Tideland (film)

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Tideland

Tideland movie poster
Directed by Terry Gilliam
Produced by Gabriella Martinelli
Jeremy Thomas
Written by Screenplay:
Tony Grisoni
Terry Gilliam
Novel:
Mitch Cullin
Starring Jodelle Ferland
Jeff Bridges
Brendan Fletcher
Janet McTeer
Jennifer Tilly
Music by Jeff Danna
Mychael Danna
Cinematography Nicola Pecorini
Distributed by United Kingdom:
Revolver Entertainment
United States:
THINKFilm
Canada:
Capri Films[1]
HanWay Films[2](sales)
Release date(s) 9 September 2005 (Toronto Film Festival)
Russia:
9 February 2006 (limited)
United Kingdom:
11 August 2006 (limited)
United States:
27 October 2006 (limited)
Running time 122 min.
Language English
Budget $12,000,000
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Tideland is a 2005 film co-written and directed by Terry Gilliam, an adaptation of Mitch Cullin's novel of the same name. The movie was shot in Regina, Saskatchewan and surrounding area in the fall and winter of 2004. The world premiere was at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival, where the film was met with mixed response from both viewers and critics. After little interest from U.S. distributors, THINKFilm picked the film up for a U.S. release date in October 2006.

The film's title appears in dialogue written by Gilliam and co-writer Tony Grisoni in which Noah (Jeff Bridges) says, "Daddy's gonna stroll down that far subterranean shore, all littered with the flotsam of hopes and dreams. Relics of ancient times. Lonely cenotaphs. Standing along that melancholy tideland." In Cullin's novel, however, there is no such dialogue from the character of Noah, and the only mention of the book's title comes at the end of Chapter 21, last paragraph, when the first-person voice of Jeliza Rose says, "Before sleep, the last sound to fill my ears was the beating of my heart, and I knew I was slipping past the tideland, going beneath the ocean and sinking away from What Rocks."

Contents

[edit] Plot

Tideland is a macabre, darkly surreal film about an abandoned child named Jeliza-Rose (Jodelle Ferland). The story centers on Jeliza-Rose's solitary adventures during one summer in rural Texas while staying at a rundown farmhouse called What Rocks, and focuses on the increasingly dark, imaginative fantasy life the girl creates with the aid of dismembered Barbie doll heads that she often wears on her fingertips. With names such as Mystique, Sateen Lips, Baby Blonde and Glitter Gal, the doll heads not only engage in long conversations with Jeliza-Rose, reflecting different aspects of the girl's psyche, but also act as her companions while she explores the barren Texas landscape.

After her mother (Jennifer Tilly) dies from a drug overdose, Jeliza-Rose and her father, Noah (Jeff Bridges), flee to Noah's mother's home, a remote Texas farmhouse. They find the home abandoned, but they settle in anyway. Their first night there, Noah dies from a heroin overdose. For much of the rest of the film, Noah's corpse remains seated upright in a living room chair with sunglasses covering his eyes. As her father slowly begins to rot, Jeliza-Rose doesn't readily acknowledge his death because she has grown accustomed to him being unconscious for long periods at a time. Instead, she retreats deeper and deeper into her own mind, exploring the tall grass around the farmhouse, relying on her doll heads for friendship as an unconscious way of keeping herself from feeling too lonely and afraid.

During Jeliza-Rose's wanderings, she eventually encounters and befriends her neighbors, a mentally retarded young man called Dickens (Brendan Fletcher) and his older sister Dell (Janet McTeer) who is blind in one eye from a bee sting. At this point the story begins to unfold, revealing a past connection between Dell and Jeliza-Rose's deceased father. The eccentric neighbors take the girl under their wing, going so far as to preserve Noah's body via taxidermy (something both Dell and Dickens have done to their own dead mother). Events take on an even darker tone when amorous feelings, initiated mostly by the much younger Jeliza-Rose, begin to creep into the child-like relationship between her and Dickens, and it is revealed that the deeply troubled Dickens, a man-child who once drove a school bus in front of an oncoming train, keeps a stash of dynamite in his bedroom that he intends to use against the Monster Shark he believes is roaming the countryside. The Monster Shark is, in reality, the nightly passenger train that travels past the farmhouse where Jeliza-Rose and her dead father reside.

