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Episode 25 · 1 year ago
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Episode 25 · 1 year ago
Single Location Films: Gimmick or Testament to the Power of Cinema?
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
You are listening to talking images, the official podcast of ICM Forumcom. Welcome back everyone. Do you have trouble with confined spaces? Will Open your windows or take a dog while listening to this episode? It the great outdoors as you're heading down a very clostrophobic and tight corridor, whether you find yourself trapped in the house and able to leave, in a car speeding down the road, in a lifeboat in the middle of the sea, in a music room isolated by your own memories, or in a coffin literally buried deep underground, single locations can be used in an incredible amount of ways. In this episode we will look at how single location can amplify Claustrophobia, paranoia and dread or, on the flip side, amplify the feeling of loneliness and isolation. We will also talk about how effective single location, you such, can actually be for low budget films, not to mention how natural it can feel for stage adaptations and especially crime dramas and horror films. We will also look at how single locations has been used in experimental films, including those of Michael Snow, before we, at the very end, look at the films that took single locations to the most extreme end, and you can probably already guess what films they're going to be talking about there. Some have become infamous. Joining me today are two wonderful coholt fall and Tom, and let's just start with a very quick opening question. When you think single location, what's the first thing that comes to mind, and will what really constitutes a single location film? Hi, this is Tom. I really enjoy single location films. I think that they can be incredibly inventive in terms of the storytelling, even when there's a constraint to the creation of the film due to the single location. And a suppose. The first thing that comes to mind when I think about single location films is kind of low budget horror and sci fi films that you mentioned, Chris, films where the protagonist is either trap or in a precarious position, in a situation where they need to find a way out in escape and the suppose what constitutes a single location film is when really the camera doesn't move from that location throughout the entire film. I suppose we're going to talk about this a bit as the podcast progresses, because there are instances where there may be open and closing shots that take somewhere else. But for me the definition of a single location film I like to restrict, guy you to it just being specifically in the one location. I it soul from Australia. When I first hear of the term single location, I think of two things, or is he springs to mind. There's a that sounds so boring and or gimmicks. City, however, actually like a large number of single location films, but it's just the premise or the whole idea of it being a single location instantly makes me think, oh well, that doesn't sound too adventurous, or that sounds like the try and do something gimmicky or they don't have the budget to go further than that. There are a lot of films that are really great things with single locations. That sometimes takes you a bit longer to actually sit down and watch those films because our these preconceptions in mind in terms of what comes of chips a single location. I think I'm quite purest with this look at the single location. It should move out that location at all and it should really be like one room or one car, as some examples come up, but they shouldn't be moving from room to a room within a house. But I know we are going to include some examples like that where it's said in one house or one mansion and they move from room to room. Yeah, and in some of our films they will even be looking at films really ghost like the outside for instanced and the porch partick, a little walk into garden or in somebody else's gotten. So I do think that it is always a question of degree. So you can have someone who's literally trapped in the car and you can have someone in a single room or you can, you know, expand out. You can have a single house, a single mansion, a single train, a single spaceship. At that point you know it's starts to also remove a little bit of what the single location gives you, because I think was a joke summer made before the podcase, was what about single city or a single country? Like what about resteds? Are To all rested single location because they take place in the American West. So when we talk about single location films, we will try to limit it downs at...
...least it's the very same area and just be sure that we don't make ourselves too broad and look at films that really use the single location to their benefit, that managed to do something because of their singular location. So you mentioned that. When we talked about single location films, there's a lot of preconceptions there that they are these gimmick films that don't really do anything else. I think it's interesting that, as to mentioned, there are just so many horror films, especially lower budget horror films, that do constrict themselves to single locations and even more horror films that primarily use single location and meaning that they really want that Culturophobia. Are In ease of being trapped one place, but they're not purest about it. And then we talked about anything, including the Shining Evil, all dead, you name. It is just such a massive amount of horror films that just love that one primary location. But why do you think that is? I think with horror films, often the filmmakers want to give us the impression that the characters aren't able to escape, when he can't get away from the evil. I think it does help in some ways to have a single location for the majority of a film. aglazed, but I guess when I hear that a film is only using the one location, you never get out of that location. It makes me go huh. Are Some films that I take place in a single ATM booth which are quite innovative with that, but a lot of the single location horror on something. Well, they're the budget for what? There'll be a few scenes that took place outside it. Maybe it's just a preconceptions going into the film. I like how soul says that he can be kind of put off by the Gimmick of this single location film. It's almost the opposite. For me, especially when it comes to horror films, I'm always interested to see what the filmmakers can create and do with the self imposed limitations of a single location. It always really intrigues me and, like you mentioned, Christ it kind of can enhance the sense of isolation for these characters who are struck in a single location and amplified the dread surrounding the story that infolds before us. But that's a really great point one, and I also like the cinematic challenges it pulls us and I know that in many of the cases will be talking about today, we have, for instancenarios where the camera never ever leaves the house, for instance, or in one case where the camera or two cases perhaps for the camera just stand still. It gets really interesting. There's what other limitations you can really impulse on the single location shot, especially when you can't theoretically shoot so many scenes within, outside, through a window, etc. And just increase bolt thecaustrophobia you might feel as a viewer and this kind of experimentation with cinematic language. So there's just so many different ways that the single location can be used. We were going to talk a little bit about who done it right now, because, just like horror films, who done its love being in that main location. You know, you have an endless amount of films that take place in a mansion or a castle with the suspects in different rooms. That we can go all the way to clue. But let's just move on to the films that truly are single location and truly live and breathe single location, and starting with the perhaps most obvious and the ones that are perhaps most limited in the material from the very beginning, the adapted place, where, of course, so many plays are literally set in that single location because of their original format. And we picked out some really interesting films that for you. So let's just dive straight into them. Starting with secret on there quite interesting. Why? How do you even say this? This emotionally powerful film by Robert Aldmam I watched secret on it for the very first time this week and it struck a chord of me, in particular because of the incredible performance from Philip Baker Hall, and he's the only actor that you see throughout the whole films run time. So the way of this film success rides on his performance, and what a performance he gives. You see the deterioration of the man as he runs through his memories in his past, in this history, and he plays Richard Nixon in this film. So it's quite political and sadly for me I don't have a huge interest in American politics, so a lot of the stuff that he brings or didn't really resonate with me. But I could still appreciate it for his incredible performance and also for the fact that the film...
...takes place entirely in his office and the inventive use of the camera work, which is quite animated and keeps the film alive, whereas you could kind of have the preconception that a film with just one man in a room could be incredibly boring. But that's far from the case. I absolutely love secret honor. I've seen probably twenty or thirty films from Robert Altman and this would be in my top five films from him. Actually don't fund to be a very political film. I found that the film for me was mainly about Richard Nixon as the human being and the dilemma that he finds and self in where he's being judged for this one single misdeed. Everybody is forgetting or overlooking all the good things that he's done and he's feeling tortured by this. I can only imagine whether I would be like where you make one mistake, who do something that was a little bit shady, and suddenly every good thing that you've done, that you've built up throughout your career, and he lists on a few during the film, are completely ignored and you're only judged on this one thing and becomes a finding part of your life. I think the single location really enhances that sort of like we're only these days judging Nixon on one thing, so we are only seeing him in one room, Justin his office, whereas with a different politician made to get all around the White House, should get like all around different places, but the Nixon it's just been singled down to this one thing. I just felt so much for Nixon as a character during this, as a vulnerable human being like Tom I was also a big fan of the camera work and the different security cameras and the different screens there, and the simil location also does really enhance the paranoia that Nixon is failing. I also have to really praise the screenplay here and how this claims also act out in real life, because it runs so well, almost just as it is. You have the setup of Richard Nixon recording a kind of defense for him self, where I set up for himself, and with this these few simple tools, you have his recorder, you have his surveillance screens and you have his mental state and the way you see him unravel and speak to himself, even at some point a dress, you know, and actual pictures of previous presidents. It's manages to be quite an uneasy viewing and it's funny, it's engaging, but it's also such a hyper emotional film due to the performance by Philip Baker Hall, where you just really delivers and Deliveris and delivers and you just feel him through the entire film and to also really praise Robert Alpum here the way he shoots it. Because you just have that single room, you never leave it, you can send some kind of outside world through what is talking about an author surveillance cameras, if you never ever leave and just with one person one room, he manages to actually make something that's quite cinematically could. He focuses princes on the surbillance camera, the way the shots and the thematic language really captures Phil The bakersalts movements and emotional state. It just works so incredible and becomes such a powerful experience. So this is truly one of the, in my opinion, very best single location films. I like how you bring up the pictures on the wall as well as the previous presidents, and it just reminded me of how few props are actually involved. There's obviously the drink, as a Nixon is also drink while he's recording this tape, and the golden which plays a key role as his time with that while his mental stability comes into question. And I must say that the ending is very powerful as well. Without spoiling it for anyone, it kind of does leave you with the great image. I think it's also really interesting that this is Robert Oldman's only single location film. He actually made arguably a couple of others during the S, including streamers, which not that fresh in my mind. But the other most notable one would be come back to the fire and Dyne d median D Medine, which is not as Claustrophobic as there's far more characters and you're in this dance rounding with people used to be part of the Games Dean Fan Club essentially does the bonding and going through the memories. But it's still interesting that overldmint kept looking into adapting play in this way. I think it's also interesting that you don't actually need to be trapped in a single room when you adapt a play. One of the most notable ones for me, which is still single location in a most purest form, if street, then from one thousand nine hundred and thirty one by king with or and starting, among others, Cillybale Sydney, because here you're literally on a single street.
