Code 46 (2003)

Director:

Michael Winterbottom

Writer:

Frank Cottrell Boyce (writer)

Release Date:

7 May 2004 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

In the future...love is a dangerous game.

Plot:

A futuristic 'Brief Encounter', a love story in which the romance is doomed by genetic incompatibility.

Plot Keywords:

Love | Sphinx | Totalitarian | I.d. | Genetics

Awards:

4 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

Tim Robbins	...	William Geld
Togo Igawa	...	Driver
Nabil Elouahabi	...	Vendor
Samantha Morton	...	Maria Gonzales
Sarah Backhouse	...	Weather Girl
Jonathan Ibbotson	...	Boxer
Natalie Mendoza	...	Sphinx Receptionist
Om Puri	...	Bahkland
Emil Marwa	...	Mohan
Nina Fog	...	Wole
Bruno Lastra	...	Bikku
Christopher Simpson	...	Paul
Lien Nguyin	...	Singer in Nightclub
David Fahm	...	Damian Alekan
Jeanne Balibar	...	Sylvie
Mick Jones	...	Himself
Taro Sherabayani	...	Jim
Nina Sosanya	...	Anya
Shelley King	...	William's Boss
Tuyet Le	...	Apartment Security
Benedict Wong	...	Medic
Nina Wadia	...	Hospital Receptionist
Essie Davis	...	Doctor
Teo-Wa Vuong	...	Tester
Jennifer Lim	...	Tester with Couple
Archie Panjabi	...	Check In
Paul Barnes	...	Man in Corridor
Louis Lin	...	Sales Agent
Nabil Massad	...	Jebel Ali Hotel Owner
Kerry Shale	...	Clinic Doctor
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kristin Scott Thomas	...	Williams's wife (uncredited)
Bernadette Jane Vanderkar	...	Young Maria (uncredited)

Directed by
Michael Winterbottom

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Frank Cottrell Boyce		writer

Produced by
Andrew Eaton	....	producer
Arti Gupta	....	line producer
Robert Jones	....	executive producer
Rosa Romero	....	line producer
David M. Thompson	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Stephen Hilton		(as The Free Association)
David Holmes		(as The Free Association)

Cinematography by
Alwin H. Kuchler		(director of photography) (as Alwin Kuchler)
Marcel Zyskind		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Peter Christelis

Casting by
Wendy Brazington

Production Design by
Mark Tildesley

Art Direction by
Mark Digby
Denis Schnegg

Set Decoration by
Michelle Day

Costume Design by
Natalie Ward

Makeup Department
Konnie Daniel	....	hair designer
Konnie Daniel	....	makeup designer
Lesley Smith	....	hair designer
Lesley Smith	....	makeup designer

Production Management
Charlotte Ashby	....	production manager
Peter Bach	....	post-production supervisor
Yvette Kirstein	....	production manager: Dubai
Chiu Wah Lee	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Caroline Chapman	....	assistant director: UK
Sarah Coombs	....	assistant director: UK
Michael Elliott	....	first assistant director
Candy Marlowe	....	crowd assistant director: UK
Chris Stoaling	....	third assistant director: UK
Charlie Waller	....	assistant director: UK
Anthony Wilcox	....	second assistant director

Art Department
Sam Abelman	....	carpenter
Bruce Barnes	....	carpenter
David Bryan	....	overseas art director
John Burgess	....	painter
Gillian Campbell	....	painter
Charlie Cobb	....	graphic artist
Dan Crandon	....	construction manager
Michelle Day	....	set designer
Paul Drake	....	assistant art director
Rod Gorwood	....	draughtsman
Ben Green	....	carpenter
Paul Halter	....	carpenter
Prue Howard	....	art department runner
Jason Htay	....	carpenter
Mark Larkin	....	assistant art director
Chris Lightburn-Jones	....	stand-by art director
Charlie Malik	....	dressing props
Gwen Murray	....	art department trainee
Victoria Orlova	....	property master: Dubai
Tim Powis	....	carpenter
Jody Raynes	....	painter
Nick Thomas	....	props master
Mark Wallis	....	carpenter
Joe Western	....	painter

