Other Titles • Timecode • Time Code (2000) • Time Code 2000
Synopses for Timecode (2000)
1.
With TIMECODE, Mike Figgis has established himself as a chief proponent of the digital filmmaking revolution. In telling the story of a Los Angeles production company that is trying to get a series of new projects off the ground, Figgis employs a series of highly innovative digital techniques.
TIMECODE was filmed using four separate digital cameras that--in one unedited take--capture a series of loosely intertwining characters who live and work in Los Angeles at the end of the 20th century. That establishes it as the first legitimate commercial real-time motion picture (ROPE, CLEO FROM 5 TO 7, and NICK OF TIME were falsely constructed re-creations). What's more, Figgis broke the screen into blocks, letting all four stories unfold at the same time.
The story is a surprisingly lighthearted satire of Hollywood, featuring a parade of potentially cliched characters: the spineless company heads, the coked-up actress, the jealous girlfriend, the pretentious director, etc. Fortunately, Figgis has assembled an accomplished and attractive cast, which keeps the content from succumbing to the visual onslaught. The result is a strikingly original motion picture that will be remembered historically for its bold attempt at creating a new cinematic language.
(8 votes)
2.
L.A., real time. From her limo, the wealthy Lauren eavesdrops on her lover Rose's tryst with movie producer Alex Green. The assignation takes place in his company's screening room between meetings. Alex's wife walks from therapy to his office, tells him she's leaving him, weeps in a bookstore restroom, and walks home with a cocaine-sniffing actress friend for what may lead to sex. Alex is drinking, wants to quit work and move to Tuscany, laughs at pretentious movie pitches, and puts off Rose when she asks for an audition. A film director sees Rose and decides she's perfect for his next picture; she takes a screen test. She's ecstatic and calls Lauren: jealousy takes over.
(6 votes)
3.
Timecode divides the screen into four parts and follows, in four uninterrupted shots, a series of overlapping stories. There's the wife (Saffron Burrows) of a movie producer (Stellan Skarskård) who's considering leaving him; the producer is having an affair with an aspiring actress (Salma Hayek); and the actress is the lover of a wealthy woman (Jeanne Tripplehorn), who jealously plants a bug in the actress's purse when the actress pretends to go to an audition. Meanwhile, the producer's partners and employees (Holly Hunter, Xander Berkeley, Steven Weber, and others) are trying to cope with the producer's increasing instability. There's a drug-dealing security guard; a dim massage therapist; a temperamental director who can't find the right actress; and assorted other Hollywood types who float in and out of the action. Earthquakes and aftershocks shake things up, a lot of cocaine is snorted, and there's some sex and some violence, all improvised by the actors around a story set up by the director, Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas).
The emotional effect of any story is muted by the constant distraction of trying to take in four screens at once, though at times the stories resonate off each other nicely. It's an interesting experiment, made possible by the portability and longer takes of digital cameras; anyone interested in how digital technology has affected filmmaking will want to see this novel film. --Bret Fetzer
(5 votes)
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