Footstep Man, The

Footstep Man

Footstep Man, The - 1992

John Maynard Productions - 85 min.

Cast: Steven Grives, Rosey Jones, Jennifer Ward-Lealand, Michael Hurst, Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Peter Dennett, Harry Sinclair.
Screenplay: Leon Narbey, Martin Edmond; Photography: Allen Guilford; Editor: David Coulson; Music: Jan Preston; Production Designer: Kai Hawkins; Producer: John Maynard; Director: Leon Narbey.

Sam (Grives) is a sound technician, who must literally walk in the footsteps of the characters on the screen. A "film within a film" that connects the world of modern film-making to the Paris of painter Toulouse-Lautrec (Hurst) and his model/lover Mireille (Ward-Leland) who commits suicide. Mireille's ghost appears to Sam asking for his help. Sam begins an affair with the film's director, Vida (Jones) and persuades her to save Mireille at the end of the film. An original and worthwhile view.

Censor rating: PG - Review rating: B-

AVAILABILITY OF VHS OR DVD COPIES

Difficult to locate, but a Used PAL VHS copy was recently seen at Aro Video for $30nz.

SOUNDTRACK ON AUDIO CD

No known soundtrack CD of this title.

TRAILER AND REVIEW LINKS

Opening Credits Video Clip

Information at IMDB

New Zealand Film Archive Info and Reviews

Richard Scheib Review

IMDB User Comments

"The Footstep Man is a difficult film. Its tone of cramped despair is rarely alleviated. You're in for the duration - just as Sam is. Yet the surprise is that the film seems unsure at which level to pitch itself. Narbey and co- writer Martin Edmond spend a lot of time setting up a premise that toys with interesting ideas regarding the emotions at play during film- making, and their film- within- a- film is so good that you wonder if perhaps it was their original idea. But then they tie up all the loose ends, deliver some too- pat coincidences, and generally undermine the ambiguous tone of the film, leaving you feeling rather cheated. " - (Mark Tierney, "A film of dense, dramatic layers", Listener and T.V Times, October 17, 1992)

OFFLINE REVIEW SOURCES

North & South Review by Brian McDonnell - November 1992

AWARDS

1993 New Zealand Film Awards - Best Cinematography; Best Editing.

Alphabetical List * Chronological List * News * Soundtracks * Buy-Sell-Rent * DVD List
What is A New Zealand Feature Film * First Choices * Books * Misc * Links * Directors

Comments, suggestions or questions are welcomed at info@nospamnzvideos.org, but delete the nospam portion before sending