[EVA]On "One Hour Photo" (OT)

[Luna1883 at aol.com]

<<lack of clarity>> 
<<I would like to know more information about this movie and a place

where I could possibly look into purchasing/viewing it. I too would enjoy

hearing Robin Williams say "Neon Genesis Evangelion">>

apologies all around for the rather excited shorthand. since the movie has 
been running in NYC for at least three weeks now, i assumed this picture was 
nationally released and had therefore achieved a level of cultural saturation 
(what with robin williams in it), so i did not feel the need to clue people 
in with a proper introduction. 

Apart from seeing it in NYC, I saw it at an arthouse in  east hampton, NY for 
a second time-- so i'm sure folks in LA, Chicago and a whole slew of college 
towns in New England should have a theatre showing it. Romanek had only 
released one other film, Static, and this previous film from a while back was 
only re-released in NY, LA and the usual festival circuit, so the 
distributors were probably not betting on a wider release for his new film. 
but the buzz is out, so it probably will get one. 

without giving too much away, the film is about a creepy wal-mart employee 
played by robin williams who goes postal. the narrative is reasonably tight, 
if too reliant on the ususal hitcockian bag of tricks, but it has excellent 
camera work. Those fortunate enough to have seen anno hideaki's "Shikijitsu" 
or Love & Pop, and are fans of young Japanese feature directors like iwai 
shunji, aoyama shinji, kore-eda hirozaku, and miike takashi will love the 
cinematography--which combines the kineticism of music videos with studied, 
ozu-like long takes, and a trendy sensitivity to color. 

Romanek is clearly a fan of EVA. The fact that the little boy in "One Hour 
Photo" could confidently assert that the Evas 05-13 were the "good guys" can 
be taken as a kind of inside joke--even celluloid characters are confused by 
the cosmology of EOE.
The very conceit is shamless pandering to EVA otakus: there is no way that a 
SEGA or a Bandai action figure of an EOE EVA, not even a taiwanese bootleg, 
will ever show up in a wal-mart, and those of us who get it will be pleased 
to see that EVA has attained the stature of highbrow fetish. Incidentally, 
the store is not actually a wal-mart, and although no attempt is made 
whatsoever to obscure the manufacturer of the EVA doll, this is hardly 
product-placement. international brands like agfa, toyota  and mercedes-benz 
take a few surprising knocks in the movie. Agfa, in particular, is probably 
very pissed that Romanek has remained true to at least the spirit of guerilla 
fimmaking. There is a scene in "One Hour Photo" where an Agfa technician is 
accused by the Robin Williams character of shoddy work. If SEGA gets a spike 
in orders for its EVA unit 05, they should assist romanek if he gets sued for 
libel. 

romanek paid his dues as Madonna's favorite video director for the past five 
years, and american directors of similar liniage, like Spike Jonze and the 
usual NYU cohort, swear by Anime, and even ocassionaly sample Anime clips in 
their videos. A few Japanese filmmakers have made oblique and not so oblique 
references to EVA in their films, and if Spike Jonze successfully updates his 
21st-century interpretation of the novel "memoirs of a geisha" (due 2004) 
with even one EVA reference, however tangental, we should all be so honored.