In the Dark

"The way we make films, the way we watch them, and the way in which we make the public aware of them is all being reinvented, " writes photographer and director Mike Figgis of the technological revolution inspired by digital cameras. Taking place outside the mainstream film world, this revolution has led to an explosion of astonishing creativity in both film and video. Figgis has been at the forefront of such experimentation, first in his groundbreaking film Timecode (1999) and now in his latest project, Hotel. In the Dark is a visual diary of the new film, which was shot in Venice over a period of five weeks using digital cameras. Forty actors and artists (among them David Schwimmer, Rhys Ifans, Salma Hayek, and Saffron Burrows) lived together in an old hotel and improvised a surrealist narrative incorporating The Duchess of Malfi, a Jacobean drama by John Webster. An erotic feast of digital imagery emerged in the process, and In the Dark not only documents the film itself but gives us a penetrating look at one of today's most innovative filmmakers.