Sound Department
Tim Alban	....	sound re-recording mixer
Orin Beaton	....	sound maintenance
Peter Burgess	....	foley artist
Peter Burgis	....	foley artist
Colin Cooper	....	adr mixer
Colette Dahanne	....	adr mixer
Richard Davey	....	sound re-recording mixer
Andie Derrick	....	foley artist (as Andi Derrick)
Mark DeSimone	....	adr mixer
Anthony Faust	....	foley editor
Peter Gleaves	....	adr mixer
Mitch Low	....	play back operator
Khama Matiti	....	sound recordist
Christer Melén	....	sound effects editor
Darko Mocilnikar	....	sound assistant
Michael Redfern	....	foley editor
James Seddon	....	dolby consultant
Joakim Sundström	....	supervising sound editor
Jessie Taylor	....	assistant dubbing mixer
Stuart Wilson	....	production sound mixer
Paul Wrightson	....	adr editor

Special Effects by
Richard Conway	....	special effects technician
Nigel Wilkinson	....	special effects technician

Visual Effects by
Hani AlYousif	....	digital effects artist
Jon Berridge	....	digital compositor
Matthew Bristowe	....	digital lab producer
Richard Etchells	....	visual effects editor
Pierre Fletcher	....	digital effects coordinator
Max Horton	....	colourist
Emma Ibbetson	....	digital effects producer
Rebekah King-Britton	....	3D artist
Isabella Laner	....	digital effects artist
Tony Lawrence	....	digital effects supervisor
Begoña Lopez	....	digital lab producer
Raoul Teague	....	digital effects artist
Ben Turner	....	digital artist
Thomas Urbye	....	online film editor
Daniel Walton	....	digital artist

Stunts
Ron Oakley	....	stunt coordinator: Dubai

Camera and Electrical Department
Matthew Butler	....	electrician
Lee Cleal	....	electrician
Chris Connatty	....	clapper loader
Johann Cruickshank	....	electrician
Pat Daly	....	rigger
Roger Eaton	....	assistant camera: additional unit
Roger Eaton	....	director of photography: additional unit
Reuben Garrett	....	gaffer
Annemarie Lean-Vercoe	....	assistant camera: additional unit
Adrian Mackay	....	electrician
Stephen Mathie	....	best boy
Peter Mountain	....	still photographer
Robert Shacklady	....	focus puller: pick-up shots
Sebastian Sharples	....	assistant camera: additional unit
Simon Tindall	....	focus puller
Lucho Zuidema	....	grip: UK
Julia Curtin	....	camera trainee (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Liza Bracey	....	costume assistant: UK
Sian Coakley	....	costume assistant: UK
Kate Towns	....	costume assistant
Yingjuan Xiao	....	costume assistant
Meng Xie	....	costume assistant: China
Esme Young	....	costume maker

Editorial Department
Ian Buchan	....	assistant editor
John Coulter	....	film scanner
Kennedy Dawson	....	film scanner
Alec Gibson	....	color grader

Music Department
Leo Abrahams	....	musician: guitar
Chris Barrett	....	assistant music engineer
Zach Danziger	....	musician: drums
Scott Kinsey	....	musician: keyboards
Tracy McKnight	....	executive soundtrack producer
Hugo Nicolson	....	music mixer (as Hugo Nicholson)
Hugo Nicolson	....	music recordist (as Hugo Nicholson)
Tim Roe	....	assistant music engineer
Pati Yang	....	additional vocals

Other crew
Ruth Breslaw	....	production coordinator
Nicole Carmen-Davis	....	legal services
Scott Challgren	....	legal assistant
Jonah Coombes	....	location manager
Andrew Gwyn Davies	....	production assistant
Jon Duncan	....	production accountant
Jethro Harris	....	operations manager: Pepper Post Production Ltd.
Gabby Le Rasle	....	assistant production coordinator
Tom Leeburn	....	production assistant
Helen Li	....	production coordinator
Steffy Marrion	....	production coordinator
Luke Morris	....	production executive
Melissa Parmenter	....	assistant: Michael Winterbottom and Andrew Eaton
Lewis Partovi	....	set runner
Rob Seager	....	assistant accountant
Rhys Summerhayes	....	floor runner
Josh Yudkin	....	location unit manager
Jim Lambert	....	crew (uncredited)

Production Companies

• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
• Kailash Picture Company (line production)
• Revolution Films

