Front Line Films
Montreal World Film Festival
MONTREAL -- Muddled in both execution and content, "The Gun (From 6 to 7.30 PM)" is a below-par competition entry at this year's Montreal World Film Festival. The film is shot digitally and consists of 15 scenes without cuts. But it looks like director Vladimir Alenikov -- who also wrote, edited and co-produced -- allowed the flexibility afforded by new technology to get the better of him. Both distribution and festival prospects look dim.
The film is a kind of "La Ronde" about a gun that changes hands during a 1 1/2-hour period one evening. A biker finds the gun -- a Russian pistol -- out on the open road and sells it to a shopkeeper. Cab driver Victor (Jack Forbes) suddenly feels the need to protect himself and his wife and buys the gun. It's stolen from him during a visit to a strip joint and ends up in the hands of nervy youth Gene (Jeremiah Hassemer). He finally uses it on Victor in a robbery.
Digital prophets like Mike Figgis often claim that editing is deceitful, saying it distorts the truth about the subject under the lens. But the long, unbroken takes of "The Gun" will have viewers rushing for their copies of "Battleship Potemkin" for montage-inspired relief. The unedited scenes contain so much verbal deadweight that they numb the viewer, while Kirill Davidoff's camerawork is too labored to add interest. Bad sound doesn't help.
The director's attitude to gun ownership is baffling. The film takes no clear stance on the subject and appears more muddled than intentionally ambiguous.
Montreal World Film Festival
MONTREAL -- Muddled in both execution and content, "The Gun (From 6 to 7.30 PM)" is a below-par competition entry at this year's Montreal World Film Festival. The film is shot digitally and consists of 15 scenes without cuts. But it looks like director Vladimir Alenikov -- who also wrote, edited and co-produced -- allowed the flexibility afforded by new technology to get the better of him. Both distribution and festival prospects look dim.
The film is a kind of "La Ronde" about a gun that changes hands during a 1 1/2-hour period one evening. A biker finds the gun -- a Russian pistol -- out on the open road and sells it to a shopkeeper. Cab driver Victor (Jack Forbes) suddenly feels the need to protect himself and his wife and buys the gun. It's stolen from him during a visit to a strip joint and ends up in the hands of nervy youth Gene (Jeremiah Hassemer). He finally uses it on Victor in a robbery.
Digital prophets like Mike Figgis often claim that editing is deceitful, saying it distorts the truth about the subject under the lens. But the long, unbroken takes of "The Gun" will have viewers rushing for their copies of "Battleship Potemkin" for montage-inspired relief. The unedited scenes contain so much verbal deadweight that they numb the viewer, while Kirill Davidoff's camerawork is too labored to add interest. Bad sound doesn't help.
The director's attitude to gun ownership is baffling. The film takes no clear stance on the subject and appears more muddled than intentionally ambiguous.
Front Line Films
Montreal World Film Festival
MONTREAL -- Muddled in both execution and content, "The Gun (From 6 to 7.30 PM)" is a below-par competition entry at this year's Montreal World Film Festival. The film is shot digitally and consists of 15 scenes without cuts. But it looks like director Vladimir Alenikov -- who also wrote, edited and co-produced -- allowed the flexibility afforded by new technology to get the better of him. Both distribution and festival prospects look dim.
The film is a kind of "La Ronde" about a gun that changes hands during a 1 1/2-hour period one evening. A biker finds the gun -- a Russian pistol -- out on the open road and sells it to a shopkeeper. Cab driver Victor (Jack Forbes) suddenly feels the need to protect himself and his wife and buys the gun. It's stolen from him during a visit to a strip joint and ends up in the hands of nervy youth Gene (Jeremiah Hassemer). He finally uses it on Victor in a robbery.
Digital prophets like Mike Figgis often claim that editing is deceitful, saying it distorts the truth about the subject under the lens. But the long, unbroken takes of "The Gun" will have viewers rushing for their copies of "Battleship Potemkin" for montage-inspired relief. The unedited scenes contain so much verbal deadweight that they numb the viewer, while Kirill Davidoff's camerawork is too labored to add interest. Bad sound doesn't help.
The director's attitude to gun ownership is baffling. The film takes no clear stance on the subject and appears more muddled than intentionally ambiguous.
Montreal World Film Festival
MONTREAL -- Muddled in both execution and content, "The Gun (From 6 to 7.30 PM)" is a below-par competition entry at this year's Montreal World Film Festival. The film is shot digitally and consists of 15 scenes without cuts. But it looks like director Vladimir Alenikov -- who also wrote, edited and co-produced -- allowed the flexibility afforded by new technology to get the better of him. Both distribution and festival prospects look dim.
The film is a kind of "La Ronde" about a gun that changes hands during a 1 1/2-hour period one evening. A biker finds the gun -- a Russian pistol -- out on the open road and sells it to a shopkeeper. Cab driver Victor (Jack Forbes) suddenly feels the need to protect himself and his wife and buys the gun. It's stolen from him during a visit to a strip joint and ends up in the hands of nervy youth Gene (Jeremiah Hassemer). He finally uses it on Victor in a robbery.
Digital prophets like Mike Figgis often claim that editing is deceitful, saying it distorts the truth about the subject under the lens. But the long, unbroken takes of "The Gun" will have viewers rushing for their copies of "Battleship Potemkin" for montage-inspired relief. The unedited scenes contain so much verbal deadweight that they numb the viewer, while Kirill Davidoff's camerawork is too labored to add interest. Bad sound doesn't help.
The director's attitude to gun ownership is baffling. The film takes no clear stance on the subject and appears more muddled than intentionally ambiguous.
- 9/23/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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