Oct 15th 

The Truman Show** 

(US 1998)                    
Paramount. 109m.

A man gradually realises that his entire life is being played as a TV drama.
Benevolently Orwellian in its concept, and as ever satirizing the American Dream in its style, this clever paranoia comedy-drama doesn't quite do for Jim Carrey what Dead Poets Society did for Robin Williams - Carrey is too oddball for that - but is still quite moving and powerful and existential in its study of the hero trying to come to terms with the world around him, as well as the distant but sympathetic audience watching him. As fanciful as the notion was, "reality" TV itself became a reality within 2 years.

Written by: Andrew Niccol.
Producers: Scott Rudin, Andrew Niccol, Edward S. Feldman, Adam Schroeder.
Director: Peter Weir.
Starring: Jim Carrey, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Natasha McElhone, Holland Taylor, Brian Delate, Paul Giamatti, Harry Shearer.
Photography: Peter Biziou.
Music: Burkhard Dallwitz, Philip Glass.
Production Design: Dennis Gassner.
Editing: William Anderson, Lee Smith.

Preceded by:
Sunnyside*
(US 1919. First National. 29m. bw. silent;  A farm labourer at a country hotel loses his girl to a visiting city gent, but it turns out to be only a dream. Experimental, uneven but sometimes interesting compression of dissonant plot elements, with Chaplin clearly working his way gradually up towards making features.; w, d, m: Charles Chaplin; s: Charlie Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Tom Wilson, Tom Terries, Albert Austin, Henry Bergman; ph: Roland Totheroh.)