Esoterica Preview
FILMINK previews this twisted Aussie thriller set to be released next year.
Esoterica is a triumph of imagination over minimal budget. What these West Australian filmmakers lacked in cold hard cash they made up for in cool creative flair. On this level alone, the upcoming Esoterica impresses. But it has the other stuff that matters too - a good script, great performances and an actual plot.
It's a tale of the unexpected - and a pretty twisted one at that. It's horror filtered through film noir. A bent thriller with more than a dash of Hitchcock. There's an ambiguity about the time period. It could be construed as being set in the present day but it takes classic-era noir props and uses them as deliberate anachronisms.
It starts with Will (James Helm), a private eye who photographs cheating spouses. He's given what looks like a routine assignment, where he unexpectedly encounters Nancy (Melanie Munt), a prostitute who he clearly has had a past relationship with. Then something happens and Esoterica becomes a sinister concoction about mistaken identities, kidnapping, and a search for a weird truth. It's not only twisted - it twists and turns.
Although for simplicity's sake it could be described as black & white, there is judicious colourisation - a yellowish glow on a car's headlights, a red wash in a darkroom, skin tones on a character's face...
"We were very lucky to have Bruce Flint from Firstlight Digital apply his considerable talent and experience to our film," producer David Karsten tells FILMINK. "Not only did he understand what we were trying to achieve, he also added his own interpretations of how a limited colour palette should be utilised. His work was complemented by DoP-editor Ivan Davidov in post production, who also did a lot of the leg work in colour grading. We took our time in post."
Directed by Sam Barrett (No Through Road, which features the key cast members here), Esoterica was filmed in Perth but looks like the archetypal big nameless city. "We tried to find locations not normally identified as being typical to Perth," says Karsten. "Striking locations play an important role in the overall look."
Asked how that seductive, not-quite-black-&-white look was achieved on a relative shoestring, Karsten replies that production designer Monique Wajon "was extremely resourceful and creative with a limited budget". The filmmakers "used darkness" to their advantage, he adds. "As well as being a device in keeping with the noir tradition, it's also easier to make darkness look more cinematic. It's easier to control."
Esoterica is expected to be released in the first half of 2011. In the meantime, keep an eye out for it on the festival circuit, and check out the trailer here.
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