15° FESTIVAL INTERNAZIONALE CINEMA GIOVANI
Special Program - Americana
FAST, CHEAP & OUT OF CONTROL
by Errol Morris
Country: USA
Year: 1997
Duration: 82'
The film recounts the bizarre lives of four eccentric characters who, over the years, have constructed original, poetic utopias for themselves. They are all linked by their love of animals - real, sculpted or automated. A student of the famous animal trainer Clyde Beatty, Dave Hoover tames lions in Hollywood. He nostalgically recalls time past. Harnessed to his pruning shears, George Mendonca tirelessly follows in his father-in-law's footsteps, creating a leafy menagerie of giraffes, elephants and other large mammals. Fascinated by the organized life of insects, Rodney Brooks tries to realize his futuristic dream of intelligent, artificial life. Ray Mendez is equally fascinated by a species of rats whose communal life is based on unerring group solidarity. According to him, mankind should use the rats as an example. In each case, these people project their ephemeral and moving dreams onto the animals in order to try to give meaning to their lives, or, more utopically, to the community.
Biography
film director
Errol Morris
Errol Morris was born in 1948 in Hewlett, Long Island. He studied at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, Princeton and Berkeley. His movie career began in 1978 with the documentary Gates of Heaven, about two animal cemeteries. Ten years later, he made The Thin Blue Line, an investigation of a murder that let the police discover the true assassin and free an innocent person who was already on death row. In 1991 he made A Brief History of Time, a long interview with the scientist Stephen Hawking. In 1997 the Torino Film Festival showed his film Fast, Cheap & Out of Control.
FILMOGRAFIA
Gates of Haven (doc, 1978), Vernon, Florida (doc, 1981), The Thin Blue Line (La sottile linea blu, doc, 1988), A Brief History of Time (Dal big bang ai buchi neri, doc, 1991), The Dark Wind (La collina del demonio, 1991), Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (doc, 1997), Stairway to Heaven (cm, doc, 1998), Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (doc, 1999), First Person (serie TV, 2000), The 74th Annual Academy Awards (doc, TV, 2002), The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (doc, 2003).
Cast
& Credits
Regia, sceneggiatura, produttore: Errol Morris.
Director of photography: Robert Richardson.
Editor: Karen Schmeer, Shondra Merrill. Music: Caleb Sampson.
Sound: Steve Bores, Fred Burnham.
Cast and characters: Dave Hoover Mild Animal Trainer), George Mendonca (Topiary Gardener), Ray Mendez (Mole Rat Specialist), Rodney Brooks (Robot Specialist).
Produzione e vendita all'estero: Fourth Floor Productions Inc., 678 Massachusettes Avenue, Suite 503, Cambridge, Massachusettes 02138, USA, tel. +1-617-8764499, fax +1-617-8764540.
Director of photography: Robert Richardson.
Editor: Karen Schmeer, Shondra Merrill. Music: Caleb Sampson.
Sound: Steve Bores, Fred Burnham.
Cast and characters: Dave Hoover Mild Animal Trainer), George Mendonca (Topiary Gardener), Ray Mendez (Mole Rat Specialist), Rodney Brooks (Robot Specialist).
Produzione e vendita all'estero: Fourth Floor Productions Inc., 678 Massachusettes Avenue, Suite 503, Cambridge, Massachusettes 02138, USA, tel. +1-617-8764499, fax +1-617-8764540.
