THE ARC
USA/Great Britain, 1991, 96minutes
This film was produced in association with Channel 4, and Film Four International of London England. It was an opening night selection of the Berlin Film Festival in 1991, Panorama Section. Also screened in the Toronto, Chicago, and Vancouver International Film Festivals
PIERS HANDLING, 1991 TORONTO FESTIVAL REVIEW
"Rob Tregenza's first feature,Talking To Strangers (shown at the 1988 Festival) was a bold aesthetic and stylistic departure consisting of only nine shots, each lasting approximately ten minutes. His new film (making its North American premiere at the festival) takes up where his first left off, although The Arc . has been conceived in a somewhat different fashion.
The structuring arc of the film sees Tregenza move from sequences of montage to those of increasing length as the film progresses, which mirrors the internal state of his protagonist as well as the landscape in which he finds himself. The Arc above all is a road movie, and a journey, a modern day odyssey, not dissimilar in mood and tone to Antonioni's existential trips through the disembodied sensibilities of his characters.
The film begins in Baltimore where John Butz is a welder, but when he refuses to take part in a strike, his marriage falls apart. He hits the road, finds work in scap-yard and then drifts on through Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas and Montana. Along the way John runs into some unusual people, including a runaway girl, and a sculptor, each of whom is struggling to find a path in life. Every encounter teaches John something new, forcing him to confront himself in a different way.
As the city is replaced by the empty desert spaces, as time slows down, and as a spiritual dimension enters his life, John finds himself becoming increasingly detached from the world but closer to the magic of the landscape that Tregenza's camera captures with powerful eloquence. The Arc ..confirms the promise of Tregenza's audacious first film and marks him as a singular talent determined to follow his own very challenging path.
Piers Handling review of TALKING TO STRANGERS
Dave Kehr, Chicago Tribune, Oct. 1991
"Director Rob Tregenza's "The Arc" highlights film festival"
"The highlight of Monday's program at the Chicago International FIlm Festival is "The Arc" screening at 9:30 pm at the Music Box Theatre. 3733 N. Southport Street. Directed by Rob Tregenza, who is perhaps the most formally innovative of the current generation of American Independent filmmakers, the film uses gradually increasing shot lengths, from a few frames to takes of several minutes, to relate the mythic tale of an arc welder (Jason Adams) on a spiritual quest. The film represents a committment to stylistic research that is extreamly rare in the context of today's glumly conservative independent cinema."
TECHNICAL DATA
THE ARC by Rob Tregenza
colour/35mm
Production Company: Film Four International/Cinema Parallel
Ex. Producer: Tom Garvin
Producer: JK Eareckson
Screenplay: Rob Tregenza
Cinematography: Rob Tregenza
Editor: Rob Tregenza
Music: George Thomas,Rob Tregenza
Principal cast: Jason Adams,Katherine Kelley,
Catherine Fogarty, Marty Lodge, Hugh Nees
Foreign Sales Agents:
Film Four International
Thomas F.R. Garvin