I (Nat) went to see new British film Moon a few weeks ago, and thought it was absolutely brilliant. I really, really loved it. Partially funded by Trevor Beattie, the film was made with just two million pounds. Which goes to show that with the right team, you can make ‘proper’ films without the need for big studios and massive wallets.
It was all filmed with just one actor, Sam Rockwell. He plays the character Sam Bell, a lonely guy who has been send to the Moon for three years to harvest Helium 3 to send it back to Earth for their energy source. Being completely isolated up there, his sanity begins to dissipate before long. There’s no live communication to earth so he has to make video
messages and send them to his wife and daughter. Ironically, Sam Rockwell
was away from his girlfriend for months on the shoot, echoing his character’s feeling of desolation. Which must have helped him ‘find his motivation’ no end.
Because Rockwell plays multiple characters of
himself, in the form of clones, it’s easy to forget when you’re watching it that there’s only one actor. Each scene was redone and redone, with him playing a
different clone each time. A one man show, it must have been an exhausting process. What is also great about this film is that the ‘twist’ is dealt with
quite early on do you spend the rest of the time concentrating on what’s
really going on rather than waiting for the big reveal.
The only other character is the robot assistant ‘Gerty’, played by Kevin Spacey. His voice is incredible. Totally sinister, but totally not. You spend the whole time not wondering if he’s on the dark side or not, wondering is he a goodie or a baddie?
Our friend from Glue Gavin Rothery was the Visual Effects Supervisor, part time stunt man and Production Concept (meaning he designed the film’s aesthetic). He also has a cameo appearance in it – did you spot where? According to Gavin, everyone interprets Gurty differently, many of them projecting things onto this faceless character.
We’ve been promised us a couple of ‘making of’ videos that show how the movie was made in miniature. We’ll put them up soon, but for now, go see it for yourself. Here‘s the trailer.
LORELEI MATHIAS 