All of the scenes are played outside, or rather the studio version of the outside, and you have such a vibrant large cast. And what's interesting here is that it doesn't play in through Claustrophobia at all. It is simply the case of bringing the play to life in a slightly more it' cinematic way and the way that's the camera moves, the way it speaks of the characters, especially for the early sound era, it's just really interesting how open and free this film feels. One director that we can also mention in this threem is women Polanski. He's adapted a number of stage plays, including carnage and DREENUS and fears, and carnage is an excellent single location film. I know that salt raised a few questions about this earlier because there are scenes at the start and the end of the film that don't take place within the primary location, so perhaps it ends the rule slightly in that regard, but the majority of the film does take place in the one flat where two couples come to blows over a five that is broken out between their children, and it's a brilliant character study, lots of black humor in there throughout and one of Plantski's better film to recent years. I thought carnage was an excellent film. I've actually seen it two or three times. I didn't plug it for this podcast before because, as I have those scenes at the beginning at the end and the fact that the adults are not present for them is actually very pivotal in terms of how they react to everything which they are assuming and making out as gone on without actually being then seeing it themselves first. And that's he does work very well with single locations or films mostly in one location, because you even think of things like repulsion or could a sack, I thought I'd also mentioned, just on the subject, or play adaptations, as you've got who's afraid of the junior wolf, which is not single location. They do guarden middle of the film to a Bowling Alley and they come back and if we're calling carnage saint location, probably called who's afraid of the junior wolf single location to and again that's about bickering couples. It's about couples on either side, the wife and the husband, changing sides and going up against each other. Very similar dynamics to carnage and very good use of minimal, if not exactly one single location. Another rector we really need to mention in terms of think lookation has to be such a good three and it's too bad, clever matthe, you are not there to talk about this great early French director who spent so much of its time experimenting with all as possible, but also so much this time simply making adaptations of his own place, some of them more successful than others in just how they feel. One of the ones to feel the most natural and not limited by their location use search has to be my father lost right, which is really interesting in that it set over many, many years. I believe it's set in three different time eras with relatively different moving sets of generations experiencing the same kind of issue with love. Is Essentially all set in the same larger villa and mostly in the father characters study. You never leave this villa. You see every time someone you arrives. They arrived at the Guy Gate and they come in. But the way it moves in terms of Prout, progressions and play with all these different generations, it feels much larger and freer than it actually is. Another one that's also primarily one location would be his film, I believe, from the same year, called as area, another larger house or Villa, and that film also feels more visually interesting as well because it has such striking, beautiful cinematography, along with his, you know, traditional Raukshi humor. So I definitely think such a good ree deserves a lot of respect for early single location, or primarily single location films. And One more final play adaptation before we move on has to be who is cloths, which I'm not being with your how to exactly pronounce, but it's of course John Paul Sartres famous or even infamous play, called no exit in English, which also coined the famous phrase hell is other people hi, French pociation police of the here we've been called for a couple of in factions. The play which was adapted to the film is by Jean Pan Sacht and it's called we clue. It's actually the term we used to talk about these kind of films, this single location films. It means closed door. I will, however, let Chris go this for this time because he pronounced sachaguity in this Yara quite right, so he's fee to go for now. Now this is not strictly well, it is strictly thing a location,...
...because the opening scene is the characters arriving in hotel lobby and then all of the rest of the film takes place in one of the hotel rooms. So in the broader sense all of it is inside of the same hotel which represents hell. But almost almost entire story takes place in one singular room with three main protagonists going at each other, and it really tells into the psychological underlying idea, which you might even enter a little bit into, with exterminating Angsil shortly. But what if, so fast that year's this this idea that hell isn't actually torture in the traditional sense. Hell is simply being locked in that pairly Okay Hotel Room with two other people for the rest of eternity and seeing this character spar the personalities clash, very simple effects outside. It's just such a claustrophobic film that really really delivers, including are let in one of the leading roles, because, of course, in this specific example I'm listening I'm talking about nine hundred and fifty four version by decline Audrey, which to me is the very best iteration of this story so far, which could really be really done again and again and again. And it's does feel fitting to end the play adaptation section of the podcast with this film, simply because of the title. We grew no exit, because that is so often a descriptor that is scenter of all single location films, and also because we're leading into our next section. And what single location is probably most known for the feeling of Claustrophobia. And we can start with the film I jokingly say did what Joss did for the sea, but with every single room that exists. I'm talking, of course, of the exterminating angel, a film that, while not strictly single location due to its epilog really captures the sense of being trapped, as our well to do massive ensemble cast gather for as Nice dinner after a trip to the opera, just to realize, slowly but surely, that they can not leave the room they're in. It's not the case that they're physically trapped, no doors are locked, no one is holding them captive. It's rather that just can't enter the hallway. But as they start to realize, they begin to feel physical pain. This in the so much interesting in both normalizing the scenario and building up this surreal nightmares reision of the logic, both from the inside of the House but even from the street outside, as people consistently try to get in and talk about going in but can't. It's slick, beautifully satirical, incredibly dark but with a very nice comedic touch. I haven't seen exter my angel in incredibly long time. When I did say it, I was very young in my cinematic journey. The premise absolutely fascinated me. People not being able to leave room and not knowing why and not being able to control it. Anyway, when I sat down and actually watched I thought it was incredibly I don't want to say stupid, but you know, watching at fifteen or sixteen, I didn't really get very much out of the film. Probably something that I should read as it because I've come to quiet like quite a few and your films over the years, but I just haven't really been attracted to go back to it just because it was just off putting and I saw it originally. So I don't want you to think that we're going up when you hear Chris Brook. I shared exact same sentiments as so with the exteriorating angel. As saw, it's a young age and it didn't really do anything for me and perhaps now I've got more appreciation for cinema. That's as a surreal approach. It may resonate with me more if I revisit it, and perhaps it is one that I need to revisit, because you description certainly does sound far more interesting in the film that I remember watching all those years ago. Oh Yes, I would strongly recommend eysiting it. I'm in bold in terms of the actual elegant cinematic techniques that's used them in it's such a beautifully looking film. To then semple cast to the comedy, to the feeling of not being able to leave, you as a spectate there really...
