First up, don’t worry, there will be no spoilers on THN about Danny Boyle’s upcoming epic, hypnotic thriller TRANCE. The film stars James McAvoy, Vincent Cassell and Rosario Dawson and is out on March 27th in the UK and although he’s gone and shown a massive, full scene from the film at SXSW but I’m happy to report from what I’ve heard (Potential Spoilers Over Here), that you still don’t know what you’re seeing until you see the entire vision, I promise you.
Boyle is a pretty special director alongside the likes of Ang Lee, in modern terms. He’s been able to take on numerous types of genres and succeed impressive. Personally, my least favourite has been SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, as I felt it was his most commercial and obvious as well but my-oh-my, the Oscars lapped it up. I’ve enjoyed Boyle’s work when he’s taken more risks and now he’s back working with SHALLOW GRAVE-scribe John Hodge, we’ve got one all-mighty experience with TRANCE. At SXSW 2013, Boyle interestingly spoke about how he doesn’t think all his films are actually that different, he said:
“You try to make a different film every time, and often you end up making the same film again and again, [and] all of my characters have had huge odds to overcome.”
When you logically think about it, this is very true since SHALLOW GRAVE in 1994, decisions have had to be made by the lead characters. He also commented on how he twisted the truth to get this one made, by selling it as MEMENTO meets ENTERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND:
“That was a total lie, the kind you tell money people. The great part of our deal with Fox Searchlight in the US and Pathe, who distribute our films in Europe, is that — while we do have a cap — within that we have a lot of freedom to fuck with genre.”
This experimental and brave, approach is what makes Danny Boyle stand out, take a look at the London Olympics opening ceremony which was huge, live and vastly different to any other one gone before. But what makes TRANCE impressive, for me, is despite a twisting narrative, you definitely get a sense of reality throughout and Boyle backed this further with his comments:
“We did a lot of research into hypnotism – about 5 percent of the population is highly susceptible which is what hypnotists look for – and while everything you’re about to see is ethically dubious, it is possible.”
Our full review for TRANCE will be hitting the site next week but in the meantime, check out the trailer just below and let’s hope Boyle continues his experimentation and inventiveness for another 20 years!
Source: EW/ComingSoon/SXSW
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