William Eggleston In the Real World
by Michael Almereyda
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: William J. EgglestonDirector: Michael Almereyda
Cinematographer: Michael Almereyda
Producer: Michael Almereyda
Writer: Michael Almereyda
Editor: Johannes Weuthen
Editor: Joshua Falcon
Editor: Karen Choy
Producer: Alexis Zoullas
Producer: Anthony Katagas
Producer: Donald Rosenfeld
Producer: Heather Parks
Producer: Jesse Dylan
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Unknown
Format: Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 87 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-02-14
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Palm Pictures / Umvd
Movie Reviews of William Eggleston In the Real World
Movie Review: Happy to have not been born in the Middle Ages before there were the photographs of William Eggleston
Summary: 4 Stars
This was a film that grew on me, as it started out very boring and became more interesting as time went on. Director/Cameraman Michael Almereyda starts by following Eggleston and his assistant/son Winston as they wander around Mayfield, Kentucky on a commission from Gus Van Sant to shoot photographs. Almereyda's hand-held camera shakes and picks up the wind and all sorts of extraneous noises while Eggleston barely says anything and when he does, it needs sub-titling to help you make it out. They then make their way home to Memphis, Tennessee and stop off at a ruined house for sale by the side of the road, which is advertised as a "real fixer-upper", and suddenly you start seeing the beauty of the things that Eggleston is seeing in the damaged green roof or the patterns of sunlight on the dusty floors. Soon you are at home with him where he does some amateur improvisations on his electronic keyboard and piano.
Then he takes you along on a trip to visit his girl-friend Leigh Haslip. Eggleston has been quite happily married to his wife Rosa for 40 years, and she must just humour his occasional philandering as she later describes him and his family as "He's sweet, all the Egglestons are sweet, it's in their genes". At Haslip's house, Eggleston sketches a free-form portrait while Haslip herself rather drunkenly rambles and lounges on a couch in her pajamas. Eggleston is still not saying a lot, but you are gradually liking him more and more, as you realize this is an artist with no pretensions whatsoever. He is what he is and he does what he does and he doesn't care about having to explain himself or his work to you at all. You can take it or leave it.
For the rest of the film you follow along on a few more trips such as to the Getty Museum in LA where Eggleston walks around rather anonymously at his own photographic exhibit. You get to view a few clips from Eggleston's own black and white experimental video film "Stranded in Canton" (1973/74 - completed 2005). There is a single scene towards the end where Almereyda finally tries to get Eggleston pinned down to talk art and photography with provocations such as "real life is an illusion. photographs are the reality", but Eggleston protests and disagrees and says that he doesn't understand what Almereyda is talking about. So you never get any answers or explanations from Eggleston himself.
When the credits role at the end with the sound of Roy Orbison's beautiful singing of the song "In the Real World" you are back again at Leigh Haslip's house where both she and Eggleston are gleefully enjoying the song on the stereo while they talk about how happy they are to have not been born in the Middle Ages before there was Roy Orbison. And I'm just as happy to have not been born before there were the photographs of William Eggleston and this film by Michael Almereyda.
Summary of William Eggleston In the Real World
In 1976, William Eggleston's hallucinatory, Faulknerian images were featured in the Museum of Modern Art's first one-man exhibition of color photographs. It is rare for an artist of such stature to allow himself to be shown as unguarded as Eggleston does in Michael Almereyda's intimate portrait. The filmmaker tracks the photographer on trips to Kentucky, LA and NY, but gives particular attention to downtime in Memphis, Eggleston's home base. The film shows a deep connection between Eggleston's enigmatic personality and his groundbreaking work.Documentary DVD Video
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