Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: One Hour Photo (2002) - Romanek, Williams and Co. capture a troubling thriller

10/04/2022

One Hour Photo (2002) - Romanek, Williams and Co. capture a troubling thriller

♥♥♥♥♥

Star Robin Williams develops film wearing white gloves on this poster for Mark Romanek's One Hour Photo

The kind department store photo developer Sy does his job with care and a smile. But he is in fact a devastatingly lonely man, who over the course of several years have brought home with him the photos of one specific family. Now he loses his job, which is his only connection to reality.

One Hour Photo is written and directed by great Illinoisan filmmaker Mark Romanek (Static (1985)).

Robin Williams (Aladdin (1992)) once again shows new facets to his vast acting talent as Sy, the tormented protagonist that he makes us both feel sympathy and fear for here. Connie Nielsen (Gladiator (2000)) and the rest of the supporting cast are also fantastic.

One Hour Photo is almost mechanical in its visual competence, (Romanek is an accomplished music video director; Jeff Cronenweth (Hitchcock (2012)) did the cinematography here.) The film is tight and thrilling. One Hour Photo never sensationalizes its plot. It is a role-model of a psychological thriller.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 12 mil. $

Box office: 52.2 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 4.35 times its cost)

[One Hour Photo premiered 13 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 96 minutes. Shooting took place from October 2000 - January 2001 in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #24 to a 321k $ first weekend in 7 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #3 and in 1,332 theaters (different weeks), grossing 31.5 mil. $ ( 60.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 3.3 mil. $ (6.3 %) and Australia with 2.2 mil. $ (5.2 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Romanek returned with scores of music video and theatrically with Never Let Me Go (2010). Williams returned in Death to Smoochy (2002). One Hour Photo is certified fresh at 81 % with a 7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of One Hour Photo?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

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Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

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Wolfgang Petersen has died

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Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (14-24)

10/04/2022

One Hour Photo (2002) - Romanek, Williams and Co. capture a troubling thriller

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