"The Man Who Met Himself" Nominated at Cannes

The 58th Cannes Film Festival will run from 11 to 22 May, and the big news is that George Lucas' "Revenge of the Sith" (Star Wars Episode III, if one prefers) will premiere on the 15th. But a far more interesting film is "The Man Who Met Himself." It has been nominated as the only British film in the short category. The 10-minute film proves that movies are not necessarily about special effects and big name stars. The film does star a guy named Crowe, but the first name is Daniel, not Russell, and the budget was £400.

Ben Crowe, Preti Taneja and James Brown made the film using their own money. None has ever been to film school. They filmed it in Covent Garden, London, on their week-ends. Mr. Ben Crowe, a former railroad worker and employee of the Department of Constitutional Affairs for the British government, did the editing on his home computer. He sold his mandolin to buy the camera.

The film is best described by Ms. Taneja, "It's about the doppelganger myth, what happens when a person comes across their own doppelganger." A private investigator looks into a suicide with interesting results -- telling the ending undoes the film apparently.

Film London is an organization that helps film-makers work in the city on the Thames. Andy Cole of Film London said of the movie, "A great film comes out of a great idea, and with today's technology, anyone can make a good film for hundreds of pounds." There were 3,000 entries for the short film category at Cannes, and 9 were accepted, including the Crowe, Taneja and Brown project. "It's a fantastic achievement," Mr. Cole said. Indeed.

Meanwhile, Michael Kuhn, director of "I Heart Huckabees" and "Kinsey" recently said of the UK film industry, "The hour is dark. Darker I think than most years in my lifetime." Addressing independent film tyhpes at the Pact Film Lecture in London, he said there was a "lack of ambition" in the UK industry. Maybe the problem is not the lack of ambition, but the industry itself. It seems "The Man Who Met Himself" offers a paradigm that doesn't rely on tax breaks, big names or marketing ploys.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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