Film
City of Ghosts (film)
City of Ghosts is a 2002 crime drama directed by Matt Dillon, about a con man who follows his mentor from New York to Cambodia.[1] It was shot in Cambodia, with local people who had never acted before in speaking roles.[1]
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][3] Jimmy learns that Marvin is in Cambodia and travels to Bangkok to meet Marvin's associate Kaspar.[3] Because the roads are unsafe, a guide takes him to Phnom Penh by a back route.[2]
In Phnom Penh, Jimmy hires the cyclo driver Sok to take him to a run-down bar and hotel owned by Emile, a Frenchman.[2][3] Jimmy also meets Sophie, played by Natascha McElhone.[4] Marvin, he finds, is working on a hotel and casino deal that involves corrupt officials, a former general and the Russian mafia.[5][1] Variety read the title as a reference to Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge.[3]
Production and credits
The film was Dillon's first as director. He wrote it with Barry Gifford and plays Jimmy.[5] James Caan plays Marvin, Gérard Depardieu plays Emile and Stellan Skarsgård plays Kaspar.[5] Sok is played by Sereyvuth Kem, a real-life moto taxi driver whom Dillon hired on location.[5] Rose Byrne and Shawn Andrews also appear.[6]
Jim Denault was the cinematographer, Howard E. Smith the editor and Tyler Bates the composer.[3][6] The soundtrack combines Cambodian rock and roll from the 1960s and 1970s with French pop and American blues and jazz from before World War II.[2] United Artists, Mainline Pictures and Banyan Tree were among the production companies.[6] Filming locations included Phnom Penh and Bokor Hill Station near Kampot, where the final showdown was shot.[2][6] The end credits thank the people of Cambodia.[6] Variety and PopMatters wrote that it was the first Western feature filmed in Cambodia since Lord Jim in the 1960s.[3][5]
Release and reception
The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2002 and opened in the United States on April 25, 2003.[2][7] It runs 116 minutes.[6] Made on an estimated budget of $17.5 million, it earned $357,197 in the United States and Canada.[6][2] Roger Ebert praised its atmosphere, desperation, romance and pathos, while Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post called it "a triumph of place over sense."[7]
The 2014 Cambodia Town Film Festival screened the film at 5 p.m. on Saturday, September 6, 2014, followed by a question-and-answer session with Dillon.[8] Cinematographer Jim Denault was also scheduled to take part.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Cambodia Town Film Festival, Matt Dillon, Crocodile Man, and Cambodian Cinema at Cambodia Town Film Fest This Saturday (archived)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Wikipedia, City of Ghosts (2002 film)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Variety, City of Ghosts (September 13, 2002)
- ↑ AboutFilm.com, City of Ghosts (2002)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 PopMatters, City of Ghosts (May 8, 2003)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 IMDb, City of Ghosts (2002)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Metacritic, City of Ghosts
- ↑ Cambodia Town Film Festival, CTFF Official 2014 Film Lineup (archived)