Timecode

Released 2000
Stars Saffron Burrows, Salma Hayek, Holly Hunter, Kyle MacLachlan, Mia Maestro, Leslie Mann, Alessandro Nivola, Julian Sands, Stellan Skarsgard, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Steven Weber
Directed by Mike Figgis

"Time Code" was shot entirely with digital cameras, hand-held, in real time. The screen is split into four segments, and each one is a single take about 93 minutes long. The stories are interrelated, and sometimes the characters in separate quadrants cross paths and are seen by more than one camera. This is not as confusing as it sounds, because Figgis increases the volume of the dialogue for the picture he wants us to focus on and dials down on the other three. What is the purpose of the experiment? Above all, to show it can be done. The story is upstaged by the method, sometimes more, sometimes less, and a viewer not interested in the method is likely to be underwhelmed.

What Figgis demonstrates is that a theatrical film can be made with inexpensive, lightweight digital cameras and that the picture quality is easily strong enough to transfer to 35mm. He also experiments with the notion of filming in real time, which has long fascinated directors. Figgis has put style and technique in the foreground, and it upstages the performances in what is, after all, a perfunctory story. When I go to an experimental film, I am in one mind-set. When I go to a mainstream feature, I am in another. If the film works, it carries me along with it. I lose track of the extraneous and am absorbed by the story. Anything that breaks this concentration is risky, and Figgis, with a four-way screen, breaks it deliberately. The film never happens to us. We are always conscious of watching it. The style isn't as annoying as it might sound, but it does no favors to the story.

Still, I recommend the film. Mike Figgis is a man who lives and breathes the cinema. While most filmmakers are content to plod their dreary way from one foregone conclusion to another, Figgis is out there on the edge, joyously pulling off cockamamie stunts like this one. I'm glad I saw the film. It challenged me. The actors were the co-producers and joined in the spirit of the enterprise, testing their own limits. "Time Code" has a place in the history of the movies. But now I want to see Figgis cut back to one camera (digital if he must), resume editing and conduct experiments that are more likely to arouse my sense of awe than my sense of timing.

Summary by Roger Ebert

I enjoyed "Timecode" for the experiment that it is. It's quite amazing how they choreographed four cameras running in real time with fake earthquakes and the cameras weaving in and out of each others' realms. The most interesting aspect to me was how they wrote the script. Since there were four storylines unfolding at exactly the same time, Mike Figgis came up with the ingenious idea of using musical staff for the script. This was brilliant, because it allowed them to plot the four storylines together and to keep their timing in synch. Even with this device, it would have been a daunting task to write a script if the dialogue were not improvised. Since it was all improvised, they were able to have a six page script that allowed them to choreograph the cameras and actors for 90 minutes. The downside to the improv is a weak story and dialogue--despite having two lesbian couples! There are several good moments, but for the most part the story is lame. Still, it's worth seeing just for the experiment. Also, this may be one of the steps along the way to truly interactive movies. I think it would be fun to have a movie that would combine elements of video games. If you really loved a movie, it would be fun to be able to inhabit its world. For example, I'd like to be able to switch to a different plot line to see what's happening with the other characters while the main characters are busy with the normal plot line. Also, it would be fun to guide the characters and to make decisions for them. Combine this movie with "Final Fantasy," and we're our way. --Bill Alward, December 26, 2001