RopeofSilicon has posted a set diary from Martin Scorsese’s upcoming psychological thriller, “Shutter Island” that comes scanned from the French Cahiers Du Cinema publication. Argentinean filmmaker Celine Murga was lucky enough to be on set the whole time and observe the entire shoot as she was part of the 2008 Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative.
As we noted in our brief script review, it’s tough to discuss “Shutter Island,” in any detail or you’ll give away the films central twist and conceit.
We described the plot and script as thus: “Set in the 1950s about two Federal Marshalls (Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo) who are sent to a psychiatric hospital for the mentally insane to investigate the mysterious escape of a dangerous female patient (Emily Mortimer), the script is one of the most taut, tense page turners we’ve read in recent months. [However beyond that basic premise], something sinister seems to be afoot…”
What we can reveal without giving away too much about the film is that many dream sequences play a key role in the film. These fantastical sequences troubled us as they seemed in the realm of “Jacob’s Ladder,” or even the world of Peter Jackson, which did not seem to synch with what we’ve seen from Scorsese in the past.
Could Scorsese be taking his first foray into a CGI-laden dream world? According to the diary, apparently (and thankfully) not.
“His idea is to film [the dream sequences] as directly as possible, like they were real,” Murga wrote. “He tells me he think that for those who have dreams, nightmares or hallucinations, those things are real; which makes more terrifying. His intention is to convey ambiguity: It must not be easy to clearly distinguish between the realm of the real and the realm of reverie.”
Frankly, we’re relieved and this tone will be much more in keeping with the rest of the film (those elusive and nightmare-ish scenes just never screamed Scorsese to us when we were reading). The rest of the article is an interesting read and clearly is written so it does not reveal anything major, but there are tiny little spoilers in the piece, though they’re about as tiny as the fact that “Shutter Island,” will feature lots of dream sequences (and if you consider that a spoiler then well, oops!). The film, which we think might be too thriller-ish to be considered a serious Academy Awards contender, is due in theaters October 2, 2009.
