances
Rating = B
I'm not sure this is really a B
movie but the whole experience of seeing it at the Cape Cinema with a
talk by the director before the film was shown and questions and
answers by the director (still mostly talk by him) was definitely at
least a B movie-going experience. The director teaches about movies at
the college level, so he is very articulate in describing his own
movie. With its touches of magical realism and subtle allusions to
French Canadian folk legends, I'm not sure what was happening in the
story would be so clear without the director being there to explain
things.
The film has Kris Kristofferson in its leading role, although the story
is actually a coming-of-age story about the son of the character
Kristofferson plays in the film. He is very good in the role and,
according to the director, was instrumental in other good actors
joining the cast of this low budget independent film.
According to the director, Kristofferson worked for scale and gave two
benefit concerts at which $70,000 was raised to fund the film. Other
funding came from 1,400 donors ($500,000) and from selling $1,000,000
in shares in the film at $10,000 per share. Altogether the movie cost
$1,700,000 and took 25 days to film (compared with $50,000,000 for the
average Hollywood film), it looks fully professional.
Other broadly recognizable actors included Genevičve Bujold, Luis
Guzmán, and William Sanderson (of the “Newhart” — “I'm Larry, this
is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl”).
The movie is apparently the third in a trilogy of films set in the
Northeast Kingdom of Vermont based on books by Howard Frank Mosher.
According to the director, this area of Vermont was sort of a “wild
west” of its own, and he was explicitly making it as a “western.”
In addition to teaching about film and making films that take place
and are filmed in the Northeast Kingdom, he also teaches film making
to young people. He definitely is an interesting guy.
[2007-08-19]