Timecode (2000)

Director:

Mike Figgis

Writer:

Mike Figgis (story)

Release Date:

28 April 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Four cameras. One take. No edits. Real time.

Plot:

Four frames of simultaneous action that alternately follow a smitten lesbian lover as she obsesses over her partner's dalliances and the tense goings-on of a Hollywood film production company.

Plot Keywords:

Real Time | Audition | Jealousy | Lesbian | Split Screen

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Xander Berkeley	...	Evan Wantz
Golden Brooks	...	Onyx Richardson
Saffron Burrows	...	Emma
Viveka Davis	...	Victoria Cohen
Richard Edson	...	Lester Moore
Aimee Graham	...	Sikh Nurse
Salma Hayek	...	Rose
Glenne Headly	...	Therapist
Andrew Heckler	...	Auditioning Actor
Holly Hunter	...	Executive
Danny Huston	...	Randy
Daphna Kastner	...	Auditioning Actor
Patrick Kearney	...	Drug House Owner
Elizabeth Low	...	Penny - Evan's Assistant
Kyle MacLachlan	...	Bunny Drysdale
Mía Maestro	...	Ana Pauls
Leslie Mann	...	Cherine
Suzy Nakamura	...	Connie Ling
Alessandro Nivola	...	Joey Z
Zuleikha Robinson	...	Lester Moore's Assistant
Julian Sands	...	Quentin
Stellan Skarsgård	...	Alex Green
Jeanne Tripplehorn	...	Lauren Hathaway
Steven Weber	...	Darren Fetzer
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Holly Houston	...	Renee - Take 1 (scenes deleted)
Laurie Metcalf	...	Dava Adair - Take 1 (scenes deleted)
Colette Divine	...	Auditioning Actress (uncredited)
David Schatanoff Jr.	...	Man at Sidewalk Cafe (uncredited)
Patty Tobin	...	Executive Assistant (uncredited)

Directed by
Mike Figgis

Writing credits
Mike Figgis		(story)

Produced by
Dustin Bernard	....	co-producer
Mike Figgis	....	producer
Gary Marcus	....	co-producer (as Gary Scott Marcus)
Annie Stewart	....	producer

Original Music by
Mike Figgis
Anthony Marinelli

Cinematography by
Patrick Alexander Stewart		(director of photography)

Casting by
Amanda Mackey Johnson
Cathy Sandrich

Production Design by
Charlotte Malmlöf

Set Decoration by
Jennifer M. Gentile		(as Jennifer Gentile)

Costume Design by
Donna Casey

Production Management
Dustin Bernard	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Phil Dupont	....	second assistant director (as Philippe Dupont)
Mark Anthony Little	....	first assistant director
Gary Marcus	....	first assistant director (as Gary Scott Marcus)
Jonathan Watson	....	first assistant director (as Jonathan M. Watson)
Greg Zekowski	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Todd Ellis	....	property master
Steve Halterman	....	leadman
Michael Stone	....	assistant art director (as Michael C. Stone)

Sound Department
Pembrooke Andrews	....	assistant dialogue editor
Eddie Bydalek	....	sound recordist
Eric Corley	....	assistant sound effects editor
Paul Curtis	....	dialogue editor (as Paul M. Curtis)
Chris David	....	sound re-recording mixer
Francesca Dodd	....	assistant sound editor
Patrick Dodd	....	supervising sound editor
Tom Fox	....	utility sound
Robert Janiger	....	sound mixer
Mark Lanza	....	sound effects editor
Stephen P. Robinson	....	sound effects editor
Ann Scibelli	....	sound effects editor
Dan Scolnik	....	foley cue
Dan Scolnik	....	foley editor
George W. Scott	....	sound recordist
Leslie Shatz	....	sound re-recording mixer
John C. Stuver	....	dialogue editor
Robert Troy	....	dialogue editor
Jeff K. Brunello	....	sound editor (uncredited)
Robert Janiger	....	sound engineer (uncredited)
Mark Lanza	....	supervising sound editor (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Ron Bolanowski	....	special effects

