S1m0ne (2002)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Andrew Niccol

Writer (WGA):

Andrew Niccol (written by)

Release Date:

23 August 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

A star is... created.

Plot:

A producer's film is endangered when his star walks off, so he decides to digitally create an actress to substitute for the star, becoming an overnight sensation that everyone thinks is a real person.

Plot Keywords:

Actress | Fraud | False Accusation | Indestructibility | Hotel

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Al Pacino	...	Viktor Taransky
Benjamin Salisbury	...	Production Assistant
Winona Ryder	...	Nicola Anders
Darnell Williams	...	Studio Executive #1
Jim Rash	...	Studio Executive #2
Ron Perkins	...	Studio Executive #3
Jay Mohr	...	Hal Sinclair
Catherine Keener	...	Elaine Christian
Evan Rachel Wood	...	Lainey Christian Taransky
Jeffrey Pierce	...	Kent
Jeff Williams	...	Man in Suit
Rachel Roberts	...	Simone (as Simone)
Mitzi Martin	...	Premiere Audience Member
Carole Androsky	...	Premiere Audience Member (as Carol Androsky)
Christopher Neiman	...	Premiere Audience Member

Also Known As:

Simone (USA) (alternative spelling)
Simone (Argentina) (Peru) (Spain) [es]
Симона (Russia) [ru]
S1mØne - Nasce Uma Super Estrela (Brazil) [pt]
S1m0ne (Germany) [de]
S1m0ne (Canada: French title) [fr]
S1m0ne (Finland) [fi]
Simona (Serbia) [sr]
Simone (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Simone (Finland: Swedish title) [sv]
Simone (Italy) [it]
Simone (France) [fr]
Simone - unelmien nainen (Finland) (TV title) [fi]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some sensuality.

Runtime:

117 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Canada:G (Alberta/British Columbia/Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Iceland:L | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Brazil:Livre | Finland:S | France:U | Germany:6 | Netherlands:AL | Peru:PT | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | South Korea:15 | Spain:T | Sweden:Btl | UK:PG | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

City Hall - 100 N. Garfield Avenue, Pasadena, California, USA

Company:

New Line Cinema

Trivia:

"Viktor Taransky" may be an oblique reference to long-time first and second unit assistant director Victor Tourjansky, who enjoyed a 20 year career. Tourjansky is best known to James Bond fans, appearing as "Man with Wine Bottle" in 'The Spy Who Loved Me', 'Moonraker' and 'For Your Eyes Only.' In each film, he is a man drinking wine who sees Bond go past in some exotic manner (driving onto a Sardinian beach in a submersible car, motoring through the Piazza San Marco in Venice, skiing across the porch of a château in Cortina). Stunned, he stares at the vino in disbelief.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Elaine is driving and talking to Simone, there is a Land Rover behind her. In the lane next to her is a Porsche and the same Land Rover, and in the third lane, yet the same Porsche and another copy of the same Land Rover.

Quotes:

Simone: If there is a hole in the ozone layer, how come I can't see it?

Movie Connections:

References 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Soundtrack:

Requiem - in Paradisum

One of the Best Films of 2002

SIMONE written and directed by Andrew McNichol who also wrote THE TRUMAN SHOW, which in the opinion of this writer was one of the best films of 1998, opened this week starring incomparable Al Pacino.

THE TRUMAN SHOW was a brilliant send up of television and those of us who will watch whatever is on. SIMONE does the same for movies and Hollywood. It will certainly make my list of the Ten Best Films of 2002. Put quiet simply McNichol has once again hit one out of the park.

SIMONE is a beautiful actress that is made up of pixels. A series ones and zeros put together in a computer and placed into the film. Even her name is an abbreviation for the computer program that has made her possible: Simulation One.

When Hollywood diva Wynona Ryder walks off director Viktor Taransky's (Pacino) film unfinished for nothing but silly reasons, his career is finally in the dumpster. He is offered salvation when a computer whiz, played in a fabulous cameo turn by Elias Koteas, offers him the solution.

Taransky with the aid of the computer creates SIMONE the perfect actress. She doesn't talk back, does what she's told and doesn't make trouble. Made up from parts of the very best that Hollywood has to offer she is breathtakingly beautiful. She becomes bigger than life itself which McNicholl cleverly shows by placing Simone's picture on the sides of three story buildings and has Pacino or other mortals walk by in front the portraits. As an actress Simone is less than brilliant, but no one seems to notice. In fact, that is the point, nothing this woman does is wrong. The public as McNicholl's character Christoff in the TRUMAN SHOW says `accepts whatever Universe that is presented to them as real.'

McNichol tell us in both SIMONE and TRUMAN SHOW that people believe what they want to believe; what they feel comfortable believing. SIMONE says that your eyes will lie to you. That what you see is only true if that is what you want it to be. It is a warning to a complacent society to be on guard. The media is capable of creating their reality, one that will make us happy, warm and fuzzy, in order to control what we see, think and feel. That they in fact all ready do this through advertisement and slanted, controlled news. It warns us not to blindly trust what we are shown by the media. SIMONE reminds us of elements in WAG THE DOG where a fictious war is created and since it is shown on TV we will believe it.

SIMONE is both hilarious and thought provoking. Pacino's performance as the washed up film director takes on a rather Dr. Frankenstein feel when his creation becomes uncontrollable, not for what she does but for the way that the public reacts to her. After she becomes big he can't admit to the fraud because no believes him and he can't kill her off because the public refuses to let her die. Pacino is brilliant. You cannot go wrong with this one, it's a winner.