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Laurie Simmons: The Music of Regret, 2006 (40 mins)

A mini-musical in three acts starring Meryl Streep

Strangelove presents American photographer Laurie Simmons’s first film, a three-act cinematic musical starring Meryl Streep, Adam Guettel's voice and members of the Alvin Ailey II dance company, plus a cast of vintage puppets and ventriloquist dummies. Shot by cinematographer Ed Lachman (Far From Heaven, The Virgin Suicides) with a bittersweet, Sondheim-flavoured score by Michael Rohatyn, the film portrays the despair and longing that has coloured the post-9/11 era.

Simmons is one of the first contemporary American photographers to create elaborately staged narrative photographs. Since the mid 1970s, she has staged scenes for the camera with dolls, mannequins and occasionally people, to create images with intensely psychological subtexts. Her iconic ‘walking objects’ series – in which women’s legs are topped by oversized, everyday objects such as houses, cakes and guns – comes to life in The Music of Regret. The puppets sing and dance their way through the film, staging a playful, but dark, vision of a society precariously balanced between affection and grief.

Directed by Laurie Simmons. Executive producers, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn and Donald Rosenfeld; associate producer, Fabienne Stephan; produced by Salon 94 and Performa 05 with RoseLee Goldberg. Cinematography by Ed Lachman. Music by Michael Rohatyn. Lyrics by Laurie Simmons. Story by Matthew Weinstein. Written by Laurie Simmons and Matthew Weinstein. Lighting by John DeBlau. Alvin Ailey 2 Dancers. Choreography, Helen Pickett.

First shown in the UK by artprojx

 

Charles Richardson

Clunie Reid

Elizabeth Price

Gary Stevens

Hayal Pozanti

Jennifer Reeder

Joan Jonas

John Smith

Jon Rafman

Laurie Simmons

Ornana Films

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Rachel Rose

Scott Reeder

Tabor Robak

Veronika Reichl