...get trapped into this feeling. We just want to shout that that just try, it does go just walking, just leave. But at the same time it's becomes so normalized and is spending so much time with these characters and without spoiling anything for a listeners, I do think that the Epilog, which is set in a different location, comes with such an additional punch to this as well. But to go on to perhaps the second most famous, even the most famous, given its incredible structure, single location film that really dolls into the idea of Claustrophobia and not being able to leave the for a rare different reason, is Alfred Hitchcock's rare window, one of the most genuinely famous big and massive Hollywood classics off all time, starting Tom Stuart as someone who is trapped in a wheelchair, starts spying at his neighbors for fun at first, before it starts to expect that something incredibly, incredibly wrong has happened and his own paranoia start to increase. And well, the so interesting here is that at no real point during the film do you leave his perspective from his room looking out through his window, and it's just done so incredibly well. It really is perhaps the definitive film when it comes to voyeurism and this idea of a man who is trapped in his own apartment and watching his neighbors intently until he stue walls upon the body believes me be a murder, and it's really influential film when you consider the single location so genre. Now in today's films that are influenced by it, there is lots of different angles that they can take and when they look into the voeoism through TV screens and cameras acceptable back then it's all through just binoculars and a telescope, and I love that part of the film. It's excellent. Even inspired a loose remake with a Shay lebooth called disturber, which is perhaps not worth remembering. I liked Sturbia a lot more than I expected to. I was expecting it just rip off through window and I think it kind of did its own thing, also over getting back to rear window. Yet it's one of the classics. It's one of my or time top fifty films. I would have seen it for four or five times at least in my life. Very similal film, as Tom said, with the voyeurism and also just in terms of the way that he's watch or different apartments and he keeps change between which one is looking at. A whole film for me is a metaphor for television. You have like television's coming into the homes of the night in s and it's like his channel surfing as he's looking through different apartments. And what's really interesting is that even though it's set in the one location, you don't really feel like you've been trapped in that one room the whole time. You're constantly looking out at all these other rooms and all the other places that we can see from his apartment. We're do. It feels like we've been in the garden. It feels like you've been that person's apartment. We've been over here, we've been over there. So it's a very interesting approach to a film. And also hitchcock has an amazing came owner is the only character actually looks back at Jimmy Stewart. Everybody else just does their own business with the windows open. They just ignore the fact somebody could be looking at them. There's definitely a very interesting use of a single location and just extremely interesting because it's one where doesn't make you feel as claustrophobreak as you might otherwise. And I might just quickly mention there because Tom and I were training before the podcast talking about maybe the unfriended films. Do we do that as single location or not? And I'm sort of like what if you're saying really windows, single location, unfriended as also we're all seeing one computer screen, just re seeing different rooms, but all seeing it from the one single place. So one film that I haven't actually thought about up until right this movement. It just slip my mind for some reason, but it was the excellent Dyna Novski film. More that now I absolutely loved this film. It was a great use of it a single location. It's such a great mystery. It's set out to be like a yeah, almost like a whome invasion films. Yeah, that was an absolutely, I guess, terrifying experience for me. I'm very are in worried about home invasion and people like coming into my own personal space, and that film for me was like a living, breathing nightmare. This woman's trapped in our home, or it's not trapped there, but she's in a home and all these guests keep coming in and then keep breaking staff and she just can't get rid of them and a husband keeps inviting more and more people in there. And it does have symbolic purposes at the end of the film and also sort of ties into a film that I want to mention, a Greek film, Eurydice be a...
...and t thirty seven. I'm pronouncing it correctly. It's a single best film that I've seen this year. It's a a simhats another. You've got this woman who's in her apartment and there's all these people who keep trying to like coming and breaking through the windows and it's very scary film. And you feel very uncomfortable for a you feel like she's really suffocating, trapped inside the house, or sort of trapped inside again, and you know she's too scared to go out and all these people keep coming in. But then is it really in her mind? Is She just over exaggerating it? It's a very dynamic film. If anybody wants to see to us an already, it's from director Niko's Nicolaidis, who also did the very infamous film are seeing a pore sling, which come the thing if it's probably also a single location film, again a bunker's film, but again I would highly recommend it. Really interesting feeling about a private detective try to find a missing woman and then sort of getting involved the mind games of a mother and daughter who live in this one location. In Yeah, her mind not really be mother and daughter. Yeah's a lot of films from the from that director, but those two films definitely very interesting looks at single locations, really hidening our anoia, intensity, the capability not being control of the situation in your personal space. Now I really liked every dicky as well. Like I kept comparing it in my head to repulsion with the Roman plans Gi you feel, you mentioned previously, starting the fantastic countering the new in just how one person wait a seemingly or, in the case of repulsion, a very clearly poor grasp on reality just falls apart. And in repulsion you can really really feel it. You can feel the intensity of just her entire being breaking, the way she looks, the way the room around the reacts. It's just such an incredibly intense experience which to me actually takes me all the way back to mother, because mother is getting leave. One of the most, if not the most intense film experience I've ever had. I don't think any film in just such a ristraal way grabs you and just makes you feel overwhelmed by the sensory overload. In fact, my wife was calling in from the other room, but whatever I was watching was making me feel incredibly uncomfortable because the sound landscape off that film is just so overpowering in itself, even without seeing the extreme visuals and the story that does becomes more and more overwhelming and insane and bizarre. And then realize that mother, for so many reasons, has been dismissed by a lot of people, which is obviously there right and I can see why. Of course, I know skis always overly blunt, especially here with this clear Biblical allegory, but it just the sensory overall of the visual experience, the way these actors engage with each other, this film as a whole. It is absolutely incredible. I can certainly agree with you there, Chris with I know ski he's certainly a divisive filmmaker. Lots of his films tend to splitter audiences and movie did just that. For me, though, it worked perfectly. It's beautiful psychological horror film. You really get the sense of isolation that Jennifer Lawrence suffers from, even though she's, you know, a home of other people and but it's when more and more people start invading a home she's struggling to fathom the reason behind this. It's a beautiful allegory that is and quite clear from the start, and that's what I loved about it, just puzzling it out, trying to work out what the director's intentions were. And did you become clear part way through the film. And once you realize that and you realize what he's getting at, it just becomes something else and I think a lot of people expecting a typical home invasion film, and it does flirt with elements of horror, but it's so much more than that. It's one of those films that I would recommend reading up as well as possible for setting down to watch, and I deliberately went in know I almost nothing about it and the fact that Jennifer Lawrence was getting trushed for a performance for whatever reason, I don't know. I knew nothing about it, and that's what it really worked well for me. Because of that, I'd agree that it is a film best approached known as little as possible. It did take me a while to understand what the directors intentions were, and that, for me, was part of the front of the film. And also want to mention how brutally is in parts. I'm enoughsk he's kind of renowned for his dark, disturbing imagery that...
...he using this film and mother just steps that up to another level. It's very extreme, but it's doing such a beautiful way that it's a film that sticks with you and haunts you for quite quite some time afterwards. Yes, and they have to also say that denniver Lawrence was absolutely fantastic in this film. I don't understand how anyone could dismiss her avoid the way you feel with her throughout this absolutely incredible and they can talked about the for piven during this body guest as well. I think it is a film. They're just horns. are still we got sidetracked on how incredible more there is. Soul obviously mentioned the Greek films, Singapore, sling and you really see be a two or three seven. I agree with souls interpretation that these are just bonkers films. I enjoyed fewing them, although sadly I don't think they really for me. The directors unique style is certainly interesting, it's fascinating and he does some great camera work, in particular on you really see bea. I'm sure that he splits the film up into three different sections and his approach to film it differs throughout each section and that's to emphasize the trauma that the main characters undergoing, and that was quite an inspired decision. And although he shows some great ambition, it doesn't really come together as a whole for me. One of my favorite single location films is an Australian film from Rafter here, who I've said in previous podcast is my favorite Australian director. I think is the best direct we've got working in my country. To film called Alexander's project from two thousand and three and Helen Budda, and it's about a man who comes home and use a video type he is wife has given him up for his birthday and it starts off as a really nice, surprised type tape, but as things go on our perceptions change and by the end we start feeling very differently to the way that we did when he first sat down to watch the tape. He never leaves the room and without changing location at all. The here managers to really hone in on the fact that just knowing few a few things or being told a few things and completely change one's perception in life. And there's also some things are going towards the end. It will make him feel a bit trapped in and of course he spent the entire film inside the room during the tape. I don't want to say too much about the film, but it's probably one Australian film they've recommended to the most people on the ICM form that's got the most positive responses. Most of the Australian films I've recommended, let's see him to go down too well, but this one constantly seems to get positive feedback on and people like, oh well, I'll actually recommended Australian film that actually is half decent. From when soul you recommendation to to be great. No, manly could recommended some great films. So didn't put yourself down like that. But I totally agree. This is one of his best films. Yeah, it goes fast to say that and I think its in with the single location puzzle aspect quite nicely in the fact that once again the audience and left in the dark as to what's about happen and we're trying to work out what's going on and I director slowly feeds US clues throughout and it just makes it more of an interactive experience. You know, you engage in your being, you're trying to work out what's going on. It's an inventive puzzle. It makes the most of its single location because we're placed in the uncomfortable position of being a weird to Steve's and then we will situation and it's offers a row deconstruction of their relationship, which makes it a grim kind of compelling experience to endure because you're kind of put off, it's kind of uncomfortable to watch, but at the same time you're fascinated to find out what is going to happen here. What's interesting about role to hear is that Alexander's project is not the only film that he's done that's set almost primarily one location. He actually did a film seven years before that, or the quiet room, which is likewise said in a single location for at least most of it. I didn't think it was actually entirely in one location, but Claire is not participating tonight. You'd recently watch and he said, Oh, it's pretty much sure one location. So it depends how pure is being on it. At least the majority of the film does take place in one location. In it in a girl's bedroom. As put the title of the quiet room, it's about a girl who feels that our parents haven't been very good parents,...
