Amazon Prime & Blu-ray 2020 – Diminuendo
A film director whose life crumbles after the suicide of his Hollywood starlet girlfriend becomes obsessed with a lifelike robot that appears to be her exact duplicate.
Interview with Director Adrian Stewart
Watch Diminuendo on Prime Video and iTunes
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I loved the concept of creating a film built on the memory of an unreliable narrator, and the way the story manipulates the audience’s perceptions and expectations. Much of the story is told in flashback as our main character Haskell remembers his life with Cello Shea, a young actress who killed herself nine years earlier. Haskell has been hired to make a biopic of her life starring a robot LifeDoll that has been designed to replicate her, and we see a lot of these scenes from his life intercut with the same moments as he presents them in the film he’s making.
The really ingenious part most audiences don’t notice is that (except for the first shot of the film) we never actually see Cello in the movie. We either see the LifeDoll playing her, we see her in dreams and delusions as Haskell becomes obsessed with the machine, or we see Haskell remembering her. But his memory is faulty, and there are tricks we play on the audience to keep them wrong-footed as to what they’re really seeing as they go deeper into the film. They’re seeing the film through his eyes, but they can’t trust what he sees.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
Diminuendo is a film that doesn't take the audience for granted. We don't spoon feed you the plot, or answer all of your questions outright. We expect you to put in some work as a viewer, to bring your own perceptions and experiences to the story and draw your own conclusions. Hopefully, that's a draw.
These are also some of the finest performances you'll see. Richard Hatch and Chloe Dykstra are just incredible in this film. Richard had never gotten to play a part like this ever in his career, and he brought such complexity and nuance and compassion to the film, it's riveting.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
The underlying themes of the film are loss, obsession and redemption. These might not be universal in the sense that not everyone has been truly obsessed by someone or something, and I suppose there might be people in the world who don't struggle with the need for redemption. Everyone deals with loss in their own way, however, and we think this film is very much a window into the connection between those emotions.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
As the script got reworked during the run-up to production, layers of backstory got added and removed, layers of complexity got added and then taken away. Richard Hatch was deeply involved in creating the character of Haskell, and a lot of history and motivation got created that was then stripped away again so all that remained was the flavor of it. The memory.
It would have been very easy to make this a simple movie about a simple plot with simple characters, but that would have been incredibly uninteresting. What we ended up with is a complex world filled with complex people.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
Most people either love the film, or despise it. Either way, the reactions have been strong and visceral, and that's very rewarding. The majority are very impressed with the film, its world, and the characters, and they catch new elements on multiple viewings.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
Our point of view has always been that we're telling this story as agnostically as possible. We have tried not to color it with our opinions. We'd rather people form their own, and that seems to be a successful effort.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
We simply hope to have more people discover and experience the film.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
The film is finished, has had its festival run, and has distribution, so we need journalists to talk about it. Make audiences aware of it. Fans of shows like Battlestar: Galactica, Star Trek, or Farscape, might be very excited to see the stars of the shows they love appearing in VERY different roles from what they're used to.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
Honestly, I’d just like the audience to come away thinking. The movie raises a lot of questions, and it intentionally refuses to answer some of them. I’d like to know that those questions stuck with the audience, and hopefully they came to their own conclusions.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Humanity has the ability to anthropomorphize any machine. At what point does that become destructive?
Would you like to add anything else?
You might glance at the poster or the trailer and think you know what our film is. You don't.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or
Would you like to add anything else?
You might glance at the poster or the trailer and think you know what our film is. You don't.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Many of us are involved in expanding the world seen in Diminuendo as a series. Additionally, I'm in pre-production for a really interesting horror film written by Bryan & Sarah called Ice.
Interview: January 2020
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
Diminuendo
A film director whose life crumbles after the suicide of his Hollywood starlet girlfriend becomes obsessed with a lifelike robot that appears to be her exact duplicate.
Length: 1:45:30
Director: Adrian Stewart
Producer: Sarah Goldberger, Kevin Alexander Heard, Jenifer Ellis and Jeffrey Coghlan
Writer: Sarah Goldberger & Bryn Pryor
About the writer, director and producer:
ADRIAN STEWART began his career as an editor on shows like Pushing Daisies and Marco Polo, and a cinematographer on series like The Alienist. He has directed several shorts, music videos and TV episodes. Diminuendo is his feature film directing debut.
SARAH GOLDBERGER & BRYN PRYOR have partnered on everything from steampunk westerns (Cowboys & Engines) to horror (ICE), and have several independent projects in the works including GOLDBERGER's Hummingbird and Pryor's The Ruin.
Our production team have producer features like Pontypool and With a Bullet, as well as television, docs, and everything in between.
Key cast: Richard Hatch (Haskell Edwards), Chloe Dykstra (Cello Shea/The Doll, Leah Cairns (Adrianna Sloane), Gigi Edgley (Lauren), Walter Koenig (Milton Green)
Looking for: journalists
Facebook: Diminuendo
Twitter: @DiminuendoMovie
Instagram: @diminuendomovie
Hashtags used: #DiminuendoMovie
Website: www.diminuendomovie.com
Other: IMDb
Made in association with: Flamboyance Films, Rebel 11, MySpotlight Independent
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Amazon Prime - NOW
iTunes - March, 2020; Fandango Now - March, 2020.