Product Description

RAGE
A NEW FILM BY SALLY POTTER
Michelangelo, an unseen schoolboy armed only with a cell phone camera, goes behind the scenes at a New York fashion show during seven days in which an accident on the catwalk turns into a murder investigation, and his interviews with key players become a bitterly funny expose of an industry in crisis.

Fourteen actors, both celebrated stars and exciting emerging talents, play characters who each have a role in the fashion show: from the designer (Simon Abkarian) and his models (supermodel Lily Cole and Jude Law, stunning in drag), the toxic fashion critic (Academy Award winner Judi Dench) the desperate war photographer turned paparazzo (Steve Buscemi), the fashion house financier (Eddie Izzard) and his bodyguard (John Leguizamo). As they confide in Michelangelo, personal secrets are revealed and the reality of events taking place off screen begins to unravel.

RAGE is the new cinematic creation from Sally Potter, director of the Oscar-nominated ORLANDO. Defying the usual conventions of film, RAGE focuses entirely on the individual performances of its world-class cast.

Bonus material includes: Cast outtakes
and an interview with Sally Potter.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25757 in DVD
• Brand: RYKODISC
• Released on: 2009-09-22
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 98 minutes

Features

• RAGE (DVD MOVIE)

Customer Reviews

Unexpected
I'm not entirely sure what to say about this film. Despite the director and cast, I began watching with the hesitancy of someone burned by far too many 'mockumentaries,' and, at first, got just what I expected.

Yet, somewhere along the way, I got the distinct feeling that the film felt the same way about these 'mockumentaries' as I do, and, by the end of the film found myself not laughing, but crying. Quite thoroughly. And I have no idea why. Nor do I really care to pin down why. While the film drops any number of hints at possible symbolism, I felt like any attempt to pick it apart thusly would be a terrible mistake. Perhaps that's the intent.

I've seen quite a number of movies of late ruined by bad endings, but "Rage" sidesteps this problem by providing an utterly baffling conclusion. If you're a fairy-tale ending fan or a closure junkie, you'll not be spoon-fed here. Bravo.

Voice of an Artist
I see all of Sally Potter's films. She is always different, new, and interesting.
I saw her latest, RAGE, at The Box, in SOHO. I had read online of this provocative movie with a wonderful cast set in the world of fashion; about its unique mobile premiere. I was puzzled; how could a movie be shown on the tiny screen of a cell phone? And then I saw it. Now I want to have it on my cell phone. Imagine, Judy Dench talking to you on your own cell, like your friend, who trusts you enough to tell you the truth, that fashion has become an obsession akin to porn. And Steve Buscemi, Lily Cole, Bob Balaban, Patrick Adams, John Leguizamo, Dianne Wiest, Jude Law, all of them would became your personal friends and enemies. They speak to you directly.
They were speaking directly to me on the big screen, each image so crisp, so intense; each face so close, you can see every tiny movement of a muscle. So much drama without outside action. There are no sets here; you don't need them at all. The face is the set. And the costume. The faces are everything here, a landscape depicting all kind of battles.
RAGE tells the story of a crisis at a New York fashion house through a series of interviews, shot on his cell phone camera by a young boy named Michelangelo. The interviews are taken over the seven days in which a runway accident becomes a murder investigation. It's a funny, sad, bitter, tragic collection of monologues, spoken directly to the camera. Each shot is a close-up of a character against different color backgrounds. Every actor performs alone. They are so close that it is impossible for them to hide anything from you; just as you can't hide anything from yourself.
After watching RAGE on the big screen and online, I ordered it on DVD.
I want to have it; I want to be able to see those faces close and hear the voice of an Artist who never takes a conventional road, Sally Porter.

An utter disaster - 99 minutes of inane tosh about nothing at all.
This was billed as something groundbreaking and exciting. Live Premiere, London's BFI/Southbank linking up with screens in cinemas all over the place, big name cast, new type of genre. As we sat, we waited, we watched and we waited some more. This is 99 minutes of absolutely mind numbingly boring schlock. Interviews set to a blue/red/green screen. Not a single line has any meaning, is well acted or engaging. Big names such as Judi Dench, Jude Law, Dianne Wiest and Eddie Izzard appear almost as if they have been held hostage and forced to read garbage from an autocue to secure their release.
Apparently writer/director Sally Potter's film is about how 'fashion wrecks lives' and she aims to expose the shallow world of fashion in a lighthearted way (it's billed as a comedy). In reality, we are treated to one pathetic interview after another, no outside shots, no story, plot, nothing.
The reviews are consistently bad, and as one reviewer wrote on the IMDB "one of the dullest and most purposeless movies I've ever seen in my entire life". The audience in my cinema agreed, they began to walk out in such numbers, that at one point I began to wonder if this was some kind of hoax and we were being filmed as part of an experiment about the staying power of a cinema-goers.
Rage shows how ugly and downright wrong it is to allow the production, fiance and distribution of 'anything goes' cinema.