...haven't been treating in the world, so she decides that she's going to not talk at all and throughout the film we hear her thoughts out loud, so we still get an inside into what she's thinking, but we don't actually see or this not to begin off with talking out loud to the parents. The parents are trying to understand and communicate with her and they're not sure what's going on. She's just done it as a way of hoping with a situation that she hasn't wise doesn't need to cope with. And what's interesting about the single location here's it's not a second location that's done for the purposes of a play, adaptation, of the purposes of paranoia, a Claustrophobia, and actually taps into something else that in the location, which which is loneliness, and she is really lone, she feels really isolated, hasn't a feel properly loved, becomes a little bit of a game. It's somewhat different parts of what we hear are say versus very dynamic the hallway the film plays out, and it's another film that I managed to recommend to a few people and I know actually got enough support. We managed to get it onto the doubling the cannon list this year, which I was very proud of. All hear what Tom's take was on it, because I know they also saw the quiet room and also liked it. Yes, I'll tellarly agree the quiet room is a great film and I love how it's told from the perspective of a frightened child. It's quite hard hitting drama and the vow of silence that she takes in protest against the constant bickering between a parents. It's very moving, quite poignant and it paints a painfully accurate picture of a withdrawn child who only really wants a family life to return to the blissful experience it once was. I especially like how to hear films the quiet room, because we see it through the perspective of a child. So the camera angles are all really low to emphasize the view of a child, and the internalized voice of the narrative allows us into the fragile mind of the young girl as she tries to make sense out of her unhappy, isolated existence. So this, for me, is another great example of to hear inventiveness when it comes to approaching films with their unique styles. I have unfortunately not seen the quiet room. I think it's very interesting how single location is used to involve the feeling of isolation and of differently it is felt. Now one of the biggest films of this kind is study. I had raised the music room from that the Vtyer, which you this single location in a very interesting way, as we can more directly see loneliness and tragedy of our protagonist as you move from crowded rooms and vibrant life to him almost solitary, alone and old. This is also a film that takes place over several decades and it is one that feels very open for a single location film, as the space around him becomes incredibly important, and the mansion, despite the fact that so much of the film takes place in the music room itself, is massive and we see the halls, we see the bedroom, we see the roof, we even see the outside area and the river that runs through the property, and it's a little bit like being in this washess of just his own isolation and solitude, because we will see people right in or right out from a far we will see the horizon, but we always stay just there by his mansion, him alone, him with, without spoiling anything, his own sorrow and loneliness and the life he used to have. And of course, music within the music room is also such a pivotal part part of the film and it includes both this personal aspects, which are really striking, but also a lot of social and historical commentary and a lot of intriguing Indian music. So it's really interesting what ray managed to put together in this much smaller budget that and just generally smaller film made in between the first two and the last film in his most famous approut realgy. It's just a spectacular and wonderful work. I feel like I've not even scratched the service of race filmography yet, because he's quite prolific filmmaker. Although I have seen the music...
...room or unfortunately, I didn't have the same reaction to it as Chris now. I was impressed by the location. Is A beautiful location in a great setting for this story, but the story didn't really connect to me. But as always, when I hear Chris's interpretations and what he says about isolation, it does make me want to go back and revisit the film. So you've done it a great job of sounding that, Chris. Perhaps, as we discussed the podcast about rewatching, I need to rewatch more films. Thanks time and I just wanted to mention too that I actually had a some more similar reaction to the first time. I wasn't asked personally invested in it. I wasn't asked with by it. So I think this is perhaps one of those films were it takes being a little bit more invested, being a little bit older and also being different stage of mind to really appreciate what the film really delivers. It's kind of funny how earlier on Tom was joking about this being a hang up on Chris one, because, like Tom, I didn't get very much out of the music room, although I, like you said, Chris, maybe it goes better on re watch. I've only seen it once. It's probably a little bit older than when I watched the exterminating angel, and again it wasn't a film that on me. Maybe seventeen eighteen year old version of myself really did much for me. I have liked a lot of other films that I've seen from Ray. justlike some, but of like lot of other ones, particularly chess players. There is an excellent film it also the stranger. Just thinking about that, the stranger from one thousand nine hundred and ninety one, which I think was his last film. It don't know if it actually takes place in more than one location. There might be another single location one and that's a really interesting film that you've got this guy who says he's a long lost relative, you don't know if he is, and there's just all the sensors in the air, which I guess is really enhanced by the fact that we seldom leave a location. Maybe never leave location. I was I'm just thinking about it now. It actually might be other single location film in complete contrast to the setting of the music group. I'd like to mention all these lost this is a brilliant film set on the Ocean, director by JC Chand or, with Robert Red fits in the lead role, and it's basically one man up against the elements. He's out on the ocean and he runs into some controls boat that begins to sink, and it's an impressive performance from redfit. There's a real steadfastness in his portrayal of an aging sailor lost at sea and it's a really engaging and harrying tail of survival. It's fascinating to think that it's a single location because it's just on the boat. What you've got the fast expanse of the ocean and this creates a totally different portrayal of isolation and loneliness to that it is seen in the music room. I think it's a great comparison piece, even though, apart from the isolation angle, they are vastly different films. I haven't actually seen all as lost. But what's interesting about JC Chand all is that I was trying to Tom off air and we're thinking about margin call and I think margin call pretty much takes place all inside the one office building and I don't know if that really goes so much the loneliness of it, but obviously it's a very large building, like it's a skyscrape in the city, as only a few of them left there late at night trying to grapple with this, you know, financial crisis or whatever, which you know, I end up ruining their company. I unfortunately not seen all is lost either. But this, the fact that you can have this openness around you while still trapped a single location, makes things really interesting. But to move on to all of the other pillars of single location films and moving the record and other film I unfortunately have another yet low budgshed films and the infamous, I seem, forum favorite stalled and I know both of you quite enjoy it. First of all, I must say that I love the contrast between the single location films that delve into loneliness, where the single location isn't necessarily due to budgetary constraints, it's due to an artistic decision. But I am really fascinated by the films that explore single locations primarily because of budgetary constraints, because it's always something inventive about what the filmmakers employ to make these films work so well and, like Chris mentioned, stalled is one of my favorite examples of these. I'm very intrigued by films that take place in unique locations, and stalls takes place in a toilet store.