What follows is literally an explosive conclusion to the film, one in which Dickens blasts a hole into the real world by dynamiting the train from its tracks, creating a scene of chaos near the farmhouse. Wandering about the wreckage, and among the confusion of injured travelers, Jeliza-Rose is discovered by a surviving passenger who assumes the little girl is also a victim of the train wreck.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Critical reception

Jeremy Thomas (left) and Terry Gilliam at San Sebastián Film Festival 2005. Press conference on Tideland.
Jeremy Thomas (left) and Terry Gilliam at San Sebastián Film Festival 2005. Press conference on Tideland.

At Spain's 2005 San Sebastian Festival, Tideland was awarded the esteemed FIPRESCI Prize, selected by an international jury of critics that, in their award statement, said: "Our jury focused on the international competition and found Terry Gilliam's Tideland to be the best film of the selection — a decision which provoked controversial reactions." The jury consisted of Andrei Plakhov, Russia, President (Kommersant), Julio Feo Zarandieta, France (Radio France Internationale), Wolfgang Martin Hamdorf, Germany (Film-Dienst), Massimo Causo, Italy (Corriere Del Giorno),[4] Sergi Sanchez, Spain (La Razón).[5]

However, many mainstream reviews of Tideland have been largely mixed and often negative, with Japan being the only country where it was both a critical and box office success.[6] After almost a year without any US distribution, the film was picked up for American release by ThinkFilm and subsequently opened in the US earning just $7,276 from one theater during its first week run. The film's release was then expanded to only nine theatres for a total domestic gross of $66,453.[7] Since then, several independent cinemas and art museums went on to present the film as a special event, including IFC Center and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.[8]

Gilliam has openly criticized ThinkFilm for the manner in which the company handled both the American theatrical release of the film,[9] and their unauthorized tampering with the aspect ratio of the film for its US DVD release. He has also gone on record as saying that the initial reviews of nearly all his films have usually garnered mixed reactions from critics, and in at least one interview, as well as in the DVD introduction to Tideland, he has stated that he believes many moviegoers will hate Tideland, others will love it, and some just won't know what to think about it.[10] Gilliam has also said that Michael Palin, another former member of Monty Python, had told him that the film was either the best thing he had ever done, or the worst — although Palin himself couldn’t quite decide either way.[11]

Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman — who had previously scored Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm a "C+",[12] Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas a "D+",[13] The Fisher King a "C"[14] — gave Tideland an "F",[15] calling it "gruesomely awful".

In the subsequent review of the DVD release, Gleiberman's fellow Entertainment Weekly critic Clark Collis gave the film a "B"[16] and stated: "Terry Gilliam's grim fairy tale is another fantastic(al) showcase for his visual talents."[16]

The film received a "two thumbs way down" rating from Richard Roeper and guest critic A.O. Scott on the television show Ebert & Roeper. Scott said that toward the end, the film was "creepy, exploitive, and self-indulgent", while Roeper said "I hated this film" and "I came very close to walking out of the screening room. And I never do that."[17]

The Chicago Tribune critic Michael Wilmington,[18] however, praised the film[19] further stating that "...it's crazy, dangerous and sometimes gorgeous..."[20], and Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News wrote, "TIDELAND, for me, is a masterpiece", a blurb featured on the DVD release.[21]

Filmmaker David Cronenberg described the movie as a "poetic horror film", a quote which was used in the advertising campaign for the theatrical release.[22]

Filmmaker Rian Johnson named Tideland and The Fountain as his favorite films of 2006.[23]

In the July 16, 2007 online edition of Independent Film Channel News, Michael Atkinson published a comparative film review of Harry Kümel's rarely seen Malpertuis (1971) and Tideland. Atkinson posits that a historical perspective has made Kümel's previously scorned film a more viable creation when far removed from the cultural context in which it was first released. He goes on to argue that Tideland could be the 21st century counterpart to Malpertuis, suggesting that Gilliam's film "is a snark-hunted freak just waiting for its historical moment, decades from now, when someone makes a case for it as a neglected masterpiece."[24]

