The Photographer (2000)

Director:

Jeremy Stein

Writer:

Jeremy Stein (written by)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

A Photographer has a single evening to find ten magical photographs or else he stands to lose everything that is important to him.

Plot Keywords:

New York City | Photograph | Photographer | Search | Quest

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Reg Rogers	...	Max Martin
Tina Holmes	...	Amy
Anthony Michael Hall	...	Greg
Marisa Berenson	...	Julie Morris
Kristen Wilson	...	Schuyler
Fenton Lawless	...	Bartender
Richard Bright	...	Drunk in Bar
Tom Noonan	...	Butler
Josh Stamberg	...	Peter Morgan
Alex Draper	...	Nelson Stanley
John Heard	...	Marcello
Rob Campbell	...	Romeo
Joe Mosso	...	Officer #1
Brian Tarantina	...	Camera Salesman
Michael Shannon	...	Maurice (as Mike Shannon)

MPAA:

Rated R for language and brief drug use.

Runtime:

USA:91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

The Photographer Company LLC

Trivia:

The photographs seen in the movie are from the series "HOMELESS: Portraits of Americans in Hard Times". They were taken by Howard Schatz.

Quotes:

Mira: We're closed.
Romeo: And then she just appeared, as if from a dream.
Mira: Look, I'm sorry, we're closed.
Romeo: Please, we're on a journey!
Mira: What kind of journey?
Romeo: We're looking for something: lost photographs... Cher's involved.

Soundtrack:

Midbar Sinai

Terrific! See It!

Occasionally, surfing through the late night flicks, you run across a gemstone that grabs you by the pajama lapels and shakes you awake until you've finished reading the credits: such was my reaction to The Photographer a few nights ago. Jeremy Stein made an absolutely enchanting film: ignore comments here to the contrary.

The theme is that one can never anticipate how unexpected turns in our lives will contribute to our personal growth. In this case, Max overcomes a form of creative paralysis and re-discovers himself and his art through chance encounters with complete strangers. Shot in New York City's seedy back streets (lower East Side?) the collective odyssey of Max and his new-found pals (the supporting cast are very good) laces in bar scenes that, for me at least, are archetypal moments when we have chance encounters with people who turn out to have so much in common with us in hidden ways that it makes us reflect on who we really are most comfortable with, why we made the choices we've made, and what the hell we're doing with our lives.

There's a kind of magic in this film (the search for Violet) that isn't overplayed but that's important to tying everything up into a neat little package. Terrific score (Andrew Hollander) and beautiful cinematography (Vanja Cernjul) sustain the mood throughout. If you don't come away feeling better about life after seeing this film, you've missed it.

Jeremy Stein, who wrote and directed, is very talented indeed, and I hope this one is available on DVD: it's one you want in the library.