Basically, it's a very funny low budget Zombie film where man gets trapped in a toilet during a Zombie break and almost the entirety of the film takes place within the toilet. It's very funny, very glory and the creative team behind it clearly have a lot of passion and a lot of love for the horror genre and that comes through. If you're looking for something interesting, a bit unique in the fun take on the Zombie page on it, then I would highly recommend stalled. Contrary to our what Chris has said, I've and actually seen every single horror film under the Sun. In that sometimes feels like I have. I haven't seen stored. I don't have a big affility for Zombie films. It's something where I really struggle is day is to find films that do a unique taker right. It does sound like store does unique take on it. I wasn't actually where that it was said entirely. You know twilet bubical or I knew about it was it was a Zombie film. I'm like, okay, yeah, whatever, maybe there's something that I will look up now. So it's good to hear Tom's recommendation. Another low budget Zombie film that is worth mentioning is the brilliant Pontypool. This is a film that is set in a basement radio station during a Zombie O break. It seems to transmit from person to person through the use of language and they know what you think. And that sounds very bizarre, but it works incredibly well. As I did English language and linguistics at university, this kind of resonated with me in a way that I wouldn't usually get from a horror film. It was very intelligent. It's a bizarre and any kind of the innovative horror, and there's a great central performance from Steven mccatty as the radio DJ who barricades himself in his own recording studio. He's trying to find out how the Zombie outreakers is transmitted and all the time he's broadcasting to the local area to send out warnings until trouble comes knocking on his door or his radio station. I have seen party pool and I did absolutely love it. Also, I agree so much about mccaddy's performance, very dynamic and also a really great use of the single location. Sort of like the feeling of everything like closing in and you sort of like communicating with the world out there. I think it makes you really good contrast to something like the fog from John Carpenter, which is also largely centered on a radio broadcast, and that one we actually are outside for a lot of it and we see the fog monster, which is not really scary at all. A particularly out of that film. I was a bit cautier of a party pool, but I think it does a great job of using the radio broadcast as the launching pad for the horror tile as well as low budget horror films that take place in a single location. I think that limitation plays in really nicely with the sci fi genre as well. There are lots of examples of inventive filmmakers who take fascinating concepts and build upon them with a small budget to make them seem for grander in scale than they actually are. One such example is a favorite film of mine that I am forever champion and film called Alaphoe from Sweden, and it's a bizarre science fiction comedy about a man who is tween around with radio waves as kind of links back to pont of rule a game, and he basically discovers a way to hypnotize people through the use of radio waves and he goes about hypnotizing his neighbors and getting them to do all sorts of tasks for him, and it goes into some quite dark places, but first and foremost it is a black comedy, so there's humor throughout which, should I say, alleviates the bleakness in the darkness around in the situation. I absolutely love this film. I totally agree to and I fo is an amazing film and a very funny black comedy. Like you said, it gets into some really dark territory, some of the twisted things that he gets his neighbors to do. Performances of the actors and plays neighbors are just incredible, with the really odd comical things he gets them to do, you know, or playing, you know, being a wife and a teenage summer. And there's also some interesting morality things in there also. You know, he keeps claiming that it's he's doing it for science, that occasionally you need a disregard morals. Is he doing this for personal gain or is he actually interested in bettering humanity? I thought it a very funny film. I found it very inventive. What it did with the very minimal...
...technology and the very minimal locations are also very thought provoking at the same time and it's a film that likewise I've tried to recommend that from people. That's something which, yeah, it's a bit hard to try and up selves. That does sound very out there and when I sat down to watch I wasn't even sure if I would like it. I just really interesting look at our you know, abuse of power, fulfillment, feeling voids in ones life and how this guy's sort of like accidentally stumbles on a way to do it and really pleased that you like it as much as me. So and I just wanted to add there some things that the film does that sets it aside from obviously the location films and really goes to town on that concept. It kind of borrows from real window in a sense, because any action that takes part outside of their primarily location is cleverly alluded to through phone calls or sound recordings and the mean character when he's drops through the microphones he secretly stashed his neither's house, and I think it's a clever way of making the film seem larger than it actually is, and it plays into that idea of rurism as well, where the main character is completely an era is spying on his neighbor's and using that for his own game. And, like you said, it is a thought provoking film. There's a lot to unpack in there, but it is also very funny at the same time. I mean, I'm afraid to say that. Well, I liked Lepho. It really didn't work as a comedy for me, but it did quite work as a concept film, because that's one of the real things that Elepho does really well. It's set up and original concept where the idea that sound waves can change the way humans interact and then it plays with this idea further and further and further into some really extreme scenarios. I do think that this is one's was very clear low budget films. You can really feel it, but it's also done in all those ways to do you are really engaged by that basic idea and you do want to see where it goes and without spoiling anything, it goes to a very extreme but also very understandable and logical and conclusion. But there's also to other films we outlined here as primarily one occasion that we wanted to talk about, and the first one of them is coherence. And I think one of the really amazing things about Gherens, beyond the concept, if that it it single location or is it an infinite number of locations? Coherence is another great example of a single location science fiction film. It doesn't really have any bells and whistles. There's now amazing special effects, there's no big explosions, but it doesn't need that. Like LFO, it's just got an incredibly thought provoking concept and it goes to town on that I can completely understand the argument for it not necessarily being a single location film. It was another film, like Alfo actually, that I saw at a film festival new expectations going in and in both instances these films just blew me away because they've got incredibly intelligent writing at the core of the film's and they really build upon these ideas and explore them in fascinating ways that are quite unexpected. As we are spoiling for here. It spoiler warning the side. They would like to spoil it for you. Spoiler warning. The argument would be that it's setting in for a number of locations because each time they go out the door they end up going into a different parallel or terms of universe. So it's a gale and limited number of locations, but it's actually shot in the one house, so it's shot the one location. It's like the VINCEN zone. As we film cube. It was all shot in one single location at each of those locations were decorated in different ways to seem like an infinite number of locations. I really like how you managed to bring Cube into the conversation because and there we were in sure about mentioning key, but for me I think it is a single location film. Although the action takes place in multiple cubes, it is, as you say, just shot in the one room and it's another great example of a low bridget sci fi film. It does a lot with its single location idea and for me I would also consider coherence to be a single location but, like you said, I can certainly understand your argument for the other way to...
...and of course, if you're going to be talking about mansions, et Cetera, as a single location, and network of cubes giving people trapped could also be considered single location because it's so closed in. One of the really interesting, fantastic things about coherence is the slow way you start to put everything together, the clues you get, the way the characters interact, and this also fairly circular, large shake where you're not sure if it is a time loop or what is actually going on here. And it's just a small cat and semple cast dialog and few POPs, including just one house and a few outside sequences right outside of the house. It manages just in expand into this colossal idea. But the next really cool concept film is the man from Earth, which is all set in a very similar way. In one house with several people meeting up, and what is really fascinating here is that the entire film is not just stared out to dialog but through storytelling. So they have one principal storyteller simply telling story, which starts to unrawl how all of the other characters see this person. And when you have such a low budget and you can come up with an idea that's simple, that is just incredibly impressive to me. Even though a lot of the storytelling elements may seem a little too easy, a little to sheep, what this film managed to put together is incredible. The man, for me, is definitely an inventive film. However, I feel like how much you take from it kind of depends on whether you buy into what the story is actually telling you, and for me the that aspect didn't really worked. I did enjoy the concept behind it, but it wasn't particularly satisfied with where the film went. However, I've got to say that these low budget horror and science fiction films that use a single location really impressed me, and if anyone who's listened to this podcast as other examples that perhaps I've not even seen or heard of yet, I'd love for you to come to the I checked movies forward and comment on their thread for this episode and tell me about them, because I'm always interested in hearing more about film type these. I very much like the man from Earth. I thought it did amazing stuff with its single location and the fact that it's mostly just film conversation, and I know it's easy to be underwhelmed with where it goes depending on what you believe, but one of the key points in there's that there's no way that the characters could just prove what he was saying. It was sort of like a kept asking questions about what it was like and they'll like sort of like got themselves really intrigued. And so was a situation where I thought like at the end there it was left a bit ambiguous. Maybe it wasn't. I just felt a bit of ambiguity in there, which I thought they really interesting. It's sort of like first example it comes to mind is the intowards the end of Eyes Wide Shot where the Sydney polit character asked Tom Cruise. You know what, if it didn't happen, but if it did, it's all like the same sort of like dynamic going on with a man from Earth. But yeah, I was just really blowing away by it. I wasn't expecting much by it because I thought all, you know, Gimmicky and whatever, whole conversation filmed in one location. But although I did amazing stuff, for the fact that it was just a series of conversations and prodding, questions and answers and the whole ride that you're taking on without leaving the room at all and to day the conversation on. There to some films that aren't really that little budget considering the talent that was involved. And the first film is lifeboat by Alfred Hitchcock, which, contrary to how it might feel, is not based in a play. I believe it's been turned to a place since because it's so well suited for it. But here we just have a massive en sample cast on a lifeboat, and one of the most intriguing things here is just how effective it is. It just starts with the bolt is gone, the they're on the lifeboat. That's it. Hitchcock manages cut through all of the traditional disaster film elements and all of the traditional setups...
