Simone [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: Al Pacino|Catherine Keener|Evan Rachel Wood, Andrew Nicole: DVD

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Amazon.co.uk Review

A showbiz satire with a science fiction feel, Simone is also a post-modern stab at the Frankenstein story. When a temperamental A-list star (Winona Ryder, in a canny cameo) walks off the set of his new movie because her contractually stipulated "longest trailer on the lot" isn't also the tallest, struggling director Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino) seems to be about to lose it all--wife and career.

Enter a dying mad scientist who gives Viktor a computer program that can digitally create a perfect simulacrum of a human being. He uses it to create "S1m0ne" (Simulation One), an amalgamation from a huge databank of previous stars. According to the credits Simone is played by "herself" but this is actually a slightly digitised performance from model and newcomer Rachel Roberts. When Simone becomes a superstar, Viktor has to work hard to keep up the fiction of her existence. Gradually he comes to resent his creation's independent fame.

Andrew Niccol, writer-director of Gattaca and writer of The Truman Show, is a rare film-maker who sees science fiction in terms of genuine extrapolation of the way technology could affect society. He is also blessed with a wicked satiric streak. With a surprisingly good farcical performance from Pacino and a distinctive, under-populated widescreen look, this is a good comedy with more than half a brain--which makes it a rare species in Hollywood today. --Kim Newman

DVD Description

A producer's film is endangered when his star walks off, so he decides to digitally create an actress to substitute for the star, becoming an overnight sensation that everyone thinks is a real person.

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Customer Reviews

15 Reviews

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
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4.0 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Different!, 5 Jun 2003

By	"hail2thekingbaby" - See all my reviews

This and Donnie Darko are probably the two most different films I've seen recently. After many mindless action flicks and anal hollywood tosh! Simone to me is a look into the crazy and ultimately sad world of MEDIA and it's obsession with CELEBRITY! Pacino plays a failing director struggling to replace the actress he loses from his latest film. Winona Ryder plays the actress who walks out after (Artistic Differences). His salvation comes from the unlikely figure of Hank (Elias Koteas). Who brings him his latest creation. A new virtual actress called Simone. Pacino creates the actress within his movie.....without diagnosing her story. The public fall in love with the newly found actress thinking her to be real. And as Pacino has been unsuccessful until now keeps quiet and plays along with the public perception. He makes more movies using Simone and she becomes the new HOLLYWOOD DARLING. Soon he is forced into very difficult ways of trying to prove and maintain that she is a real actress. Telling the public she is agoraphobic etc: And staging public appearances and interviews! Soon the media hyp becomes too much and Simone his salvation soon turns into his ultimate un-doing, as his world comes crashing down. Soon ppl care more for his creation than he himself! This movie does really show MEDIA and HOLLYWOOD for what it really is and for that should be respected. I recommend this to ppl who like something a bit different. And as usual.....Pacino gives us another performance.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tinseltown pokes fun at its own Make-Believe, 16 Mar 2006

By	Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

So, what does a third-tier, struggling director do when his temperamental female lead quits the picture because her trailer isn't the biggest on the studio lot, and then gets fired by the studio boss who also happens to be his ex-wife?. Reminisce, certainly, about Hollywood's Golden Age when the studios literally owned the stars in their stables and the almighty directors didn't have to put up with such horse doody. At least, that what Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino) does in SIMONE, and then some.

As luck would have it, Taransky is bequeathed a miracle piece of high tech software, Simulation One, by its genius inventor, recently dead of an ocular tumor caused by too long and too close attention to his computer display. Using it, Taransky secretly generates his virtual and 100% controllable star, SIMONE. Unleashed on unsuspecting film audiences via a series of kitschy films, Viktor's creation takes on a life of "her" own. She's adored by millions, and indestructible. SIMONE becomes the tail that wags Viktor's dog.

Unfortunately, a lot is askew with this film. Pacino acts his heart out, but perhaps comedy isn't his forte. Catherine Keener as his ex, Elaine, is totally unbelievable as the studio head, who, even though she admits having slept and groveled her way to the top, surely can't be so dense as not to realize something about her studio's biggest star is amiss. Lainey (Evan Rachel Wood), the couple's daughter, is cute and well-adjusted almost to the point of nausea. And the simple mechanics of the legerdemain by which Taransky presents SIMONE to the world stretches credulity. I mean, assuming Viktor didn't install that hologram generator on top of the L.A. Coliseum all by himself, wouldn't those who did be just a little suspicious? And what computer accepts five and a quarter inch floppy disks anymore for chrissakes? However, the character of the sleazy tabloid publisher hot on Simone's trail is droll in an icky sort of way. More importantly, the film is redeemed by its pointed commentary on the nature of the Make-Belive which Hollywood creates and which the fans cling to beyond all reason. Are we so starved for heroes that we can be hopelessly bedazzled by whatever pretty fantasy package is presented to us, no matter the depth of the illusion? (Yes, well, politicians do it all the time, don't they?) The irony is that technology will soon likely be able to create a cinematic SIMONE in "real life", and then we shall see.

