Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2 1/2
2005
Action / Documentary
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2 1/2
2005
Action / Documentary
Plot summary
A movie about making movies about making movies. In 1968, William Greaves shot several pairs of actors in a scene in which a woman confronts her husband and ends their relationship. In "Take 2 1/2," Greaves starts with 1968 takes of one of these pairs of actors plus footage of the crew discussing the film's progress. Then, 35 years later, Greaves brings back to Central Park those actors and some of the original crew (plus others) to film a reunion of the characters Alice and Freddie. We watch scenes of these characters and discussions among the actors and crew. Greaves explores and dramatizes the dialectic in the creative process.
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
Oh God. Thirty years after the first car
Cannes-Did Camera? See Take 1 First, and Add This if You Please...
Well definitely watch version 1 first, if you've stumbled here somehow beforehand. Read nothing, other than expect the experimental nature from '68.
Now as for Part Deux and a Half....
Trying to pull the string back through the labyrinth after 35 years has its difficulties. Especially as we already know that there was no Minotaur and
Daedalus was more of a PhilosoPrankster.
These days certainly, and even by 2005 there were Director's Commentaries and Behind the Scenes bonus sections...so some of the power is gone from the 'Plasm. But the return of Marcia Karp and the "Let's Do Psychodrama" this introduces the conflict that Greaves looks for.
It's the actors being forced into truer emotions than the soap opera words that Greaves lay out there. At this point the raw amateur/auteur vibe Greaves experimented so well with in Part 1 finally is found momentarily again. That was worth it for me, along with the other bonus bio info on Mr. Greaves himself.
The whole package, quite interesting. Scenes behind the actual (throwaway) scenes. It was fascinating that Audry Henningham doesn't recognize Marcia Karp, and Ada forgets she's playing Jamila. Is it like a master wanting to make a student film? The way Neil Young needed the raw Crazy Horse. To keep it simple and strange, a real shadow of the artificial. Who is moving who....and how?
Something about Greaves himself in both parts, he's got a sort blissful way of appearing in the moment, even if he's miles away.