...of the character. He just lets this be revealed throughout the drama. itself and what'll calls along with the stories. This in the midst of World War Two and that they actually fish up one of the Germans that sank their ship. And this is contrary to just being about Claustrophobia or paranoia, though there is certain elements of paranoid how they should treat the German saldier. This really is a story of characters trapped together and the emotions that ensues. I really enjoyed life boats and more than I was expecting to. It was a hitchhot film I saw rather late into my filmgoing journey, after I order to become a bit disenchanted with hitchcock, but I was very impressed with it because it was a very timeless tile with the morold dilemmas of what do we do? Do we help him out, do we not? But also the whole idea about trusting the enemy and, you know, can we trust him? So a lot of very universal themes in there which I thought, you know, went beyond just the allied versus access tensions, just a very humans how of trust, mistrust, aspiration, adverse conditions and the fact that it's just set on the spot. Any one of the lines is but on our own. We can make our own laws and they are pretty much on their own on the boat the whole time. A very intense film, very different to a lot of hitchcock's other films, and I'll definitely highly recommended, especially if you like me, but a bit disenchanted by hitchcock, plays into your filmgoing journey. I think your start to the film that is perhaps the most known and arguably one of the most beloved films of all time, twelve angry men. You don't go strictly in the jury room. We do, if very called correctly, see a scene from the trial as well, obviously in the connecting building, but almost the entirety of the film is really set in that one jury room. And just like life bolt, you have this massive gallery of characters discussing all the law, punishment and revealing things about themselves. Obviously with a fantastic lead performance by Henry Fonda. And just wait, this film feels it's explosive, the dialog is incredible and it's one of those filings that's really really believe was based on the play, but it's not. It's skin only made for the screen. I think that is also felt in just how unseeming this in the matic Sydney lumete manages to make it, because while you may be so caught up in the drama and in the dialog you don't notice it. The long take to us this, and the way the camera moves, incorporating so many different styles of shot, is truly impressive. And it's even more impressive to remember that this was limitz feature film debut. He got all the stars and he got his speech perfect script and then he made this film. So again, it is an example of a film that's cool strained by its budget to some extent, but it's such a massive film which still lives on as one of the most popular films of all time to this day. It's remarkable, Chris, to think that twelve and we men, we maze directorial debut. Now you say it's an exceptional film. Real nail by it in thrill it when you consider it takes place in a single location and it's basically twelve men debating over something. It's quite incredible to think that he manages to make such a suspenseful picture as of this situation, and I absolutely love the film. It's one of the best single location films out there. But what's interesting about twelve agrey man, is it? Yes, it was sidney limits first feature film are he actually built pretty much and by career out of making films that was set in one location, or primarily one location, the almost talked about death trap in this podcast, except it's got a scene at the beginning in the end that sort of takes it out of the one house. You Got Dog Day afternoon, which is almost entirely set in that place where Al Puccino and the hostage situation are on the Arias Express, other than a few flashbacks, is pretty much entirely on the train, I'll say fell almost entirely in the location where the nuclear disasters about to go off. The...
...offence from memory is Sean Connery, I think, pretty much entirely with Ian Bannon in the police station. Child's play, one of sitting loomits most underrated films, an amazing film set in a boys boarding school in the locations. So here's some one direct to I really think about in terms of using minimal locations and using them really world being twelve angry many. Yet it's not strictly one single location, but he does get some really intense stuff out of the characters being confined in that one room for I'd say ninety nine, way five, maybe percent of the film, or at least above ninety five, or sound of the film shortly, is inside that one room. It's because they are its either that one room. They can't escape from each other, so tensions actually build. The most amazing thing about the film is the way the characters switched slowly from one side to another side. That all happens through discussion, through conversation. So it's the same thing as man from Earth. It's a film that's entirely built on dialog and because it's entirely built on the dialog a single location, actually foods are really well into the structure of the movie. Three went from low budget up to actual Hollywood films, almost likely Tiger Budget, and I will take it all the way around. They get an into the realm of experimental films and of course, Michael Snow when always one of those souls very favorite directors. I absolutely love Michael Snow's films. Is An experimental film director. But there's experimental films were actually very easy to get a hang on because there's a narrative or assemblance of a narrative to all the films, but he does something different with them. The two films are talk about in particular will be back and forth and wavelength, but I will mention three others of his. A readily available because I do sort of playing the single location dynamic wavelength is. I also know his most famous film. It's a film which is said in a single apartment room and it's designed to look like a single unbroken a minute to a painting on the wall. The thing is that it isn't a single unbroken take. There's all these different film and techniques and hand color changes. Things are get dissolved together. The cars are own versed. There's editing there, but the editing is a very visible and everything is blurred together and they're actually as a plot to the film. The whole idea of way lengths of the somebody goes to the department, he is murdered and then nobody finds the body for a certain amount of time and we don't really get the Motus for we don't know why it was killed. Just the whole blurring of time is really interesting because the whole ideas that he's dead and death is death, regardless of well, he's discovered one minute later or a week later. So the whole playing around with time is really interesting and that we're all stuck in this one room and the room remains unchanged because he's dead. He can't move around, he can't do anything. So until somebody discovers his body, it is all going to stay that way the whole time. So it's a very dynamic film there there's lots of other things, things going on with the sound design. The sound design does get a bit irksome. I found it a bit and way when I last watched it. I just incredibly interesting what Michael Stone managers to do with the whole murder situation. Sorts of murder movie. It's not a murder mystery movie. is about time to elapsing. It's about this room still sort of being there and still existing for an uno own amount of time while the person who was occupying the room is now suddenly dead. I'm going to talk about back and forth. They've got on a lot about wavelength that can forth. Is set in a classroom and the camera literally goes back and forth. It's sort of like pivots around, back and forth, and it sounds really repetitive because it's an empty classroom. But it's all about Michael Snow loving us into a false sense of security has then suddenly different things happen. Suddenly we hear different sounds. listially POPs up the window. Suddenly we see people in the rooms. Like the camera like pivot to the right. We fit back to the left. And so, as somebody sitting there, oh, ideas that we start seeing things, do we don't? We as it just done our mind. It's really interesting, the whole classroom setting, because all idea quite out when I last watched it's like classrooms in general. You know, it's easily you might wonder if it's boring lesson and so of got that same sort of feeling there is it's some delical repellentsive lessons which is going to be going back and forth and to you get distracted. Yeah, it's very hypnotic and it's really like what he manages to do with this one location, and I just mentioned very briefly the...
