Strange Factories (2013)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

When I first saw the Trailer of Strange Factories I instantly wanted to see the whole film. Luckily I was able to visit London around the time when FoolishPeople screened the film at the Cinema Museum. What a perfect location. All events with FoolishPeople are always a surprise to me and they create unforgetable moments. I love that you never know where their stories will take you within. And I love that the film is held in black and white, the dark environment and the landscape. the mysterious and unknown. Mixed with the live part it has been an exciting experience. Every cast member lived their roles. We were guided through the Cinema Museum to explore the characters stories in a different way. Music and sound effects were perfectly chosen and merged with the film and the live experience. A very well created piece of art. It is definitely more of an art film experience to watch Strange Factories. For myself I can say I had an amazing evening and the film is definitely a creation worth watching. I would go see it again! FoolishPeople deserve more notice and I wish them the best of luck for their future projects and films. Can't wait to see what more is to come. A fan from Germany Mirjam

Some commentators seem to find the fact that John Harrigan wears so many hats in this production problematic. Because of the particulars of this film I find this critique problematic. The film's mysterious 'Stronheim' is undoubtedly a hat tip to the auteur Erich von Stroheim. The way von Stroheim's idiosyncratic creative process dominated his films is a hallmark of his brilliance even if at times it was arguably gratuitous.Strange Factories is a film about the process of creation, these moments of faux-gratuitousness are deliberate stylistic choices important to the theme of the film and not things that should have been left out. The initial introduction to the Society Of Vandals serves to underscore this point early on. To be clear I'm not calling anybody a philistine, when I was a young man there were books, paintings and films which I did not appreciate because of my lack of exposure to and experience with those art forms. It's no sin to be ignorant, only to be willfully so. What I do find troubling in two of these reviews is that while acknowledging they were attending an immersive (read participatory) event, each in their own refused to participate. I was reminded of Foolish People's 2007 production of Dead Language, where some in the audience thought it was terribly clever to point out a fictional drug in that story handed out to the audience in the form of a sugar pill was a "sham". These tangible invitations into the narrative are not part of a Vegas illusionists act where part of the fun is figuring out the con. When you don't get something out of an experience because you refuse to engage it you are the problem, not the film. There's nothing wrong with enjoying a film like Teen wolf (as one reviewer seems to) but not every film is meant to be consumed in that way. Disliking a film because it's not the film you wanted to watch is not only irrelevant as a piece of criticism, it's the intellectual equivalent of a tantrum.I screened Strange Factories in my home for an audience chosen specifically because they were not as immersed in the arts as I am, and who were also unfamiliar with Foolish People's work, because I was interested in seeing how this film would be received by an audience that wasn't primed for the experience Strange Factories advertised. I must confess I was skeptical that FP could achieve with film what they do with live theater. The only thing my audience was told about the film was that they should not be expecting the kind of film they are used to experiencing, and that they should feel free to focus on those things in the film that grabbed them and to not worry about "getting it" on their first viewing. I was correct in thinking the bias I brought would dramatically impact my experience. For example my body started mimicking ticks I have experienced when experimenting with amanita muscaria in my younger days: excessive salivation, compulsive rubbing of the gums, and twitching. I also experienced mild auditory and visual hallucinations. The rest of the group did not experience these things. They all had a very unique experience of the film never the less. Some were very focused on The Society Of Vandals, others on Punch or some other character. There was confusion on their part, and on mine, I don't pretend to have instantly understood everything, it is after all a very dense film. I've watched it five times now and am still finding new experiences. That density however is necessary not an example of pretension or slavishness to a single vision. Harrigan is on record as having gone through several screenplays before arriving at Strange Factories. My audience is proof of how this payed off. Each experienced the film in their own way and in talking about it afterward were delighted to see how each of them had missed something the others had not. The film's density is how immersive and audience specific experience is created.This is a monumental achievement, not a failing, considering that unlike live theater every viewer will technically witness an identical performance. Not to say the film is flawless: certain scenes are lit very darkly, the note and contract handed to Victor are difficult to read, some dialog is difficult to ascertain, etc. I must confess I found it difficult at first to ascertain whether these were flaws in the physical process of the film, or problematic style choices. In trying to suss that out I re-watched those scenes repeatedly. This forced me to engage more actively with the film, which is thematically relevant. However, rewarding as the process was, it is a high bar to set for the average viewer. I do think of Joyce's 'Finnegans Wake.' Though an unapologetically difficult read, Joyce's choices were important both to his narrative, and as a challenge to the constraints of the modern novel. Given how vast and meticulous this film is both on its own and as part of a larger transmedia experience I'd conclude, however imperfect, these aspects of Strange Factories are intentional, worth hurdling, and present important challenges to a modern cinema totally colonized by the Hollywood formula. I don't mean to draw a 1:1 comparison between Joyce and Harrigan, either. Finnegan's wake in many respects represents a pinnacle, whereas I suspect that Harrigan's best film work is yet to come.I never fault people who don't find 'Finnegans Wake' rewarding, provided they've done due diligence with the novel,likewise I wouldn't automatically fault those who, take similar issue with Strange Factories. This conflict between experimentation, and accessibility is one many artists struggle with. Even so, Strange Factories is impressive and important. A difficult piece of cinema, to be sure, but as Victor notes in the film, some stories are the product of difficult births.

