08/02/2009

Iconoclast director Sally Potter presents her latest feature, Rage [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], in Berlin as part of the Competition line-up. The film, a UK/US co-production, is an audacious talking-heads extravaganza set in the New York fashion world that tries to look beyond the designer duds and fabulous wigs.

Rage is a murder mystery in which everything that is relevant to the story happens off-screen, and the protagonists address the camera to tell their stories. The owner of the camera phone that records the confessions, Michelangelo, also remains unseen and unheard.

The picture had been getting some advance buzz prior to its presentation in Berlin on the basis of a picture of Jude Law dressed as his character Minx, a saucy supermodel who sees two of her biggest competitors die on the runway in two separate accidents. But Law is not the only big name in the cast: Dianne Wiest, Judi Dench and Steve Buscemi also put in appearances – though not in drag.

Potter, never afraid to try something new, shot her film in London and New York using only an actor in front a green screen and a sound person, while she herself operated the camera. “I saw it as a celebration of poor cinema; using minimal means, concentrating on text and performance, a return to the basic elements of storytelling by exploring the landscape of the human face. It's by far the lowest budget feature film I've ever made,” said the director.

The film was produced by Christopher Sheppard and Andrew Fierberg for Adventure Pictures, in co-production with VOX3 Films and with backing from UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund and the MEDIA Programme. Spanish outfit 6 Sales handles international sales.