An loopy love story played in reverse... sexy, funny and award winning.
This award-winning cinematic gem takes a classic romance story and reverses it, literally. The film actually plays backwards, combining the narrative experimentation of Memento with the surreal dissonance of the sketchy dwarf sequence from Twin Peaks. It's a funny, darkly cynical take on modern relationships of the Hollywood/TMZ variety. Imaginative concept, award winning cinematography, and great sound design make 11:11 a uniquely cinematic experience as well as eye candy and a satisfying brain teaser all rolled into one.
The 11:11 DVD has a great Easter Egg on it too. The original film is designed to play backwards, but you can watch the film as a loop, in both directions, or as a 'conventional' film, forwards. That's two movies for the price of one.
So get ready to watch Mac Daddy Otto and sexy Anna erase their collective past with every backwards step they take.
- Directed by Esther Peres
- Written by Esther Peres
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Produced by
Esther Peres
Harve Cook - Running Time 20 min
- Release Date 2008
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Country
United States of America
- Content Rating Intended Audience: teen
- Website 11:11
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Written by Esther Peres
Produced by Esther Peres
Harve Cook
Cast Mataji Booker:
Douglas Bennett:
Paul Ottosson:
The subject of love lends itself well to backwards story telling. Nothing is so sweet in love as the intoxicating early days when the beloved is Eden on earth and nothing is so capsizing as loss; whether it's profound or commonplace. No shock then that the human capacity for regression, for rewriting history is legend. It's a necessary function of the brain to discard the trashing effects of trauma so as to leave the individual ready for the next challenge. The backwards world of 11:11 is the perfect comic plane for self-obsessed materialists like Anna and Otto. At first, I couldn’t convince my investors that filming a love story in reverse motion any sense. “How will anyone understand what’s going on? “Subtitles!?” Perhaps they were reassured when I reminded them that I had to shoot 11:11 in real time and would be creating a forwards version of the movie while shooting the original script. “Two movies for the price of one."
The human mind needs patterns and order like a baby needs a pacifier. Having said that, I’m aware that for many people 11:11 has some sort of personal or spiritual meaning. Even though there’s much in new age philosophy that I find completely ridiculous, I pass no judgment on anyone who’s a true believer. Who knows what dimensions or realities lurk beneath our commonplace awareness? But don't expect 11:11 to be a new age film. It's sexy satire.
Meanwhile, it seems to me that human beings create meaning from what is otherwise a chaotic universe, but meaning must be grounded in authentic connection between yourself and other members of your community or family. That's the only real meaning there is. Find connection, not based on what someone can do for you, but grounded on selfless action. Then, somehow, you will be counted along the continuum of consciousness that binds us all together as creatures of light and purpose. Otherwise, if you're only here to serve yourself, you may as well be going backwards.
You'll find more about the technical aspects of our film and less of my moralizing at www.backwardsmovie.com, if you’re interested in finding out how we did it. Anyway, who gives a crap what I say about this film, after all, it’s up to you whether you groove with it or not.
My only advice; don’t try too hard to decipher 11:11’s backwards narrative, just sit back, relax and let your right brain do the work.
