Page 45 - Metro

SPOTLIGHT ON
GENRE FILM

Into

the

Light

ALEX PROYAS’ DARK CITY

TWO DECADES ON
TACKLING A RANGE OF METAPHYSI-
CAL THEMES AND RIDDLED WITH
ARTISTIC REFERENCES, THE HAUNTING
AUSTRALIAN–US CO-PRODUCTION
DARK CITY HAS GONE ON TO ATTAIN
CULT STATUS IN THE YEARS SINCE ITS
RELEASE. IN CONVERSATION WITH
WRITER/DIRECTOR ALEX PROYAS,
JOHN CATANIA DELVES INTO THE GEN-
ESIS OF THIS VISUALLY RICH SCI-FI NOIR
AND DISCUSSES THE FILM’S LEGACY AS
IT MARKS ITS TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY.

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wraiths clad in black overcoats, their existen
tial experiments splintering a city shrouded in
shadows. And, at the core of it all, a dark love
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Tarkovsky – whose unsettling imagery, sug
gests Alex Proyas, served as inspiration for his
#@QJ "HSX (1998) – would certainly be pleased.
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dental death on the set of Proyas’ 3GD "QNV
(1994) still but a recent memory, this twisted,
1
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sell. But, twenty years on, #@QJ "HSX has built
a reputation among a horde of cult fans as
a fascinatingly elusive, strange noir puzzle.
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WKH ĺOP LV D ZKLUOLJLJ RI WUDQVPXWDEOH EXLOGLQJV
– miniatures designed by Patrick Tatopoulos,

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