"The Quietest Sound" Packs the Varsity

Many hardy Minnesotans braved the sub-zero weather last Tuesday, February 6, to attend the screening of "The Quietest Sound" at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis. I was told it was the largest audience ever for their Tuesday night screening series. An enthusiastic and receptive audience stayed for the post-screening Q&A, which Catherine and I handled. Many interesting questions. If you were in the audience, thanks for coming! And thanks to John at Cinema Revolution and Erik at the Varsity Theater! (Cellphone photo by TQS cameraman Aaron Gelperin)

"The Nudelmans..." Gets Jump-Started

Yikes! After a few tenuous weeks of negotiations with the Friends of B'Nai Abraham Synagogue (in Virginia, Minnesota, pictured, left) about whether we might be allowed to film a crucial scene there with our eponymous hero, 'Ari Nudelman,' I was suddenly informed today that not only can we film there, but we might want to do it before February 20th, since that's when contractors are coming in to put up scaffolding and start the renovation process. Argh!! The whole point of the scene is that the synagogue has fallen into (melancholy and heartbreaking) disrepair. Workers busily restoring it to its former grandeur would just not fit that dramatic mood. So I guess it's over-drive production planning. Not to mention writing, since the scene at B'Nai Abraham is not yet written. And is Ari even available? Not to mention the rest of the cast and crew? Stay tuned for the next exciting installment of "The Nudelmans of Beaver Bay - Can They Do It?" - the making-of documentary that's being made even before the film itself.

(B'Nai Abraham will look slightly different when we're there Sunday to film, given the foot of snow and below-zero temperatures up north.)

Minnesota Public Radio Interview

I was intereviewed on Minnesota Public Radio this weekend in advnce of tonight's screening. The short version of the interview ran early this morning. Here's an article and links to the long version:


James Vculek shoots "The Quietest Sound"

by Euan Kerr, Minnesota Public Radio
February 6, 2007

Listen to feature audio

Filmmakers nowadays can do all sorts of amazing things with technology, but in his newest film, a Minneapolis director decided to set all that aside and get back to basics. The film is a psychological drama called "The Quietest Sound," and gets its area premiere tonight. It's 75 minutes long and consists of just one shot. The film is receiving rave reviews.
St. Paul, Minn. — James Vculek says the inspiration for "The Quietest Sound" came in part from his first movie, "Two Harbors." That film, made on Lake Superior's North Shore, became very involved.

"With many locations, many actors, many scenes, many schleps of equipment here and there," he says. "It occurred to me that for my next film I would like to have as few locations as possible and as little moving of equipment as possible, and still try and tell a dynamic story."
Vculek (pronounced veh-CHOO-lek) also wanted to write a script for the female star of "Two Harbors," Catherine E. Johnson.

So he came up with the idea of a police interrogation.

"The Quietest Sound" opens with a young woman called Elizabeth sitting on a chair in a non-descript room. She's talking to a couple of detectives, who sit just off camera. We never see their faces.

Elizabeth's 4-year-old daughter Chloe vanished a week ago during a visit to the store. The police haven't found her and everyone is getting frustrated.
The audience sees the action unfold through the camera the detectives use to tape the interview. It focuses on Elizabeth's face, and never moves.

James Vculek says as a result there is often an "Oh, no" moment for the audience.
"I think it comes in every audience that doesn't yet know the set-up," he says. "They suddenly realize, 'Oh no! We're going to be sitting here for the entire duration and nothing's going to move. The camera's not going to move, there will be no edits. This is it.'"

An action film can have dozens of edits in a single minute. In "The Quietest Sound," the camera doesn't blink. It places the audience right in the middle of the interrogation, and there is no escape. It soon reveals that there is something amiss about the young mother's story. It keeps changing.

Vculek says it's a tribute to Catherine Johnson's acting ability that she carries the whole film. By deciding to have just one shot, he says he essentially reversed the filmmaking process.
"Most films are shot in bits and pieces, and also there is a minimum of rehearsal with most films," he says.

Vculek says his cast rehearsed for two and a half months until Johnson was ready. They set up one Saturday, prepared to do a number of takes.
"We started the camera and about two minutes into it, Catherine flubbed a line," he laughs. "I thought,'Oh, boy, this is going to be a long night.' So I said,'OK, let's shake it off. Let's put a new tape in. Let's start again.' We started the second time, and we got it on the second take, the entire thing."

"The Quietest Sound" premiered at the Fargo Film Festival last year, and Catherine Johnson took the award for best actress at the event.

It was also a hit at the Austin Texas Film Festival, where one reviewer wrote: "There are no explosions or fancy tricks, which may bother some, but for those out there that want to be brought near heart failure with only spoken words and a static camera, this film will deliver."
Like many filmmakers, Vculek now faces the conundrum of distribution. His first film, "Two Harbors," screened at 25 festivals around the country.

He's hoping that after a screening at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis, "The Quietest Sound" will make a similar journey. He admits though that given the subject matter of the film, it may be a harder sell.

In the meantime he's already planning his next film, "The Noodlemans of Beaver Bay," which will star local comedian Ari Hoptman.

Broadcast Dates
Morning Edition, 02/06/2007, 6:55 a.m.

Another Great Review for "The Quietest Sound"

Just in time for the screening on February 6, "The Quietest Sound" got a great review in the Twin Cities City Pages. See you Tuesday!

The Quietest Sound
Varsity Theater, Tuesday at 7:00p.m.
Twin Cities-based director James Vculek’s indie psychodrama sucks you in from the get-go. The first shot is the view of a police interrogation room as seen through a surveillance camera; the subject is the worn and devastated-looking Elizabeth (Catherine E. Johnson), whose young daughter was, she says, abducted days before from a Wal-Mart and hasn’t been seen since. For the next 70 minutes, we see a single continuous shot of Elizabeth, who seems to be unreasonably persecuted by an off-camera good-cop/bad-cop tag team (Michael Tezla and Chris Carlson) – until discrepancies pile up in Elizabeth’s story, and the interrogators begin to pursue an entirely different agenda. Johnson is totally commanding as the desperate young mother, revealing flashes of paranoia and evasiveness behind convincing despair. Towards the end of the proceedings, a mysterious videotape arrives, and Elizabeth’s mental labyrinth begins to unravel. Yet just when the police (and those in the audience) think they’ve solved the puzzle, a final twist appears to recast all that came before in a completely, tragically unexpected light. The Quietest Sound is a spare, Spartan little film, tough as nails in its way and as fascinating as it is discomfiting. I haven’t seen it with an audience, but I can imagine the collective gasp that runs through the room as Vculek reveals his final, totally silent frames. The Quietest Sound screens as part of Cinema Revolution’s monthly “Cinema des artistes” series. – Quinton Skinner