People I Know

The sound quality is good - quiet but good. The silences are sometimes as pertinent as the spoken word. This is a movie about shades of grey. And the sound almost reflects that.

The film was completed in the summer of 2001 and due for release in the US in November, until the events of September 11th put a stop to that. In the original cut, Eli Wurman has a dream in which the World Trade Centre topples. This scene has since been cut and digital enhancements reduce the presence of the Twin Towers, but several scenes are set in an office high up in one of the towers, with interior shots revealing the second tower in the background.

The Sundance Conference and cast interviews are all well worth watching, particularly the former. These in particular provide a great insight into the work of an actor and his/her relationship with fellow cast members and how famous actors relate to other famous people - Al Pacino on meeting Tennessee Williams, for example

When Tea Leone is asked why people should go and see the film, she gives two reasons. Firstly, Pacino gives the performance of a lifetime, a performance that is revealing, horrifying, seamless, which is not to take anything away from an astonishing body of work, but simply that this performance is so unbearably REAL. And secondly, you watch the film in fascination, because it is like looking at a life that could be your life, but encapsulated in a pill that you can swallow and you come away wondering whether you are clean, whether on the day of reckoning you can stand up and be counted and feel your conscience is clear.

She goes on to say that you probably shouldn't see it on your birthday. I would add that you shouldn't see it if you are feeling unhappy, or depressed. It is a horrific vision of what publicity has become, a grubby world of manipulation and spin which the (anti)hero is desperately trying to justify by attempting to reignite his faded, jaded idealism, while refueling himself on drugs and cynicism.