Distributors

• United Artists (2004) (USA) (all media)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corporation (MGM) (2004) (USA) (theatrical)
• MGM Home Entertainment (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Compañía General de la Imagen (CGI) (2005) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Fandango (2003) (Italy) (theatrical)
• GAGA (2004) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Golden Village (2004) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Spentzos Films (2004) (Greece) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (2005) (Brazil) (DVD)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (2005) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Filmfreak Distributie (2005) (Netherlands) (all media)
• Fox Filmes do Brasil (2003) (Brazil) (all media)
• Sandrew Metronome Distribution (2006) (Finland) (DVD)
• Sandrews (2005) (Sweden) (DVD)
• Sunfilm Entertainment (2005) (Germany) (DVD)
• Tiberius Film (2004) (Germany)
• Vivarto (2005) (Poland) (all media)

Special Effects

• Smoke and Mirrors (digital special effects)
• Moving Picture Company (MPC) (digital intermediate)
• Artem

Other Companies

• AFM Lighting  lighting equipment
• Aimimage / Ice Film  cameras supplied by
• Airstar  lighting equipment
• Casting Collective  extras casting
• Central Station Technicolour  title design
• Clarity Post Production Sound  sound post-production
• Commotion Records  soundtrack
• Film Finances  completion guarantor
• Kodak  motion picture film supplied by
• Limehouse Recordings  sound post-production
• Moving Picture Company (MPC)  mastering
• Pepper Post Production  video mastering
• Production Copier Company  production equipment and services
• Richmond Film Services  sound equipment
• Sapex Scripts  post-production script
• V.F.G.  lighting equipment

Also Known As:

MPAA:

Rated R for a scene of sexuality, including brief graphic nudity

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Finland:K-15 | New Zealand:R13 | Iceland:12 | South Korea:18 | Australia:M (TV rating) | Portugal:M/12 | Australia:MA | Germany:12 | Italy:VM14 | Japan:PG-12 | Singapore:R21 | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #40188)

Filming Locations:

Blackwall Tunnel, London, England, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

Code 46 refers to the 22 chromosome pairs, plus the two sex chromosomes in human beings.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Cut hairs without skin tags, which do not contain DNA, are used for a DNA analysis.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Maria:I think about the day we met. I suppose you arrived par avion. Maybe you were the first to get to security. You didn't intend to stay. You only had 24-hour cover, so luggage was a mano. And they probably had a driver waiting, so you didn't need to find un coche. You'd never been to Shanghai before. It was all new to you.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Obtaining Cover: Inside Code 46 (2004) (V)

Soundtrack:

Menina e Moça

Warmth in a Cold World

'Code 46' is the most beautiful film I've seen in quite some time. It's funny how something entirely new is produced when the properties of film noir and futuristic sci-fi are married. Like 'Until the End of the World,' 'Strange Days,' and 'Gattaca,' three films which 'Code 46' potently recalls, this is above all else a mood piece, wherein character and plot are secondary to the drifty, elegiac flow of the film.

The action is underplayed, and the performances have an earthy tone; Tim Robbins recalls William Hurt in 'Until the End of the World' and Bill Murray in 'Lost in Translation,' in that his perpetual jet lag has cultivated an easy, weary charm. The movie is set, one gathers, in the future (or an "alternative present," to paraphrase another reviewer). Like the best futuristic films, it's set on the same planet Earth, but the planet's simply been restructured; the old occupants have left and the new ones have moved in. No longer are there countries, only cities, only business destinations.

Pleasure is not a goal, but a side effect. The locations photographed are, as in 'Alphaville,' as in 'Sans Soleil,' not manipulated or artificial, but they are photographed in a new way. Contemporary cities look futuristic, commercial, busy, cold, with pools of dark glass and beads of light from skyscraper windows. For me, this kind of imagery is the among the most romantic and evocative. Cold, impersonal environments like these simultaneously forbid and necessitate human warmth. Intimacy becomes something to escape into.

Michael Winterbottom and his screen-writing partner Frank Cottrell Boyce have done great work before, and inevitably, a lot of viewers and critics are dismissing 'Code 46' as a number of things, including listless and convoluted, but I think that's symptomatic of approaching this film with the wrong expectations. Far beyond simply being a trivial footnote in what will hopefully be a career of formidable longevity, I think 'Code 46' is perhaps Winterbottom's best work yet, the movie I intuited Winterbottom had dormant in him. The movie has a sort of purging effect, like Wenders' 'Until the End of the World,' and as with that film, my immediate environment felt different to me, changed, upon exiting the theater.