Visual Effects by
Brian A. Lettieri	....	video effects editor

Camera and Electrical Department
Kevin Blauvelt	....	assistant chief lighting technician
Seth Clark	....	assistant video assist operator
Tony Cucchiari	....	camera operator
Ron Ervin	....	second grip
Mike Figgis	....	camera operator
Barbara Kallir	....	chief lighting technician
David Macdonald	....	key grip
Elliott Marks	....	still photographer
John Monsour	....	video engineer
James O'Keeffe	....	camera operator
Kathina Szeto	....	first assistant camera
Christopher Taylor	....	first assistant camera
Andrew B. Andersen	....	cinematographer: title sequence (uncredited)
John Monsour	....	video assist operator (uncredited)
Rick Taylor	....	first assistant camera (uncredited)

Casting Department
Sande Alessi	....	extras casting

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Tricia Cruikshank	....	costume supervisor

Editorial Department
Dan Judy	....	colorist

Music Department
Mark Curry	....	scoring mixer
Louise Hammar	....	music supervisor
Elyse Hoyt	....	music coordinator
Anthony Marinelli	....	music producer
Anthony Marinelli	....	musician: keyboards
Mark Tucker	....	music score recording engineer
Richard Whitfield	....	music editor

Transportation Department
James Nordberg	....	transportation
Timothy P. Ryan	....	transportation co-captain
Don Tardino	....	transportation captain

Other crew
Benjamin Adams	....	production accountant
Samuel F. Arroyo	....	craft service (as Sam Arroyo)
Mary Brunner	....	production assistant
Unjoo Lee Byars	....	title producer
Seth Clark	....	production assistant
Jennifer Clymer	....	production assistant
Paul Codiga	....	production assistant
Erin Engman	....	assistant production coordinator
James Fregia	....	production assistant
Tami Hodges-Malaniak	....	production assistant (as Tami Hodges)
Scott Horwitz	....	production assistant
Karis Jagger	....	key production assistant
David Krudis	....	first assistant accountant
Scott Allen Logan	....	location manager
Michael McIntyre	....	creative director: main titles
Edgar Pablos	....	assistant: Mr. Figgis (as Edgar B. Pablos)
B.J. Smith	....	medical advisor
Doug Van Doren	....	assistant: Ms. Stewart
Lois Walker	....	production coordinator

Thanks
Frank Lomento	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Screen Gems (presents)
• Red Mullet Productions

Distributors

• Columbia TriStar Domestic Television (USA) (TV)
• Columbia TriStar Films Pty. Ltd. (Australia)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Diaphana Films (France)
• Film Office (France) (DVD)
• Screen Gems

Other Companies

• BCBG  special thanks to
• Betsey Johnson  special thanks to
• Book Soup  special thanks to
• Calvin Klein  special thanks to
• Charles David  special thanks to
• Chrome Hearts  special thanks to
• Converse  special thanks to
• Diesel  special thanks to
• Doc Martens  special thanks to (as Dr. Martens)
• EFX Systems  sound services by (as EFX)
• Emporio Armani  special thanks to
• Esprit  special thanks to (as Espirit)
• Giorgio Armani  special thanks to
• Gucci  special thanks to
• Hugo Boss  special thanks to
• International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)  this picture made under the jurisdiction of (as I.A.T.S.E.)
• Kenneth Cole  special thanks to
• L.A. Eyeworks  special thanks to
• Me&Ro Jewelry  special thanks to (as Me & Ro)
• Melanie Greene Management  special thanks to
• Milan Records  soundtrack on
• Music Forever  music recorded and mixed at
• North Face, The  special thanks to
• Paul Smith Ltd.  special thanks to
• Ralph Lauren  special thanks to
• Reebok  special thanks to
• Richard Tyler  special thanks to
• Simple Shoes  special thanks to (as Simple)
• Wilshire Stages, The  sound services by (as Wilshire Stages)
• mOcean  main and end titles

Also Known As:

Time Code (USA) (alternative spelling)
Time Code 2000 (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for drug use, sexuality, language and a scene of violence.

