WRISTCUTTERS Opens in NYC
Captured At The 2006 Sundance Film Festival
First Videocast on Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Recorded on Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Produced by Cyndi Greening
Videography by Michael Montesa
The thing I recall at the Sundance screening was the discussion among the actors about how difficult it was NOT to smile during the filming. Since this was supposed to be where people go when they've killed themselves, they were supposed to be emotionally flat and non-responsive. They were saying that you don't even realize who quickly, how easily and how often you smile. So, it was a struggle for them to keep their expressions expressionless and still convey the story. Here then, a brief summary from the NYTimes.
"At the beginning a mopey young man named Zia (Patrick Fugit) puts on a Tom Waits record — Mr. Waits himself will show up later — cleans his apartment, and commits suicide by the method suggested in the title. As a consequence of this act, apparently provoked by love trouble, he is plunged into a purgatory reserved for those unfortunate or impulsive souls who chose a similar exit.
It’s not a terrible existence, or nonexistence, as the case may be. For Zia, it’s a lot like the life he quit, but “a little bit worse.” This netherworld, which looks like a shabby corner of the American Southwest, is a place of broken-down cars, hand-lettered signs and unflattering fluorescent lights. No one is able to smile and the stars are invisible. Still, a desultory society has taken shape. People compare notes on how, as they put it, they “offed” (the title notwithstanding, some used nooses, guns or gas). And since everyone is already dead, there’s no reason not to smoke a cigarette or drink a beer first thing in the morning."
WRISTCUTTERS Q&A following Sundance 2006 Screening
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