...central region. Not My favorite Michael Snow Film. It's actually my least favorite. But that's a single location, one with a camera just in the central region of Canada and pivoting and swirling around and doing all different movements. It goes on for three hours, which, you know, for me it was probably the kill point forward that he is very interesting how dynamic he makes with just the one location. And then you've got those this which is strictly got no locations. It's just words on the screen, but you could say the words by itself represents one location. And then you've got Corpus Colossum, which I even be my favorite film the century, and I don't know that single location or not, because Michael Snow keeps stripping the layers away. We think, you know, we're in one room and then suddenly the paintings, everything on the wall suddenly starts dropping out and fading away and learning from one to another. So it's sort of set in this office building where these people are conducting these experiments on their employees. Maybe, I don't know. A whole lot of different strange things happen in it. Different characters like an a wheel, check over the screen and just really players around with the idea of what a film is and how film is edited together and the fact that the film is always going to be something which is heavily constructed. So I don't know if it counts, but Michael Snow does. E listens five major films. There some really great things with single locations. I think I'm in the mind of the same position as you and Tim were. I mean I was presenting the music room and and they's donating as because I have a very get really low opinion of wave length and back and forth and several of the other make of known films. I just never saw the actual purpose of them. They've felt uninventive to me at the time. So I never really got into films in that way. But to hear the way you describe them now, with tiny details popping up and this blending of reality, I think we really rewatch them and see if I can get into that sense of exploring the piece and being surprised in that way. That sounds really, really fun and fascinating. One Film I want to talk about in the experimental section here, which is might be perhaps close to a want guard, is Marcel Hon Arm's autumn, which is not even strictly one location. You can argue with either way. It does end with a bit of a release with footage from everywhere, but you can also argue that this through the TV screen because or the editor screen, because what is really interesting with this one film is that it's not just single location. It is a single angle film, which is a our plot is a director is completing his film, he gets pressure from his producers and he gets a professional editor to help him. Quite simple, quite easy, and the entire film, or the majority of the film, is shot with them looking at the film. They're editing the film itself, or the screen is the camera and we see them working on it, we see their discussions around it. It's really interesting just the way that Michael Longstale, who place our direct lead, and the film of a diagness played by an actress am not pretty familiar with, simply called Tomia, formed this kind of sexual tension and you can feel the flirting. You wondering what's going to happen there, but then you followed this plot. So it's not, like you said, not strictly experimental, closer to a want guard, but as the fact that it's just that single angle shot and the way everything progresses is just incredibly fascinating to me and it also makes for a really rewarding, interesting and creative viewing and other film that it's not strictly experimental, but certainly one location is, of course, large one. Three years dog will, which is one of the most Brecktan and extreme minimalist films of all time, simply set on a sound stage with houses drawn in and the characters interacting with the houses as if they were real. Now I think dog will deserve a podcast in its own, but it's so interesting to see just how you can work with a single setting in single location and creates such different experiences with them, which ties us into our final part of the day's podcast. The most extreme instances off single location, people literally buried or stuck in the n Adm. and let's just start with the most obvious there and perhaps the Torious, the actual buried one...
...man in a literal coffin, buried underground, with the only tool at his hand being his phone. Ried Sin. It takes the notion of a single location to its extreme, having ry mentals trapped in a coffin underground for the film, and it builds a great sense of dreads and suspense throughout the as so often first to single location films as Gimmicky, I feel that this is one stretches the idea of its gimmick perhaps a bit too far and is largely unsuccessful at what it sets out to achieve throughout. It's a really funny to hear on side that because, yes, and not a fan of gimmicks cinema, but I actually really liked buried. I actually thought I had a bit of a CASS vibe to it, just in the scenes where he was voting the outside world and it was constantly put on hold, constantly transferred. who was fobbed with excuses. It was hard to calm down. I thought that a lot of half curse paranoire in there. You know is in. They doesn't know what's going on and don't be give him any ants as a no big really understands a situation that he was in. Yeah, I was really surprised by how much I lighted and I went into it again or you know, it's just going to be a bit of, you know, a gimmicky sort of film. You Know Ryan Reynolds as my favorite actor of all time, but I thought he did a really good job with the performance there. And Yeah, the film surprised me. I was really impressed with it what it managed to do with a single location without matching another whole time going or this is a bit of a gimmick. This is the film that one of the attract audiences, far invite with its gimmick, and it was fairly successful. You wouldn't think you would get as many people to see it as did when you have someone this trapped in a coffin, though I'm guessing Ryan Reynolds certainly helped. What's fascinating to me it's just how suspenseful there it is, and it's done with very cheap tools. I think like so I really enjoyed the more coughter esque elements better because that was more understandable. The human level is also relatable and you could feel trapped in that situation once the more thriller elements start to come in and everything just had to be done through the phone and it was trying to amplify that kind of tension. I mean it did feel a little bit like gravity to me, and I knows this like gravity when you know with something that has to happen at all time. I'm just to keep people entertained, but I ended up liking buried. I think it's a good feel. So yes, I will also have up on the fact that yes, it's the extreme gimmick film, but at least a certain extent it worked. Yeah, What's interesting about it? Because you said, like Barry, doesn't sound like a premise so really attract people to come and see it other than Bryan Reynolds starring in it? I don't know if any of you've seen it, but Adrian Brody did a film called wrecked a few years after Mary came out, and that one has you know, Adrian Bright Wake yet with a Knisia and a car wreck and he stuck inside the front seat and he can't get out. He can't remember his name, the people who are in the car with him, a dad and he's trying to remember it all. He first third, or maybe the first half of the film is really good. Then, without spoiling it, does get out of the front seat and even though things are over for him, it does sort of change that dynamics a little bit. I was just interesting. I was a film that I released the way I was marketed to me was a film trying to capitalize on what buried managed to do. I never even heard of rector. That sounds billion thing, especially they're first half hour. It's fascinating to heaping got film involving aging body trapped in it car sole, because navone in the films that we're going to discuss takes place in a car, and that is the excellent lock with Tom Hardy. It's incredible what the filmmakers do with this piece, because the success of the film that's entirely on Hardy's performance as he's driving his car down the motorway and, like Ryan Reynolds in buried, he's on the phone, he's talking to various different people in his life and things start to unfold for him in ways that puts him in jeopardy and he's driving along the motorway at night and there's some excellent shots and it's quite thrill right, even though it's basically just Tom Hardy talking, for the situation the film and I think it's an excellent demonstration of what you can achieve with a single location when you've got a fascinating story combined with powerful performance someone who can really sound the idea that they're dealing with. As far as gimmicks go, I think lock wrote a lot better for me than buried, and I think it's...
...because it's written in a much more clever way and because it is more personal, it's not as driven by hidings and not as driven by, you know, something has to create a spense at any given point in time. It does have elements of that and there's certainly very, very mortionally draining to seeing Tom Hardy call this many people and try to get his life in order. So we are trapped inside the car with Tom Hardy then type more or less than entire time war than tire tign really, and it's does this fact that he's going down that role with his life where it if as seeing his emotion and the way he really manages to perform in such a limited location, and I think that is just absolutely incredible. Park is an incredibly interesting film, only for the single location, but the fact that the films about from Hardy's character reacting to two impending births. There's the birth of this woman who is impregnated. There's also the birth of the skyscaper that is working on the half has conversations are about the work stuff of the conversations about the woman by that dynamic in itself is quite interesting as a real insight into his character and how much he values is by scraper he's working on over the people in his life. I did find him a little bit of an obnoxious character. I didn't find him very like or or I found the film wore thin a little bit towards the end. They've got a little bit impatient weather, but in general I was impressed by it. I think that why lock works so well is opposed to something like buried, is perhaps because it seems feels more grounded in realism. It's an everyday man Tom Hardy portrays is his character and the storyline is is believable and you buy into it, whereas buried perhaps seems a bit more out there. And one of a film that I'd like to mention which is set almost entirely in a vehicle. Although it's not going in realism, it does really well with the concept that didn't introduces. So this is an Argentinian thriller called for by for and it's about a thief who tries to deal a radio from a pickup truck. Now he gets into the car, but in doing so he sets off this security device which traps him within the car, and for almost the entire duration of the film you're with this thief who's trapped inside the cars being sound proofed. It's got the latest technology to keep him trapped within, so passers by don't realize that these trapped in there and his only interaction is through the cause internal communication system where the owner of the car talks to him, and there's a lot of great social commentary there and it's really great thrill rides. I can't recommend it enough. That sounds like a great recommendation done. It really is, Chris, and I hope some people who are listening tess out to watch it. It was one of those films that was on a late night slaughter film festival. I was tired, but I took a punt on it and it won't me up with such an energetic performance from the lead act and yeah, I hope some people check it out. No one film. I really want to darker ball. This is a completely different angle. Just what an extreme one location film can be. Is Hans. You AGAINSTUDERBERG's Winnifred Wagner, which is a documentary, and this setup. It is so empty cinematic in itself, because it's literally a talking head interview where Cederberg interviews Winnifred Wagner, who, of course, it is Richard Wagner's daughter in law and was, more importantly, one of all of Hitler's very best friends. Now, what is so extremely interesting here is the way it makes it extremely suspenseful and extremely cinematic by doing some really interesting things, including working in limitations of the filmmaking itself into the story. At the very beginning of the film to the World Informs Benefread that each real lasts ten minutes, and and the way the reels are all put together. It's with a bit of a black pause and it's also gives ndifferent a chance to pause, which is a formed that they will run out soon, and it's a way to both trip her up and make her more earnest and a way to...