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | Canada:14A (Canadian Home Video rating) | Australia:MA | France:U | Norway:15 | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:R (#37352)

Filming Locations:

8800 W. Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, California, USA

Company:

Screen Gems

Trivia:

There was a golden rule. Mike Figgis told the actors to never wear exactly the same outfit every day over the two-week shooting period. This way there could never ever be the possibility of stealing a scene from another day's shoot and cheating it in the edit.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Laura is standing outside the offices during the first earthquake, she calls out "Salma!" instead of the character's name, "Rose".

Quotes:

Darren: Did you look at Tower Records, cause they just re-released ABBA's greatest hits.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Film Geek (2005)

Soundtrack:

Future Strings

The title gives the game away.

"Timecode". What does this have to do with the content of Figgis's film? As we discover towards the end, without any chance of our being mistaken, nothing. It must be a reference to whatever device Figgis used to synchronise his actors. And that lets us know where his interests lay: in filming four simultaneous, 97-minute takes - certainly not in telling a decent story.

This lack of concern for anything except the technical challenge - we don't even get a sense of exhilaration at seeing Figgis pull it off - could not be more naked. On four occasions, there's an earth tremor. How do these little earthquakes help the film or the viewer? Not in the least - but it helps Figgis synchronise his actors. (Can you think of a LESS creative way of working a necessary synchronising device into the - cough - story? I can't.) Characters from different frames bump into one another now and then, and sometimes this serves an artistic purpose. Equally often, however, it doesn't. The characters aren't interacting; the actors are reminding one another which bit they're up to.

And here's the moment that really gives the game away. Towards the end, in the two bottom frames, we see a young director pitching her idea for a new kind of movie - and it turns out that she wants to make "Timecode"! Wow, self-reference! The last, and this case probably the first, refuge of the creatively bankrupt. I wanted to swear out loud. I'd been waiting over an hour for some payoff, some tiny sign of confluence between Figgis's four-frame device and the (cough) story he was trying to tell with it, and THIS is the best he could do? To add insult to injury, the movie our young director was pitching wasn't QUITE "Timecode". It was better. It had music by Hans Eisler, for one thing. (Apart from the melody sung during this pitch, the music in "Timecode" is banal, and it's used with a ham-fisted incompetence that has to be heard to be believed.) Also, our young director had a neat idea. She wanted to adapt a Borges story in which an old man and a young man meet, chat, and gradually discover that they're the very same person, at different stages of his life. "Each of the four main characters," continues our young director, "will be the same person, at a different stage of life." At this point our eyes scan the four frames to see if this is true of "Timecode", at least metaphorically. No, it isn't. Not even metaphorically. I felt like beating my head against the chair in front of me. Why was I watching Figgis's wretched movie? I wanted to watch HER movie!

As the young director points out, this kind of thing is the offspring of digital technology. Well, not quite. Alfred Hitchcock came up with the idea of a film without cuts in the 1940s, and more or less put it into practise with "Rope". It goes without saying that "Rope" is far superior. The irony is that it's also far truer to Figgis's avowed ideal of perfect continuity. In "Timecode" a vertical slash and a horizontal slash divide the screen into four. EVERY FRAME is cut into pieces - Hitchcock merely had a discreet, and to the best of his ability invisible, cut every ten minutes or so. (He also had a story, but I should stop harping on that.) Talk about a bad bargain. And it gets worse. The digital technology that makes Figgis's inferior vision possible also makes every frame look ugly. Add the fact that nothing worth looking at is going on in any of them, and what do we get? Instead of one good thing, a choice between four worthless things.

It may not have escaped your attention that the last few years have produced a pretty poor crop of films. 1999 was the worst year in living memory - unless you were exceptionally old in 1999, and could remember the transition to sound - and 2000 turned out, contrary to all reasonable expectation, to be worse. Even regression to the mean gives us little reason to hope that 2001 will be any better. Yet every so often a film comes along that makes the future seem even bleaker. "The Blair Witch Project" promised us nothing but incompetence from the next generation of film-makers; "The Phantom Menace" let the world know just how successful a technically sophisticated, creatively barren rip-off could be; "Scary Movie" introduced us to the novel idea of comedy without any actual humour. "Timecode" is yet another depressing sign of things to come. I'm sick of them.