Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson – Directors – Anomalisa
FRED’s Chiara Nicoletti meets Charlie Kauffman (Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, Synedoche New York) and Duke Johnson, co-directors of the film ANOMALISA, in competition at the 72nd edition of the Venice International Film Festival, where it was awarded the Grand Jury Prize.
ANOMALISA was originally a theatre-sound play with the same actors of the film, David Thewlis, Jennifer Jason Leigh. Duke Johnson got on board of the project as an expert stop motion animation producer and director. Kaufman and Johnson decided to use a unique voice over technique (all played by Tom Noonan) and to leave the seams on the faces of Michael (Thewlis), Lisa ( Leigh) and the other characters (Noonan).
ANOMALISA: Michael Stone, an author of books on the subject of customer service, struggle with his inability to connect to people. One night, while on a routine business trip, he meets a stranger who changes his world view.