Day One (In Which a Scene is Made)

Code 46

The film festival is a kind of cultural trapeze artist. It must negotiate the wavering, unsteady tightrope that separates obscurity from commercialism. By screening too many big budget films with too many big names, festivals like South by Southwest risk becoming just another tool of the studio system, a glamorized, de facto ad campaign. On the other hand, without any buzz to lure in audiences and media types, the festival risks irrelevance.

The question of relevance might be posed anyway, regardless of what’s being screened. In the new age of indie vogue, film festivals—once rare and vital vehicles for showcasing independents—are now a dime a dozen. (The tote bag handed out at registration included a “Film Festival Pocket Guide,” listing over 48 pages of festivals taking place around the world this year.) What makes SXSW particularly important then? What makes this year’s installment, the film festival’s eleventh year, unique?

“The audiences,” festival producer Matt Dentler told the crowd at this year’s opening screening. Citing the enthusiasm of the full house before him, Dentler implicitly made the distinction between the genuine fans that populate SXSW theaters and the jaded industry types that frequent the other festivals. Certainly, SXSW traditionally plays for a large percentage of locals. Austin is a well-known enclave for the arts in Texas, and residents flock to the festival as volunteers and attendees. Again, though, the festival can only matter by transcending this kind of regionalism in order to appeal to the film industry at large. The bind between distinction and relevance returns.

This precarious position is neatly encapsulated in the festival’s choice to open the proceedings this year. Code 46 stars Tim Robbins (most recently of Mystic River) and Samantha Morton (Minority Report, In America), and is directed by Michael Winterbottom (most notably the director of 24 Hour Party People). Star power, then, was on offer, but the film to which these names are attached is a far cry from an industry standard blockbuster.

Set in the indistinct near future, the film focuses on the love story between William (Robbins), a fraud inspector, and Maria (Morton) who is guilty of selling passes (known as “papeles”) that grant citizens “cover” to travel to different cities. Winterbottom’s camera contemplates vast stretches of desert surrounding these cities, hinting at some kind of post-apocalyptic dichotomy between “inside” (the stark, monolithic, yet safe confines of the city) and “outside” (the lawless, barren world of exile).

Both realms are rendered by the film’s cinematography as beautiful and stark at once. The empty glow of the desert finds its counterpart in the empty glow of office buildings that surround the characters. Garish sunlight and oppressive halogen soak the screen as figures maneuver against a backdrop of impassive buildings and immeasurable sand dunes.

Taking its cue from this setting, the film’s narrative is equally detached. Both William and Maria undergo memory removal in different parts of the film, which sends the story into miniature loops that repeat the action, although in a different context. In addition, the characters’ very language is disjointed, an amalgamation of English punctuated with expressions in Arabic, Spanish, Italian, and French that drift in and out of conversations. The world has seemingly become more global, but more fractured at the same time. The result is a film that renders its subjects as isolated and unaffiliated cogs in a futuristic, sterile machine.

Code 46, then, is perfect for SXSW. Big names draw in the crowds and lend the festival a particular kind of industry cred, but an innovative and challenging narrative will satisfy the independently minded auteurs who sit in judgment of the mass minded visions of the studios. As I filed out of the theater with the capacity crowd toward the premiere night after-party and the promise of free drink tickets, I found myself wondering if the rest of the festival could manage to achieve this same kind of balance.