Film
City of Ghosts (film)
City of Ghosts is a 2002 crime drama directed by Matt Dillon, about an insurance con man who travels from New York to Cambodia to find his mentor.[1][2] It was shot in Cambodia, and Dillon cast many local amateurs in its roles.[3]
Synopsis
Jimmy, played by Dillon, fronts an insurance firm in New York. When a hurricane brings a flood of claims the firm cannot pay, FBI agents start to investigate, and his mentor and partner Marvin has already left with the company's offshore funds.[2][1] Jimmy learns that Marvin is in Cambodia and travels to Bangkok to meet Marvin's associate Kaspar.[1] Kaspar sends him on to Phnom Penh and tells him to check into the Belleville Hotel.[1]
In Phnom Penh, the cyclo driver Sok takes Jimmy to the Belleville, a bar and hotel run by Emile, a Frenchman.[1][4] Jimmy also meets Sophie, played by Natascha McElhone.[2] Marvin, he finds, is working on a hotel and casino deal that involves corrupt officials, a former general and the Russian mafia.[4] Variety read the title as a reference to Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge.[1]
Production and credits
The film was Dillon's first as director. He wrote it with Barry Gifford and plays Jimmy.[4] James Caan plays Marvin, Gérard Depardieu plays Emile and Stellan Skarsgård plays Kaspar.[4] Sereyvuth Kem, who drove a moto taxi in real life and was hired by Dillon on location, plays Sok.[4] Rose Byrne and Shawn Andrews also appear.[2]
Jim Denault was the cinematographer, Howard E. Smith the editor and Tyler Bates the composer.[1] Besides Bates's score, the soundtrack uses original recordings by Cambodian artists, among them Chan Chaya, Pen Ran and Choun Malai. The film closes with Dengue Fever's version of the Joni Mitchell song "Both Sides Now."[5] United Artists, Mainline Pictures and Banyan Tree were among the production companies.[1] Filming took place in Kampot province and in Phnom Penh, where the square in front of the main post office was the main location.[3] Variety and PopMatters wrote that it was the first Western feature filmed in Cambodia since Lord Jim in the 1960s.[1][4]
Release and reception
The film was shown in the Special Presentations section of the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2002 and opened in the United States on April 25, 2003.[1][6] It runs 116 minutes.[1] Its production budget was $17.5 million, and The Numbers records a domestic box office of $325,491.[7] Roger Ebert praised its atmosphere, desperation, romance and pathos, while Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post called it "a triumph of place over sense."[6]
References 7
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Variety, City of Ghosts (September 13, 2002)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 AboutFilm.com, City of Ghosts (2002)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Cambodia Daily, Motodops, Panhandlers Tapped for Roles in Matt Dillon Movie (April 21, 2001)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 PopMatters, City of Ghosts (May 8, 2003)
- ↑ Cleveland Scene, Man Abroad (May 21, 2003)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Metacritic, City of Ghosts
- ↑ The Numbers, City of Ghosts (2003)
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