Review of Strange Factories Live Cinema event at the Cinema Museum, London, UK as published in Londonist (http://londonist.com/2013/10/cinemamuseum.php )Go down a dimly-lit side road to a doorway where you are greeted by silent, masked Chaplinesque characters. They inspect you, and after much furtive gesturing and whispering, you are ushered inside. You are invited to drink a small glass of an oddly viscous liquid, and you might be fortunate enough to peruse some pages from their manuscript — secretly, of course. You are taken to your seats within the red-velvet-curtained theatre, and the show commences.Dark forests, a terrible, unfinished story which develops a strange life of its own, a tormented writer, a mysterious, horrific fire in an old theatre, a tragic clown, a binding contract, a beautiful, yet doomed dancer, sacrifice, Mr Punch, a play within a film, a vast Kafkaesque country estate from which there is no escape. Above it all, the ominous, throbbing hum of the Factory. What is it? Most of all, how does it end? This is what you may discover upon entering the darkened corridors of the London Cinema Museum for FoolishPeople's production of Strange Factories.Immersive theatre pioneers, FoolishPeople have manifested a live cinema production that takes you deep into the heart of a horror film, albeit a surreal one. Their work is a unique alchemy of film, live theatre, artwork and location-specific dance and lighting to create an ambient experience which, in this case, is one of mystery and suspense. The intimate, spooky setting of the Cinema Museum contributes to this state of haunting, with its many antique film cameras, and posters. Look carefully among the exhibits on display, and you might also find some of the artefacts of Stronheim's Settlement and props from the film itself.The film, written and directed by John Harrigan, is a labyrinthine story of madness, and your perceptions of reality start to blur as the evening progresses. What is happening on the screen and around you as the characters from the film come to life? Is it all just the imaginings of Victor, the tormented writer?The suspense is drawn out over the course of the evening, until it reaches a powerful crescendo of drama and dance, immersive theatre at its best. One even begins to suspect fellow audience members of being part of the theatre, particularly as the intimate setting within the Cinema Museum and silent interactions with the characters encourage this. Definitely a performance for the curious and those who wish to explore. Be brave and venture within. Only beware of the machines

It was such a wonderful experience and I would hate to be the one to lessen the depth of experience felt by any of you when, as I hope you will, you decide to go yourselves. So I will try to transmit why it is so exciting without ruining the surprise. Easy.The narrative of the night follows an Author searching for an ending to his story. Victor, the writer, is drawn to a settlement founded by the mysterious Stronheim where he finds his friends waiting for him. Victor makes a pact with Stronheim who offers to rebuild his theatre so long as Victor finishes his story, in the way that it should be finished.From the beginning (before the beginning actually) the audience members are separated and made to question their position as passive spectators and their pre-conceived notions of what watching a film means. This unusual and dislocating process prefigures a whirlwind experience designed to disorientate and delight you. You move in and around the set as the plot moves and swirls around you. The experience is unbalancing but wonderful.The underlying theme of the whole night is about storytelling and art. What is the creative impulse and how does it manifest itself? Why do stories seem to exist outside the mind of the artist, like an elemental force that is tapped by different people at different times but that is always the controlling force in the relationship? As the tension rises and the haunting lunacy unravels in front of you, you are forced to confront the destructive nature of art.The surroundings of the Cinema Museum in Elephant and Castle is apt not just for its amazing hive-like building. Strange Factories questions the role of the modern audience by evoking the early days of the moving image when performances were just that, performance. The whole experience brings to mind a Lumière brothers screening that somehow involves a company of Commedia dell'arte players.I found the entire night an inspiring and beautiful experience from start to finish. It felt like a hundred different storytelling techniques were used, drawn from the past few centuries and woven together to explore the age old questions of what art is. I was captivated from the beginning and the ballet crescendo struck a perfect end note to evening that felt like one long dance. It was fitting that a night celebrating the early days of the moving image should be so truly magical.