12 (2003 film)

12 is an independent feature film written, directed, edited and produced over the course of 12 years by film maker Lawrence Bridges. Considered the longest continuous production in film's history, 12 is a comedy that tells the story of Zeus' modern day illegitimate children, Filmore (Tony Griffin) and his half-sister Marie-No'l ([Alison Elliott]), who are forced to move from their Channel Island ranch because their neighbors have grown suspicious of the fact they haven't aged and the U.S. government wants to turn their land into a national park. When they turn to their father, Zeus, he instructs them to correctly identify the play after which their lives have been modeled and perform the work flawlessly in its entirety. If they fail to succeed, he will be forced to kill them -- due to an agreement he made with his wife, Hera, who is jealous of his children, as they represent her husband's countless infidelities. 12, which has become an underground cult film, was described by Variety as "equal parts L.A. love story, The Importance of Being Earnest, spoof on Greek gods and personal diary of actual events from 1988 to 1998."

Themes

Juxtaposition Oscar Wilde / Greek mythology "12 is a diary of L.A., a cinematic record of the natural and political convulsions gripping our town during the late-1980s and into the millennium." Spoof post modern First half is especially nonlinear grand scenery/l.a blvd mortals/immortals

"I thought it would be interesting to revisit pagan issues, issues of character. The theme of the movie is summed up in the phrase, 'Act or die.' Are you acting upon your own choice or someone else's, and which is better?"

Bridges explained his rationale behind 12 to Shoot, a weekly for commercial production and post-production, saying,"Being the filmmaker, I clearly am defining myself as a radical independent. That's why I made the film. It's anti-everything in Hollywood. Not because of Hollywood--this is what I would do under any circumstances. I'm in love with the aesthetic, poetic and literary potential of film, and that's what I wanted to express."

Production

Because the film was shot over the course of a decade, it includes Bridges' personal footage shot on a 35mm camera of the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the Malibu fires, four lunar eclipses and two eclipses of the sun and the Rodney King riots. Bridges has explained, "My camera was always loaded and the batteries charged and often it traveled with me in my car to and from work. When there was a disaster, I was always ready to document it."

Unusual transitions, natural light (mirrors)

The original actors were used throughout the entire shoot, despite some road blocks along the way. While on a separate commercial shoot in Minneapolis, Allen Lulu suffered a heart attack caused by Phen-Phen, Additionally, Golde Starger was diagnosed with cancer in the middle of the shoot. "There were divorces and there were babies born. I guess when you look at all the things that could have gone wrong and didn't, I'm a very lucky man," Bridges told Indie Slate.

Production CAM:Arriflex 35 BL3, Zeiss Super Speed Lenses CAM:Arriflex 35-3C, Zeiss Super Speed Lenses LAB:FotoKem Laboratory, Burbank (CA), USA OFM:35 mm - (Kodak) PCS:Spherical PFM:35 mm RAT:1.85 : 1

Theatrical Release

Just as the film blurred the boundaries of life and art, so did its distribution. 12 was shown via guerilla drive-ins, a movement the filmaker created, which entailed projecting the piece on walls of buildings throughout Los Angeles and instructing viewers to tune their car radios to a specified station. Locations included a Staples store on Sunset Boulevard, a parking lot behind the Los Angeles Police Department's Hollywood offices and a parking lot near a Sportmart in West Los Angeles, to name a few. Bridges said he created the guerilla drive-in in an effort to "paint the artwork back on the subject of its inception -- projecting what you filmed back on to the wall at night."

Critical Reception

Although it never saw commercial success, 12 has become a cult film, critically acclaimed for its unique production process, complex and current themes and stunning visuals. In fact, it won the Best Experimental Film award at the Angeletti Film Festival.

LA Weekly film critic Paul Malcolm praised the filmmaker's inventive nature, writing, "Bridges, a director of television commercials, has a feel for transformative compositions that can remake even the most familiar environment -- a kitchen pantry, a corner on Wilshire Boulevard -- into a place of wonder."

Variety reviewer Robert Koehler was unenthused by the actors and plot, but applauded Bridges for the production, writing, "Griffin and Elliott provide a good grounding for the viewer's attention as the deconstructed stream of images and story roll by, but much of the fascination here is not in the highly uneven perfs, but in pic's raw enthusiasm for the film medium, montage, the juxtaposition of image and sound and the reimagining of Greek classicism in a SoCal setting."

Tod Booth of the San Francisco Film Society called 12 "ambitious, discursive and hilarious" and described the film to be "as challenging and sweeping as a Pynchon novel-a Marx Brothers version of a Wagnerian opera, with Jean-Luc Godard mixed in."

Style

First half is especially nonlinear

Despite (or perhaps because of) a decade's shooting and more time in post, pic refuses to fix on a tone, shifting capriciously between the near-profound and the pointlessly silly.

The "Earnest" plot takes over in the second half, with some scenes closely tracking Wilde's text, but not for too long.

Music -- nothing was original, more than 100 cuts

Cast

• Alison Elliott
• Tony Griffin
• Allen Lulu
• Brenda Varda
• Eugene Rubenzer
• Blake Robertson
• Golde Starger
• David Franko
• Eddie Zona
• Julienne Greer
• Mike Upton
• Lili Barsha
• Lisa Stark
• Mark Dalton
• Regina Leeds