Ambitious young cameraman makes a sensational documentary about a ruthless showbiz promoter . Intriguing low budget and stylish thriller with a twist.
We saw this one at Cannes, 1980, where the audience - and the movie magazine Lumiere , in particular were more than a little bit in love with it. This may be because, unlike the IMDb website reviewers , they actually actually 'got' it . After all, two of the current IMDb website reviews are commenting on another film altogether: A Texas 'swamp movie' with a not dissimilar title...
Final Cut (1980) is basically a play on the idea of off the cuff documentary making carried to the limits and has lots of verbal and visual clues to this rather early post modern intent: after all how many other movies actually have the name 'Dziga Vertov' chucked around in dialog? Not that that's necessarily a good thing!
But the great hand-held cinematography by Ron Johanson and a marvelous- and for the time- very smart electronic soundtrack by UK film and TV composer Howard Davidson , all make this little super low budget movie an absolute keeper - and a film that's maybe worth watching a bit earlier in the night - and without a bottle of bourbon!
Final Cut may not entirely succeed, but at least the still loyal European Pay TV audiences and a healthily large worldwide group of (primarily) film student fans seem to have understood the film's self- referential movie shtick that the filmmakers seem to have - rather bravely - gone for!
Final Cut (1980) is basically a play on the idea of off the cuff documentary making carried to the limits and has lots of verbal and visual clues to this rather early post modern intent: after all how many other movies actually have the name 'Dziga Vertov' chucked around in dialog? Not that that's necessarily a good thing!
But the great hand-held cinematography by Ron Johanson and a marvelous- and for the time- very smart electronic soundtrack by UK film and TV composer Howard Davidson , all make this little super low budget movie an absolute keeper - and a film that's maybe worth watching a bit earlier in the night - and without a bottle of bourbon!
Final Cut may not entirely succeed, but at least the still loyal European Pay TV audiences and a healthily large worldwide group of (primarily) film student fans seem to have understood the film's self- referential movie shtick that the filmmakers seem to have - rather bravely - gone for!
- jddawson
- Aug 5, 2006