[edit] DVD release

The DVD of Tideland was released on February 27, 2007. It is a 2 Disc Collector's Edition, with a commentary track, many interviews, deleted scenes (only with a forced commentary over the original audio), and a making-of documentary. There has been some controversy among fans over the aspect ratio presented on the Region 1 DVD released by ThinkFilm for the United States; the film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.77:1 instead of the aspect ratio prepared and approved by Gilliam and the director of photography (in theaters, it was shown in 2.35:1, but Gilliam wanted to open up the image slightly; somewhere between 2.10:1 and 2.25:1).[25] However, the image is not pan and scan. Instead, the Region 1 transfer opens up the matte slightly on the top and bottom of the frame, thus offering consumers more image than what was shown theatrically.[26] There were early reports that other regions, and Canada (region 1), had the theatrical aspect ratio, but these have proven false, although the region 2 UK disc is slightly closer to Gilliam's intended aspect ratio.[27]

Both the distributor, ThinkFilm, and director, Gilliam, have publicly stated that they are working on a solution to the ratio problem and will release a corrected version for sale as soon as possible.[27] There have been recent rumors that the region 3 DVD features the fully corrected transfer.[28]

The rumor has come into question with the (supposed) screen capture of the region 3 (Hong Kong) release.[29] Furthermore, the EuroVideo / Concorde Home Entertainment release has been independently verified to follow the 2.35:1 ratio which is closer to the much wanted 2.25:1 ratio (see pics)[30] OFDb.de states the same reported ratio.[31] (Note) The External links section regarding the link to filmick.co.uk currently shows a picture of the HD-DVD (German) release which has Concorde Home Entertainment's name appended to it.

A careful reading of the posted sources can show how the aspect ratio controversy has become a source of misinformation (mostly confusion). More information/evidence is needed concerning the aspect ratios and whether or not the newer releases conform to the wider aspect ratios that are desired by many fans.

[edit] Awards and recognition

[edit] Won

[edit] Nominated

[edit] References

  1. ^ Capri Films - Capri Releasing
  2. ^ HanWay Films
  3. ^ Sally Crooks
  4. ^ FIPRESCI - Awards 2005
  5. ^ 2005 FIPRESCI
  6. ^ Ask Terry Gilliam
  7. ^ Box Office Mojo
  8. ^ MAMFW
  9. ^ The Joys of Independent Filmmaking
  10. ^ Dreams Interview
  11. ^ Michael Palin reference
  12. ^ EW Grimm Review
  13. ^ EW Fear Review
  14. ^ EW Fisher King Review
  15. ^ EW Tideland Review
  16. ^ a b Tideland | DVD Review | Entertainment Weekly
  17. ^ Audio recording of Scott and Roeper review of Tideland.
  18. ^ Chicago - Chicago Tribune Film Critic Steps Down
  19. ^ Michael O'Sullivan. Gilliam, Searching for His Audience // The Washington Post, October 27, 2006
  20. ^ Movie review: 'Tideland' - Metromix Chicago Movies
  21. ^ Ain't It Cool News review
  22. ^ David Cronenberg citation
  23. ^ Filmspotting, Film, Podcast, Movies, Reviews, Top 5 Lists, DVDs, Adam Kempenaar
  24. ^ "Malpertuis", "Tideland" by Michael Atkinson, IFC News (July 16, 2007)
  25. ^ film ick: ThinkFilm Think They Know Better Than Terry Gilliam
  26. ^ The Front Page: Turning the ‘Tideland’ (Part 2) » PopMatters | Blogs | Short Ends and Leader
  27. ^ a b Dreams: Tideland, a Terry Gilliam film, Cropped
  28. ^ The Dreams Messageboard : Tideland News & Reviews : US TIDELAND DVD ASPECT RATIO
  29. ^ :: View topic - Terry Gilliam on DVD
  30. ^ (German) caps-a-holic.com - DVD Vergleiche - Tideland
  31. ^ OFDb - Fassung zu Tideland (2005)
  32. ^ Golden Trailer Awards
  33. ^ Jasna Stefanovic
  34. ^ Jasna Stefanovic | Production Designer
  35. ^ Mario Davignon (I)
  36. ^ Mario Davignon home
  37. ^ Lesley Walker filmography - Film - Time Out London

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Films directed by Terry Gilliam
Feature Films
Shorts

The Crimson Permanent Assurance (1983) • Storytime • The Miracle of Flight
Unrealized/Unfinished Projects

Watchmen (1989) • The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2000) • Good Omens (2002)