Want to be in a Michael Winterbottom film about Guantanamo?

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If you are a young male (Canadian/American) in London Mr Winterbottom wants you to be an ectra in his new film. FOr a reason which is not particualrly explicable, this film about Guantanamo is going to be filmed in Iran, so having a UK passport might be useful. But you should get money, a free trip to Iran and immortalised - potentially as an abusive guard. There may even be explicit sex for you (though since that may come with a Black Rebel Motorcycle Club soundtrack it is a poisoned chalice).

Hey ho. Ring Melissa at Revolution filums on 020 7566 0700.

This thread can also be uysed as a discussion of the wiseness of making a film about G in Iran.

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 08:59 (twenty years ago)

most overrated filmmaker of the noughties.

― N_RQ, Wednesday, 21 September 2005 09:01 (twenty years ago)

I'M SENDING THIS THREAD TO THE CIA NOW YOU COMMUNIST EUROTRASH SCUM!!!

― Will O'Really, Wednesday, 21 September 2005 09:01 (twenty years ago)

If we are just talking the 00's then Tim Burton trumps him massively.

I think MW's strike rate is plummeting at the moment, but since he knocks out two films a year at least they are interesting (if rarely all that good).

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 09:02 (twenty years ago)

oh i have managed to avoid tom burton, but no-one really rates him do they?

― N_RQ, Wednesday, 21 September 2005 09:05 (twenty years ago)

response to original offer:

only if amanda platell is playing the abusive guard, mmm mmm...

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 09:12 (twenty years ago)

they want canadians or merkins with UK passports?

― N_RQ, Wednesday, 21 September 2005 09:13 (twenty years ago)

Easier to get them into Iran where it is being filmed. Don't ask me why it is being filmed in Iran. That might be the "Road To" bit in the title "The Road To Guantanamo".

Hoepfully it will be a Hope & Crosby style comedy.

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 09:55 (twenty years ago)

i'm not an expert, but you need govt script approval to film in iran, right? hence makhmalbaf shoots in tajikistan or somewhere.

― N_RQ, Wednesday, 21 September 2005 10:00 (twenty years ago)

That's not strictly true anymore, but since we can guess the politics of the film, I don't think GSA is going to be a problem. GSA needed for anything with public money in, officially representing Iran, and there is more leeway now. Actually that may be changing again due to the hardline according to Khatami.

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 10:18 (twenty years ago)

Will we get to have sex to bad indie on DV? I don't want to just kneel to metallica after all though I'm sure I could be quite fetching in an orange jumpsuit.

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 19:51 (twenty years ago)

tristram shandy was a big let-down btw. i couldn't find the thread to tell you all that.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 20:18 (twenty years ago)

Why, Slocki? I'm seeing it next week and was looking forward to it.

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 22:57 (twenty years ago)

it just wasn't very interesting or good. it felt kinda played...

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 22 September 2005 01:19 (twenty years ago)

(more thoughts later when i'm not distracted by work)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 22 September 2005 01:32 (twenty years ago)

four months pass...

it's in the trees, etc

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 10:10 (twenty years ago)

The BBC has clips and an interview with Mr Winterbottom on its website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/default.stm
Poor Michael, he appears to have caught a cold.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 14:42 (twenty years ago)

you can't buy this kind of publicity

there's a very otm letter in this month's sight and sound re. winterbottom.

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 10:50 (nineteen years ago)

He claimed that one police officer had called him a "fucker".

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 11:08 (nineteen years ago)

that's luton for you.

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 11:13 (nineteen years ago)

This is number one in "Threads I forgot I started". Yow!

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 14:44 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

2nite

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Thursday, 9 March 2006 16:58 (nineteen years ago)

Lurking on the Cock and Bull thread:

Three pages into the Google results for The Road To Guantanamo is the page where you can watch it online or "download it to own" or even just for 48 hours. How thoroughly modern.
http://www.channel4.com/film/newsfeatures/microsites/G/guantanamo/download.html

-- PJ Miller (pjmiller6...) (webmail), Today 4:45 PM. (PJ Miller 68) (later)

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Thursday, 9 March 2006 17:03 (nineteen years ago)

Three pages into the Google results for The Road To Guantanamo is the page where you can watch it online

good, because i forgot to set the video and i'm going to the pub tonight.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 9 March 2006 17:07 (nineteen years ago)

not quite a documentary but I don't imagine they had any reason to exaggerate/lie

one assumes these horrors & injustices are going on, I suppose

v v v shocking, though

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 9 March 2006 22:59 (nineteen years ago)

I am looking forward to my first substantial online viewing experience.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 10 March 2006 09:06 (nineteen years ago)

not quite a documentary but I don't imagine they had any reason to exaggerate/lie

i was out but i expect it'll be on more4 or something.

back in the day people called 'the battleship potemkin' a documentary...