...just bring in a modern, namic element. It also manages to Ig in things just like altman did with secret honor in shooting photoop, shooting different angles within the house. But it's just so interesting that essentially becomes a five hour interview where this been s lights and how much will she tell? What will be revealed, and the fact that she is completely unapologetic about the relationship with Hitler and the fact that it's slowly starts to become clear if not from the beginning that she is kind of still in love with Hitler, or what's in love with Hitler at the time, and the way this into this keeps taking us further and fur range understanding that time, that relationship, and tying it all back to Richard Wagner's music. It's just becomes such an intense, creative, pretty damn unique version of this extreme single location some seenre if you will, because just the way he managed to make this cinematic, the way you managed to make this thrilling is just again, and I'm used this word so many times in this episode, but but that's because so many singlication films really are incredible. On the subject of single location films and extreme examples on the death way fords to mind for me is they were Brooks Two thousand and twelve film ATM Entire Film Takes Place Inside and ATM booth. It sounds really boring and very gimmicky and I sat down to watch a guy. Oh yeah, we'll see how this goes, and it's actually a very interesting film. It's about these bankers and they're talking about all the crooked and corrupt stuff they're doing and then they get trapped inside and ATM. They're basically stuck inside this ATM booth, which sort of represents way banging culture has become these days. And the reason why they stuck inside it is because, as a hooded guy outside would guy approaches them but stays at a bit of a distance, and the whole film is not built on the guy in the hood at being really scary. It's more about their fears and they're reacting to him and they do different things, like they try and leave when they don't think he's looking, and your approaches them and they get scared again. Are He doesn't actually do anything out right that is dangerous or threatening. It's just his presence being there and the fact that they are inside the ATM booth with nowhere to go. That really like captures the intensity there, although those are really interesting film, especially considering how Gimmicky it sounded. If either of you have seen it, I'll be very curious to hear your thoughts on it. They haven't actually seen ATM, so I think I viewed it as a gimmicky film, as you said, and I kind of avoided it, but upon hearing your description, it does sound interesting, so perhaps I'll give it a shot to the near future. The unfortunate day, I haven't seen at them either. Okay, that's all right. It's a film that, you know, I was pretty low my pride list also at a four point something writing on IMDB, so I was like Oh, yeah, whatever. I saw it as a two dollar ex reential and I think I watched it for one of the horrid challengers, speaking of horror challenges and speaking of horror on the film that I wanted to mention was a film called Haze. It's from the director of Tetsu and it's about a man who wakes up inside an area we can't really move. He's like stuck inside, like a drainage pipe or something. He can't move it all, and he's trying to work out how he got there and as he liked managers to move his way out, managers to come across somebody else there's also stuck there. Then the film goes in some directions there which a little bit out there, a bit unusual. It's probably not strictly a single location because of something at the end, but it's a film that's very brief. If memory serves correctly, it's only about forty five to fifteen minutes long and because it's really brief, the single location works really well and you never tire of it and it's just the whole idea of you know what on Earth is going on. It's filmed in the very low lighting, so it's even more unsettling because of that. If I had one criticism of the film, it's probably that the character books out loud a lot. He is constantly asking himself what's drawing on out loud, so the film doesn't really find a very natural way of getting him to express his feelings, because I think of our strap there. I don't think I'll be talking out loud to myself for twenty five minutes before I found somebody else. And a lot of what he says is very repetitive. But the journal set ups really good and it works really all because it is such a brief feature. I was drawn towards Hayes because of...
...my love of Tetsuo and Hayes is perhaps well known for its extreme views on their subject matter that it styles into. It kind of shares some similarities with cube and it's a surreal and nightmarish journey that isn't as successful as cube in what it sets out to achieve. It's an interesting diversion and an imaginative use of the one location. It didn't really work for me as a whole and as this is a bit the best somber ending off the podcast. This then really quick fun. And then question. Can you think of a single extreme location which you what kind of like to see explored? I think that the perfect place for a horror film would be a morgue. Now I'm trying to recall if there are films that have been set entirely in a morgue and there we had the possession of chain know recently. I seem to recall it. Parts of that we do on hellsewhere. But I think setting the film entirely in the more would be very quickly and they be a lot of the opportunities to make a unsettling horror film. This is a really hard question for me because, like I said, I'm not really big into kimmicky cinema. In terms of single locations, I am a really big fan of the unfriended films and films like the den and Selfie from Hell. I would be interested in seeing all films or a sort of like set in one person's room where there's sort of only communicating to others or either their phone through the computer. In terms of a unique setting, that's never been done on film. Might be interesting to have something maybe that was maybe seven sided church or like a place of worship where the characters are unable to get out of that for whatever reason. That sounds like the perfect it's dominating. Angels are here, know, God exterminating Angel Again Ida. I didn't really watch that some stage. Yeah, that's again really put me on the spot there, Chris. I'll probably think of something. No worries, no worries. I think that's a really great answer. I personally seeing how well these multi character films go, I think we really interesting to see. I feels that entirely in the waiting rooms, you know, during the reign of terror after the French Revolution, with the aristocrats awaiting their potential debt. I think those kinds of set things have always been really interesting to me, and seeing characters would respond to the impending doom. I think they would have been a great one location setting. And then we can also there's in terms of getting it extreme. We can also just think of every single type of vehicle or every single pipe off situation in your home, etcetera. W Some BRATT and like. Can you mention every type of vehicle there, Chris, because it's kind of given me an idea. That how that film set entirely on a roller coaster. Oh yes, I don't know how that would work, the Gistics of that or what the plot would even be, but I would really enjoy seeing the filmmaker have a stab at that and trying to make into a human picture. It works on some levels. Awesome, we awesome, and the roller coasters like going the whole time and you like can't stop it and the Camerasoft has to stay in or jump between carriages. Yeah, that would be really cool having on a roller coaster absolutely, or especially if it at certain times stops completely, and maybe there's some kind of ramatic element there, so that the characters, for instance, had to try to climb from wagons wagon. The keeps quickly get very suspensible. So I think we should probably delete this and make this feel to make a lot of money. So the park it will. Let's just use their real cases. Let's do it so after this gutsing all the creative way through a case. News can bring exciting concepts to life. Thank y'all for listening and join us again soon. You have been listening to talking images, official podcast of ICM Forumcom and now it will bunus conversation on primer. Or is it primer? The phone does bring the movie primer to mind quite a bit. It's the whole idea of it's technology, which is sort of like being built in somebody's backyard, of building somebody's home, and it can do like all these amazing things. And Yeah, the film is pronounced primer and not primer primers and like a first lesson on something. I guess we're in court. A primer if you want, but the word in the English language is Prima. This doesn't need to be an episode. I just wanting to tell you solid pronounced primate, not primit. Are you sure about that?...
I've definite, definitely heard maybe it's different, American or UK whatever. Definitely heard it pronounced prima, as in like in re ductory lesson to something. Yeah, I've never heard the word primit. And if because the word prime on its own will be prime. Take, for instance, optimist prime, and then you just got an know in the end this primate. That's what I thought also, but I have heard it you as as primer before and I was actually in a film that. I did look it up afterwards. I was like, I'd actually has pronounced Primo. Okay, I remember the field of some film over there in the world characters as like or do you want to do the primer on this for whoever it was? My God, it's not worm like. Okay, it's primer, primer, Eve, you actually talked to somebody and said primate before and then and give you a strange look. I've just had a look on the Internet now. So okay, basically, in American English it seems to be pronounced Primit, Uh Huh. So perhaps that's why. But in British English it's always going to be referred to as primate. So that's something now anyway. So it's interesting they would found that out. Okay, well, as an Australian, probably should be doing British English. However, you know, I've grown up on American films, so I used the American termology. This is really interesting. Is Actually is the word Primrose Prima in my own life. Not Often. I don't drop it into every conversation. A couple of times and haven't got a strange lucky at all. The people are probably just used to me using bigger words than I should use, as I'll turn the microphone off now. I'll do this. This will whole stay in you have been listening to the talking images, official PODCAST OF ICM FOR OFCOM.
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