Oscar-nominated film-maker, writer and digital pioneer who makes cinema an accessible medium to all
Film-maker, musician, writer and digital pioneer ? Mike Figgis is chimera-like. With the opening of Lucrezia Borgia at the English National Opera he can also add opera director to his list of accomplishments. His fascination with dark, complex characters makes Donizetti's degenerate Borgias an ideal subject for Figgis to tackle, although the audience may not agree with his approach. Then again, Figgis has never been one to follow the well-trodden path. While the big-bucks film studios have turned cinema into an exclusive club, the Oscar-nominated Figgis has gone out of his way to make it an accessible medium to all. Championing the cause of the aspiring amateur, his book Digital Filmmaking delivers a sensible tutorial on the disciplines required to produce a film ? whatever the size of budget, crew or camera. It is up to the reader to supply the talent, and talent is something the unassuming Figgis has in spades. His film Timecode is a remarkable exercise in using and adapting new technologies ? an ensemble film shot simultaneously on four cameras in one take and presented uncut on a quartered screen. The viewer becomes, in effect, editor. This is film to make you think and occasionally wriggle uncomfortably when difficult subjects are met head-on. And this is film directed by the man who, as Plinther 0386, gave Trafalgar Square spectators a lecture on film-making and rounded it off by whipping out a trumpet and playing the Last Post ? the jazz version. Always the unexpected ?
Source: http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/commentisfree/rss/~3/2HIlenJKV9M/in-praise-of-mike-figgis
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