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Friday, 10 March 2006 09:10 (nineteen years ago)

it's repeated Monday on More4

― koogs (koogs), Friday, 10 March 2006 09:27 (nineteen years ago)

the popcorn's on ice.

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Friday, 10 March 2006 09:27 (nineteen years ago)

reminder that this is tonight for all of you people who were too busy drinking beer to watch it the first time.

― koogs (koogs), Monday, 13 March 2006 10:17 (nineteen years ago)

Yes. Also the DVD is advertised in METRO.

What time is it on, Koogles?

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 13 March 2006 10:20 (nineteen years ago)

More4 today
18:10 Deal or No Deal
19:00 Relocation, Relocation
20:00 More 4 News
20:30 The Daily Show Global Edition
21:00 The Road to Guantanamo <- here
22:50 The Last Word
23:25 The Sopranos

― koogs (koogs), Monday, 13 March 2006 10:40 (nineteen years ago)

other listings services are available.

― koogs (koogs), Monday, 13 March 2006 10:45 (nineteen years ago)

I like your service best.

Hmm, bit late for me.

Does it clash with Life On Mars?

£11.99 on DVD.

I see it has a Silver Bear.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 13 March 2006 10:50 (nineteen years ago)

koogs, when is sopranos v.6 coming?

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Monday, 13 March 2006 10:54 (nineteen years ago)

life on mars finished 2 weeks ago. unless you mean the signed repeats which go out *really* late because we all know deaf people are insomniacs. (i wonder how the people these signed repeats are aimed took the 'Oi, Deafaid' comment in the recent episode?)

sopranos v6 don't know. those are repeats or repeats of series 1 on more4 at the moment. Chris has just started his screenplay - 'manuged'.

oh, here's something:
http://community.channel4.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/8510081423/m/4460008383

― koogs (koogs), Monday, 13 March 2006 11:09 (nineteen years ago)

although we are unable to confirm the exact date due to our two week embargo

What's that then?

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 13 March 2006 11:16 (nineteen years ago)

There's wall to wall Kenneth Williams on BBC4 tonight, that would get the most hardened of Talibanites talking.

(Talibaners? Talibanees?)

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Monday, 13 March 2006 11:39 (nineteen years ago)

The Dribblesome Teapots! Sounds like some sort of twee torture.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 13 March 2006 11:42 (nineteen years ago)

nbg.

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 10:04 (nineteen years ago)

No Bloody Good?

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 10:09 (nineteen years ago)

I went to bed : -(

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 10:15 (nineteen years ago)

i fell asleep during it, i have to admit.

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 10:22 (nineteen years ago)

man like tony rayns in s&s compared it with 'punishment park'... which has its faults but is still much better. i can explain.

also it's not as good as 'the brig'.

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 10:24 (nineteen years ago)

Will we get to have sex to bad indie on DV?

hopefully not.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 12:37 (nineteen years ago)

ok basically i think w'bottom is weak because while he's happy to play the postmodernist with 'cock and bull' and '24hrpp', he's afraid to in an instance where storytelling *matters*. pretty much all we see in 'guantanamo' simply confirms what the interviewees tell us, but without really creating believable characters. we never understand why this guy wants to marry the girl within a fortnight of meeting her. their motivation for going into afghanistan during the war is totally opaque.

also the guards just aren't convincing. alan clarke's tv film 'psy-warriors' ('81 or so) had that stuff down. because winterbottom has no idea how to construct a film sequence (it's just a shot, followed by another, with no shape, no timing), it's all a bit flat.

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 14:03 (nineteen years ago)

Does this come from the German New Wave or whatever it's called? You're right it's flat, but it seems to be a deliberate choice and it does have some effect other than just making it boring.

Distance?

Anonymity?

Also, what about Wonderland? That seems to me to be brilliantly orchestrated, but the methodolgy is similar, ie do it quick, don't make a big fuss about it, move on to the next bit, which may be the next sequence or it may be the next film.

No one else does this, do they, apart from cheapo horror flicks and so on?

If he goes on to make, say, 50 more films (2 a year), it will be quite an accopmplished body of work, liberally sprinkled with duds, but the duds will be necessary for the good ones to exist.