Oh, and who's the actress who plays SIMONE? According to the end credits, which maintain the fiction, SIMONE appears as herself. A few minutes of diligent searching on the Web will provide her identity, and then you'll have the answer for the trivia question posed around the office water cooler. I'll never tell.

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The real problems of a virtual actress, 1 Dec 2004

By	Jacques COULARDEAU "A soul doctor, so to say" (OLLIERGUES France) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

A strange story indeed. A mediocre to average film maker is willed a strange � machine � by some mad scientist before dying. This computerized device enables the film maker to produce the best actress ever, ideal as for her looks and her acting, but also ideal as for her cost which is practically nil, because she is a completely virtual person. The film then analyzes the rich consequences of her existence. How can an actress exist if she does not satisfy the wants and desires of her fellow actors, her producer, her public and the media ? She is by definition invisible, unreachable and unmeetable. And yet she exists because she is in the films and she is in the press and media. The director has to invent situations to make people believe she exists, or rather to satisfy their belief that she does exist. This leads to a cannibalistic relation because she psychologically devours the director completely. But it is not that easy to destroy her because no one wants to believe she does not exist, and his attempt will be considered as murder, since that actress does exist in the public eye. Then you have to plead guilty of a murder that never was or insanity for a murder that did not happen ever. How can the director get out of this imbroglio ? That is the end of the film. It is in other words a denunciation of the absolute gullibility of the public and the media, and of the absolute impossibility for any actor to have a real private life, to be an actor and nothing else, particularly not a show-case or show-window exhibit or circus animal. This is maybe extreme but it is fundamentally true. It reveals how an actor is taken over by his parts under the heavy presssure of the public and the media, and also his or her psyche, to be what he or she is in his or her films, to be the actor seven days a week and 24 hours a day. It is a completely de-humanizing profession and position. The public is cruel but just following their impulses, and desires, whereas the media are willfully cruel in order to make money by selling their � goods � to the wider public, hence nourishing and nurturing the cannibalistic voyeurism of this public. A great film with a fantastic Al Pacino in the role of the director. We will regret that the film did not go as far as actually creating a virtual actress for Simone, since it used a real actress in most of the scenes, and this actress, Rachel Roberts, is no virtual pixel being.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Different role for Pacino
As a huge fan of Al Pacino, i bought this film after seeing it listed on Amazon and never personally hearing of it before. Read more

Published 4 months ago by A. George

5.0 out of 5 stars Simulation one
Al Pacino is one of the best... about him, just another role with another brilliant performance as usual. Read more

Published 6 months ago by A Kutassy

4.0 out of 5 stars The future is here...
The future is here - or just around the corner...

20 years ago, when computing started gaining speed, it was predicted that some day the actors we saw in our films... Read more

Published 9 months ago by Jeep Tenk

3.0 out of 5 stars "There are other studios, there's only one Simone."
A film director becomes disillusioned with an ever increasingly fake industry that insists he abandon his art to pander to every whim of an actress, even though she isn't great -... Read more

Published 12 months ago by DangermouseZilla

5.0 out of 5 stars Overlooked minor classic
This movie was ignored when it was released. All the reviews that I read harped on about its logic, and then gave it a three out of five review. Read more

Published 20 months ago by BS on parade

4.0 out of 5 stars Farce Played Straight - worth a watch
I saw this movie before I knew that it was directed by the maker of Gattaca. Finding this out afterwards, it all made sense. Read more

Published 20 months ago by Paul T Horgan

4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad
Simone, is an enjoyable and watchable film. However the film did feel a bit ordinary inspite of its basis. Read more

Published on 29 Oct 2007 by Charles Gosling

4.0 out of 5 stars SIMULATION ONE - SIMONE
I've always been a sucker for films about film-making or films about other films. These little treats have always supplied my thirst for knowledge about this magical process, and... Read more

Published on 19 Aug 2007 by stuart

4.0 out of 5 stars The (almost) Ultimate Hollywood Satire
If you enjoyed The Player and Swimming With Sharks you should check out this Pacino movie. Al Pacino plays a down on his luck Director, he has talent but in Hollywood that is not... Read more

Published on 16 Sep 2004 by nastiest_nick

2.0 out of 5 stars interesting concept , let down
Simone is shown in the film to be a life like computerised animation that appears to surpass human beauty and captivates peoples imaginations. Read more

Published on 13 May 2004 by Mr. Simon Parker

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Simone [DVD]

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