In 2005, my friend Alex Barrett graduated from university with the aim of making a feature film. That finished film today is titled 'Life just is.' http://www.lifejustisfilm.com/
Made up of a stellar cast that includes Will De Meo, Jack Gordan, Nathaniel Martello White, Jayne Wisener, Fiona Ryan and Paul Nicholls, the film examines university graduates having trouble making the move into adult life.
From its first initial script, which I was privileged to read and feedback on, Alex began on building up a cast and crew from people he had worked on over his short films, some of which myself and Alex made together, whilst he attended film festivals, plucking talents wherever possible, knowing their contribution would be invaluable to the making of the film. One of the great things about Alex, is his ability to meet talent and show his dedication in continued communication, never letting them get away. During the two week shoot in October 2010, I had the chance to attend the shoot for a few hours, the cast and crew was a delight to meet, professional, creative and dedicated.
‘Life just is’ is an independent film. In light of the recent report that the British film industry should back more mainstream movies, needless to say it is of course impossible to judge what will be a commercially successful film. Instead, we should be looking to films like ‘Life just is,’ a film made on a shoestring budget, with filmmaking passion and a heart to express people’s emotions within a realistic world. Filmmaking was born on images, sound and story, not money.
After attending a test screening of the film in 2010, it was at my second viewing of the film, as the finished product, where a particular scene resonated in my mind. In a scene where Pete, Tom, Claire and David finish watching a Hollywood film, they examine the ending of a film they’ve just watched which reads as follows…
It speaks for itself...it’s one of my favourite quotes from the film. It speaks volumes between the worlds of filmmaking, how parts of the globe approach their projects differently; Sátántangó could never have been made in Hollywood nor would they choose or dare to remake it for that matter.
I would like to congratulate the entire Life just is team. A feature film, in the can and ready to see the world, is an honourable achievement. Myself and Alex being huge Stanley Kubrick fans, it’s only fair that the grand master has his say…
"Anyone who has ever been privileged to direct a film also knows that, although it can be like trying to write 'War and Peace' in a bumper car in an amusement park, when you finally get it right, there are not many joys in life that can equal the feeling." -SK
To end, a review of the ‘Life Just is’ by film critic Brad Stevens
To describe Alex Barrett's LIFE JUST IS as being, along with Woody Allen's YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER, the most impressive British film of recent years, would be both to damn it with faint praise, and to risk being actively misleading. Because aesthetically, Barrett's film, like Allen's, has no connection with anything in contemporary British cinema, a cinema in which the camera is so often either used as nothing more than a tool to record whatever happens to be taking place in front of it, or (the other side of the same coin) allowed to swamp onscreen events with flashy but ultimately empty pyrotechnics. In his first feature, Barrett has already acquired the skill to know exactly where to position his camera in order to suggest a view on the material without ever imposing such a view artificially. His influences clearly are not British, but rather European and Asian: the directors whose names occurred to me while watching it included Hou Hsiao-hsien (a shot in which an actor moves out of frame and the camera remains focused on the empty chair he has just vacated, patiently waiting for him to return, evokes memories of CAFE LUMIERE's opening sequence), Robert Bresson (the elimination of all superfluous elements, such as establishing shots and non-diagetic music, as well as the rationing of camera movement), Jacques Rivette (Pete's emotional collapse), and even Carl Dreyer, one of Barrett's favourite filmmakers: the shots of Pete's head framed against a white kitchen wall as he talks about his dream of Saint Francis were surely inspired by similar imagery in Dreyer's THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC. The only American filmmakers with whom Barrett would seem to have an affinity are such European-style directors as Abel Ferrara, and perhaps Michael Cimino: the communal song with which the film concludes recalls the similar ending of THE DEER HUNTER. But the name that came most frequently to mind was Ozu Yasujiro, whose habit of shooting dialogue scenes in group shots viewed from various angles (but only rarely with close-ups) by an unmoving camera is frequently echoed here. Far more important, however, is the ability Barrett shares with Ozu to view his characters with unashamed love and affection without ever being tempted to indulge them. It may be a cliche, but Barrett's key influences clearly come not from art but rather from life, from the generosity and curiosity with which he has observed both his contemporaries and himself...for it seems to me that each of the central characters represents a different aspect of their creator's personality. It is tempting to describe LIFE JUST IS as one of the most promising debuts in contemporary cinema, but this temptation should be resisted. We are not dealing with promise here: we are dealing with achievement.
- Film critic Brad Stevens
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