?What is an ocean but a multitude of drops?? The affecting spirit of Cloud Atlas was palpable last night as Fantastic Fest unveiled its second Secret Screening ? the ambitious sci-fi adaptation ? with Lana and Andy Wachowski (?Formerly the Wachowski brothers, now Wachowski Starship,? quipped Andy) making a rare public appearance.
The Wachowskis, who wrote and directed the ensemble epic with Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run), are notoriously press shy. But Cloud Atlas, adapted from David Mitchell?s novel about humanity, interconnectivity, transformation and free will, is much more a personal mission statement than their last few Matrix hits and the typically daring Fantastic Fest crowd made for a perfect fit, anointing Cloud Atlas with an also-rare post-screening standing ovation.
Following an unprecedented structure, Cloud Atlas flits back and forth between six disparate stories of characters in different eras and lands, each story connected by a thread ? a journal, a piece of music, a collection of handwritten letters, an oral history ? the same actors (Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Hugh Grant, Hugo Weaving, Jim Broadbent, Ben Whishaw, James D'Arcy, Xun Yhou, Keith David, David Gyasi, and Susan Sarandon) playing multiple characters throughout.
In any given minute Cloud Atlas may jump from a mercantile ship circa 1849 to 1936 Europe, 1973 San Francisco, futuristic Neo Seoul, present-day England, or a remote village "106 winters after The Fall." Lana, speaking after the screening, described the story's structure akin to skipping stones ? "only it's a narrative structure that skipped pieces." In today's world of self-inflicted multimedia ADD, as we divide our attentions between cell phones and texts and television and the constant din, however, doing a bit of brain-juggling to sort it all…
Amanda Bynes Amanda Detmer Amanda Marcum Amanda Peet Amanda Righetti Amanda Swisten Amber Arbucci Amber Brkich
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