And stuff like Code 46 will probably look better in a few years' time.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 14:10 (nineteen years ago)

well, that's true re. body of work but i think his problem is, as the sight and sound's recent correspondent said, lack of ideas. i don't personally buy into the distanciation/brechtian thing, i like engagement!

fassbinder had a few really big ideas he went back to again and again. i guess i mentioned alan clarke because he knocked out 1 or 2 a year and, for 15 years, they were all not only bloody good, but amazing formal experiments -- whole films done with steadicam, and so on.

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 14:15 (nineteen years ago)

three months pass...

getting very nice reviews in the states

plz hollywood to co-opt winterbottom and teach him about filmmaking.

― Roughage Crew (Enrique), Thursday, 22 June 2006 14:36 (nineteen years ago)

I tried to watch this on the internet, but it had gone!

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 23 June 2006 06:16 (nineteen years ago)

http://cdcp.free.fr/dossiers/echelon/nsa_fichiers/image002.gif

― Roughage Crew (Enrique), Friday, 23 June 2006 07:42 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.greaterthings.com/Word-Number/Organizations/Echelon/images/echelon.jpg

― Roughage Crew (Enrique), Friday, 23 June 2006 07:43 (nineteen years ago)

This was showing on the cinemas in Finland, so I caught it there - pretty moving and well made, I'd say. The biggest flaw in my opinion was that the reason the four guys decided to go from Pakistan to Afghanistan was left pretty vague, it felt like they weren't telling the whole truth. And the fact that at least one of them had a criminal record was mentioned very late in the film, and the whole thing was sidestepped quickly. In my opinion the film should've been more open about the four guys: even if their reason to going to Afghanistan was a bit less noble than they'd like ypou to believe, and even if their background was a bit shady, no way did they deserve the treatment they got. Not even the folks who were actually fighting for the Taleban deserve it. Now it felt like Winterbottom was trying to make them look better than they really were, even though that really wouldn't have been necessary.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Friday, 23 June 2006 08:19 (nineteen years ago)

The biggest flaw in my opinion was that the reason the four guys decided to go from Pakistan to Afghanistan was left pretty vague

they wanted to try the big naans!

― aimee semple mcmansion (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 25 June 2006 00:12 (nineteen years ago)

Some girls mothers mothers are bigger than other girls mothers mothers.

― Pete (Pete), Monday, 26 June 2006 13:14 (nineteen years ago)

plz hollywood to co-opt winterbottom and teach him about filmmaking.

what could this possibly mean

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 26 June 2006 14:42 (nineteen years ago)

he's not good at rudimentary narrative filmmaking techniques. it's all so thrown together, in a totally artless way. i can take it from directors who are good at it, but he isn't possibly because he's a very literal-minded guy and has had poor luck coaxing decent improvisations out of his performers?

― Roughage Crew (Enrique), Monday, 26 June 2006 14:46 (nineteen years ago)

i agree that he is VERY hit and miss... but i dunno if "going hollywood" is neccessarily gonna help

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 26 June 2006 14:48 (nineteen years ago)

i just found out that he directed some of 'cracker' so he does get *some* kudos here.

― Roughage Crew (Enrique), Monday, 26 June 2006 14:53 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think going hollywood would be a bad thing either. One thing Winterbottom is clearly very good at is GETTING FILMS MADE. Which in current British cinema is no bad thing. Perhaps it would be nice for him and his producers to set some of these projects up for others, but even if he is a mediocre craftsman, he still makes interesting films.

― Pete (Pete), Monday, 26 June 2006 14:56 (nineteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

plz hollywood to co-opt winterbottom and teach him about filmmaking.

even winterbottom's duds are better than most hollywood fare, surely?

anyway, revive because i just watched "Jude" again on TV & it's brilliant. brutal & powerful & quite radical within its genre. Kate Winslett is fantastic in it, beautiful & charismatic.

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 23:50 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/apr/22/freedom-of-speech-human-rights

this project about that twat craig murray or whatever his name is foundered coz winterbum wanted it to be a comedy, apparently.

useless as he is, that could have been pretty dope in the right hands.

― FREE DOM AND ETHAN (special guest stars mark bronson), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 12:53 (sixteen years ago)

five years pass...

Didn't realize there was a sequel to The Trip:

http://www.vulture.com/2014/04/watch-the-trailer-for-the-sequel-to-the-trip.html

― did click through tho on the money (Eazy), Thursday, 5 June 2014 04:34 (eleven years ago)

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