I love to meet people who love "Apartment Zero" not necessarily as much as I do but who love it nonetheless. In Italy that's a hard thing and I kind of understand why. The dubbed Italian version is quite another movie and the video transfer is appalling. So dark you can hardly see anything. I hope the DVD puts an end to all that. The Italians don't quite get it. They much prefer Martin Donovan's first movie "State of Wonder", a movie that hardly anybody has ever seen, not even me. It is a movie impossible to find. In any case, I can't talk about "Apartment Zero" when I'm in Italy, even if the film won the Taormina Film Festival in its day. Italians tend to dismiss whatever puzzles them, I should know, I used to do the same. "Apartment Zero" presents a series of alternatives to its audience and I've had discussions about the why, where and whats of this film from people from every corner of the globe, except Italy that is. While Adrian (Colin Firth) and Jack (Hart Bochner) fight for the gun one of the two shouts "Do it!" Which one? I think it's Jack, I mean, it's obviously him, but some people think it's Adrian. At a lecture in Los Angeles, about two years ago, I asked Mr. Donovan about that point in question. He made a very dramatic pause, turn to me, smiled - I felt kind of dizzy - and turn the question back to me : "What do you think?" There I was, right were I started. Mr. Donovan explained in the most riveting way that the "Do it!" was the actor's idea and when in post production the sound editor suggested to bring the actor back to ADR the line. Donovan preferred to keep the production track as it was. He turned to me to say "Just to have the pleasure of having you, 15 years later, asking me about it" Of course, that is at the center of this fascinating film. The truth is exactly were you find it. All the different alternatives take you to one inexorable truth. Repression breathes monsters. The road you take to arrive to that conclusion is entirely yours, made of your own experiences of your own perceptions. The film treats its audience like a thinking breathing being, allowing all of us to include our vision, our colors, our shadows. That's why I consider "Apartment Zero" a film that taught me something about myself. I've been reminded it of all of it now, because we had a screening tonight at a friend's house and we argue for hours about the "Do it!" line, about Adrian and his mother about the true nature of Jack. Yes, I do love to talk to people who love "Apartment Zero" Tonight I found two of those in Italy of all places.
Review of Apartment Zero
