Film: Francophrenia (Or Don’t Kill Me, I Know Where the Baby Is) (2012)
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Film: Weak/ DVD Transfer: n/a/ DVD Extras: n/a
Label: n/a/ Region: n/a / Released: n/a
Genre: Mockumentary / Found Footage
Synopsis: Experimental documentary on actor James Franco’s guest stint on the daytime soap opera “General Hospital.”
Special Features: n/a
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Review:
Award-winning filmmaker Ian Olds (Occupation: Dreamland) takes the found film genre further by recutting footage shot by actor James Franco during the taping of his appearance on the daytime soap General Hospital into an absurd looped and layered examination of an actor theorizing about personal and professional parallels.
In the GH episode, James Franco plays “Franco,” a murderous artist who becomes one of his own media creations, but Olds was stuck with 3-camera behind-the-scenes footage that captures the mundane procedures of taping a TV series, and little else. As a short 10 minute film, Francophrenia would’ve worked as some angular meditation on fame and pop culture idolatry, but there are only so many editing tricks and Adobe plugins one can use to spice things up, and in spite of the theoretical concepts Olds tried to apply, at 70 mins. it’s too much of a personal editing challenge, and unbearably dull.
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© 2012 Mark R. Hasan
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