City of Ghosts (2002)

Director:

Matt Dillon

Writers (WGA):

Matt Dillon (written by) &
Barry Gifford (written by)

Release Date:

27 March 2003 (Israel)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

where you go when you can't turn back.

Plot:

A con man (Dillon) travels to Cambodia (also on the run from law enforcement in the U.S.) to collect his share in an insurance scam, but discovers more than he bargained for...

Plot Keywords:

Motor Scooter | Rickshaw Driver | Wheelchair | Casino | Money

Cast

Matt Dillon	...	Jimmy
James Caan	...	Marvin
Natascha McElhone	...	Sophie
Gérard Depardieu	...	Emile (as Gerard Depardieu)
Kem Sereyvuth	...	Sok (as Sereyvuth Kem)
Stellan Skarsgård	...	Joseph Kaspar
Rose Byrne	...	Sabrina
Shawn Andrews	...	Robbie
Chalee Sankhavesa	...	Sideth
Christopher Curry	...	Larry Luckman
Rob Campbell	...	Simon (as Robert Campbell)
Bernard Merklen	...	Gerard
Jack Shearer	...	FBI Agent Burden
Kirk Fox	...	FBI Agent Philips
Kyoza	...	Rocky

Also Known As:

Beneath the Banyan Trees (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some violence.

Runtime:

116 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | Khmer | Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Hungary:16 | USA:R (certificate #38928) | Finland:K-15 | Iceland:16 | Singapore:NC-16 | Spain:13 | Australia:M | Norway:15 | Canada:A (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Bangkok, Thailand

Company:

United Artists

Trivia:

The buildings where the foggy final showdown takes place are actually part of Bokor Hill Station, a colonial hill resort town built by the French in the 1920s. This site, on a mountain above Kampot in Southern Cambodia, included a church and Grand Bokor Palace, a hotel-casino. They were taken over by the Cambodian monarchs after the French left, and were a Khmer Rouge stronghold against the Vietnamese (the shelling is still visible, there are no windows left intact). Today the buildings are abandoned, crumbling and covered in red moss, but can still be visited.

Quotes:

Marvin: Once a general, always a general.

Soundtrack:

I Want a Little Girl

An interesting film, worth a look

Set in Cambodia a generation after a bloody revolution and civil war, this film follows the adventures of a smalltime crook, Jimmy, who is tracking down an older man responsible for an insurance scam and who has absconded with the money. He arrives in a country full of gangsters and opportunist thieves - not knowing who to trust, he is robbed and beaten up as often as any hero of a film noir movie.

Modern Cambodia is depicted as a hell on Earth - with the exception of a rickshaw driver, Suk, the locals are shown as violent and untrustworthy. Once again a foreign locale is simply a backdrop for white villains to have a shootout. But this doesn't detract too much from a film that is in many ways a homage to "The Third Man", with Phnom Penh standing in for a ruined postwar Vienna, the Harry Lime-equivalent seedy and enigmatic, and the protagonist equally unsympathetic at first. Odd camera angles and flashback shots abound.

The love interest seems tacked on - and a reason for having a female character - but gives Jimmy an incentive to abandon his life of crime and go straight.

An interesting film, worth a look.