Brad Anderson talks about "The Machinist"
Brad Anderson came Center Stage to talk about his film "The Machinist." The interview was recorded in 2004.
Trevor Reznik is a lathe-operator who suffers from insomnia and hasn't slept in a year. Slowly, he begins to doubt his sanity as increasingly bizarre things start happening at work and at home. Haunted by a deformed co-worker who no one seems to think exists, and an ongoing stream of indecipherable Post-It notes he keeps finding on his fridge, he attempts to investigate what appears to be a mysterious plot against him and, in the process, embroils two women in his madness.
Commentary by Brad Anderson
The Machinist is a dark, moody thriller. It is the story of a man running from a guilty conscience that is literally consuming him alive, uncertain, unaware even, of what crime he's committed. It’s literary models are the classic fiction of Kafka and Dostoievsky. Its film touchstones are Hitchcock, Polanski and Lynch. In other words, it is a story of overwhelming paranoia and foreboding.
The look of the film was inspired by the austere expressionism of early horror films - like THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI, NOSFERATU, and VAMPYR and the shadowy films of producer Val Lewton like I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE and THE SEVENTH VICTIM. We hope to create a "subtle nightmare" with this film, one that pulls it’s dramatic suspense and horror from everyday situations.
Trevor Reznik is a lathe-operator who suffers from insomnia and hasn't slept in a year. Slowly, he begins to doubt his sanity as increasingly bizarre things start happening at work and at home. Haunted by a deformed co-worker who no one seems to think exists, and an ongoing stream of indecipherable Post-It notes he keeps finding on his fridge, he attempts to investigate what appears to be a mysterious plot against him and, in the process, embroils two women in his madness.
Commentary by Brad Anderson
The Machinist is a dark, moody thriller. It is the story of a man running from a guilty conscience that is literally consuming him alive, uncertain, unaware even, of what crime he's committed. It’s literary models are the classic fiction of Kafka and Dostoievsky. Its film touchstones are Hitchcock, Polanski and Lynch. In other words, it is a story of overwhelming paranoia and foreboding.
The look of the film was inspired by the austere expressionism of early horror films - like THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI, NOSFERATU, and VAMPYR and the shadowy films of producer Val Lewton like I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE and THE SEVENTH VICTIM. We hope to create a "subtle nightmare" with this film, one that pulls it’s dramatic suspense and horror from everyday situations.
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