'Masked & Anonymous' Exposed (2003) (V)

Directors:

Alexander Yves Brunner
Matt Radecki

Writers:

Alexander Yves Brunner
Matt Radecki

Genre:

Documentary | Short

Cast

Jeff Bridges	...	Himself
Larry Charles	...	Himself
Penélope Cruz	...	Herself
Bob Dylan	...	Himself
John Goodman	...	Himself
Ed Harris	...	Himself
Val Kilmer	...	Himself
Jessica Lange	...	Herself
Chris Penn	...	Himself
Giovanni Ribisi	...	Himself
Nigel Sinclair	...	Himself
Christian Slater	...	Himself
Luke Wilson	...	Himself

Directed by
Alexander Yves Brunner		(as Alex Brunner)
Matt Radecki

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Alexander Yves Brunner		(as Alex Brunner)
Matt Radecki

Produced by
Alexander Yves Brunner	....	co-producer (as Alex Brunner)
Jeff Rosen	....	producer
Nigel Sinclair	....	producer

Cinematography by
Alexander Yves Brunner		(as Alex Brunner)

Film Editing by
Matt Radecki

Sound Department
Claes Nystrom	....	sound re-recording mixer
Matt Radecki	....	location sound

Camera and Electrical Department
J.B. Letchinger	....	director of photography: second unit
Matt Radecki	....	additional camera operator

Other crew
Katherine Ann Moore	....	unit publicist (as Katherine Moore)

Thanks
Steven Bauer	....	special thanks
Larry Campbell	....	special thanks
Marie Cantin	....	special thanks
Larry Charles	....	very special thanks
Tania Chikhani	....	special thanks
Joseph Newton Cohen	....	special thanks (as Joseph Cohen)
Bruce Dern	....	special thanks
Anatoly Fradis	....	special thanks
David Gaines	....	special thanks
Tony Garnier	....	special thanks
Eddie Gorodetsky	....	special thanks
Stanton Kaye	....	special thanks
Gregory J. Lanesey	....	special thanks (as Greg Lanesey)
Alex Litvak	....	special thanks
Lauren McClard	....	special thanks
Stephanie McDonald	....	special thanks
W. Mark McNair	....	special thanks (as Mark McNair)
Abigail Murray	....	special thanks
Terry Myers	....	special thanks
Robert F. Newmyer	....	very special thanks (as Bobby Newmyer)
Tanya Oskanian	....	special thanks
William Peck	....	special thanks
Tom Putnam	....	special thanks
George Receli	....	special thanks
Greg Schenz	....	special thanks
Charlie Sexton	....	special thanks
Julia Silverton	....	special thanks
Debbie Sweeney	....	special thanks
Fred Ward	....	special thanks
Bob Ziembicki	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Spitfire Pictures

Distributors

• Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (2003) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Bouquet Multimedia  post-production audio
• Toulouse Film Archive  special thanks

Runtime:

16 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Company:

Spitfire Pictures

Trivia:

This making-of is featured on the DVD for Masked and Anonymous (2003).

Movie Connections:

References "The Little Rascals" (1955)

Poor even by DVD "extras" standards

Though it is titled "Exposed" this brief making-of documentary about the Larry Charles/Bob Dylan film offers little not exposed in the actual feature.

It's mainly interviews with cast members, who either pay slavish praise to the director and the legendary star/singer, or make wisecracks (typically Val Kilmer cannot play it straight). John Goodman, who actually dominates the feature film, is also quite loquacious and almost perceptive in the interviews, but the likes of Jessica Lange (rightly comparing the material to the plays of her fave, Sam Shepard) and hangers-on Christian Slater and the late Chris Penn, contribute trivia to what is already hardly a footnote. Jeff Bridges and Penelope Cruz, both pre-Oscar certification, seem to have drunk the Kool Aid.

It is dismaying that one has to refer to IMDb, no less, to find out that the "fabulous script" everyone is talking about is not the work of two unknown scribes but rather the effort of Charles & Dylan, hiding inevitably behind pseudonyms. Cast members talk about the rhythms of the dialog, but for the uninitiated (and non-crony) viewer, it is the worst sort of infra dig, namedropping stream of consciousness blather I've seen since the heyday of Fredric Hobbs (see "Alabama's Ghost" if you're interested). Way back when I enjoyed watching Dylan's pet projects like "Renaldo and Clara", but this sort of indulgence went out with the hippie era and is painful to watch. Sure, a cast member can make fun of it by saying that Dylan's Jack Fate character is "based on Donovan", but overall, I'm surprised they didn't cast Mr. Leitch in this one -it could have made the lower half of a double bill with his rather fine movie "Pied Piper" by Jacques Demy.

An arm's length documentary (not mockumentary) about how train wrecks like "Masked and Anonymous" occur might be of interest to film historians. It is obvious that the emperor's new clothes syndrome was at work here, and it doesn't hurt to get a British producer anxious to make a film in America (Nigel Sinclair takes the rap) on the hook. Clearly from his TV work plus "Borat" Larry Charles is taken seriously in the film industry, but his level of facetiousness encapsules what I abhor most about the decadent era of cinema we are living through today.