Product Description

Defying the usual conventions of film, RAGE is the new cinematic creation from writer-director Sally Potter. Using a radical narrative structure focused entirely on individual performances, RAGE consists of a dynamic series of interviews, as if shot by a schoolboy on his mobile phone. He goes behind the scenes at a New York fashion show during a week in which an accident on the catwalk turns into a murder investigation. Fourteen actors, both celebrated stars and emerging talents, play characters who each have a role in the show, from the designer (Simon Abkarian) and his models (Lily Cole and Jude Law), the fashion critic (Judi Dench) and photographer (Steve Buscemi), to the fashion-house financier (Eddie Izzard) and his bodyguard (John Leguizamo). Feature Length Film (98 mins) Alternate Scenes with all major cast Interview with Sally Potter Trailer

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5724 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-09-28
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 98 minutes

Synopsis
Director Sally Potter examines the effects of globalism in the information age in this drama following a young blogger named Michelangelo as he interviews a series of eccentric subjects over the course of seven days. In a prominent New York fashion house, flamboyant designer Merlin prepares to debut his latest collection as curious blogger Michelangelo shoots interviews on his mobile phone. His subjects; a disparate mix of New York denizens including a celebrity supermodel named Minx, a financial backer named Tiny Diamonds, a seamstress named Anita de Los Angeles, a pizza delivery boy named Vijay, a war photographer named Frank, and a critic named Mona Carvell. The fashion industry is in crisis thanks to globalisation and a faltering economy. As the ever-increasing gap between appearance and reality widens, Michelangelo becomes the person everyone turns to in order to vent their frustrations. Later, when a model dies on the runway and police launch a murder investigation, the interviews take the form of confessionals in the eyes of a child armed with the two most powerful tools of his generation: the Internet and a mobile phone.

Shot entirely in a talking head-style against a rainbow of blank backgrounds, RAGE lets the story unfold through the thoughts, opinions and witness accounts of the characters. Potter's star-studded cast --which includes Judi Dench, Dianne Wiest, John Leguizamo, Eddie Izzard, Jude Law, Steve Buscemi and Lily Cole-- interweave these strands to produce a uniquely complex, multi-layered film.

Customer Reviews

Masterpiece

Rage definitely isn't for everyone, if your somebody who's interested in action movies more than hard hitting dramas this is not for you. But there is something so inspiring about Sally Potters new movie Rage. She managed to take what are effectively 14 monologues and made a story with twists and turns and real emotion. This film will definitely make you think.

The Face is a landscape depicting all kind of battles
I see all of Sally Potter's films. She is always different, new, and interesting.
I saw her latest, RAGE, at The Box, in SOHO . I had read online of this provocative movie with a wonderful cast set in the world of fashion; about its unique mobile premiere. I was puzzled; how could a movie be shown on the tiny screen of a cell phone? And then I saw it. Now I want to have it on my cell phone. Imagine, Judi Dench talking to you on your own cell, like your friend, who trusts you enough to tell you the truth, that fashion has become an obsession akin to porn. And Steve Buscemi, Lily Cole, Bob Balaban, Patrick Adams, John Leguizamo, Dianne Wiest, Jude Law, all of them would became your personal friends and enemies. They speak to you directly.
They were speaking directly to me on the big screen, each image so crisp, so intense; each face so close, you can see every tiny movement of a muscle. So much drama without outside action. There are no sets here; you don't need them at all. The face is the set. And the costume. The faces are everything here, a landscape depicting all kind of battles.
RAGE tells the story of a crisis at a New York fashion house through a series of interviews, shot on his cell phone camera by a young boy named Michelangelo. The interviews are taken over the seven days in which a runway accident becomes a murder investigation. It's a funny, sad, bitter, tragic collection of monologues, spoken directly to the camera. Each shot is a close-up of a character against different color backgrounds. Every actor performs alone. They are so close that it is impossible for them to hide anything from you; just as you can't hide anything from yourself.
After watching RAGE on the big screen and online, I ordered it on DVD.
I want to have it; I want to be able to see those faces close and hear the voice of an Artist who never takes a conventional road, Sally Potter.

Fine acting and an interesting film
Rage is about the emotional power of the human face, and the pleasure comes from watching a group of very talented actors, with only the backdrop of brilliant colors and a few sound effects, create amusing, crass, self indulgent, conceited, ambitious, tender, frail, frightened and, ultimately, touching characters.

There is something of a disconnect between the venue of the "Fashion World" and the violence that erupts. It's jarring and perhaps that was the intention. While the film may have been more powerful if set in a less rarefied atmosphere, it does, nonetheless, tap into an anxiety about arbitrary violence intruding on the lives of ordinary people on buses and subways, in markets, offices, and places of religious observance around the world plunging, in an instant, one's preciously mundane life into tragic chaos. In the last scene, with a stylistic break from the rest of the film, the director focuses our attention on those small, normally unattended moments of life that give it value.

A film in which the action takes place off-screen will not be to everyone's taste, but I think anyone who likes to watch fine actors doing their job superbly will find the film rewarding.