Until I read this article, I'd never heard of it. Has anybody here seen it?
jwm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...2/The-Room-the-Citizen-Kane-of-bad-films.html
The Room: 'the Citizen Kane of bad films'
When The Room was released six years ago, it was labelled "the worst movie ever made", "the epitome of wretchedness" and even "the Citizen Kane of bad films."
By Nick Allen in Los Angeles
Published: 6:52PM GMT 01 Nov 2009
According to the movie magazine Variety, audiences were leaving The Room after 30 minutes and asking for their money back.
One review said: "This film is like getting stabbed in the head."
But now Tommy Wiseau, the would-be auteur behind the $7 million (£4.2 million) production, is having the last laugh as his film has become an unlikely cult sensation.
Five thousand people have joined a group dedicated to it on Facebook and fans have begun recreating scenes on YouTube.
More than 1,000 people are regularly showing up for midnight screenings in Los Angeles and a showing at the Barbican Centre in London was sold out last month.
According to fans the reason is not that the film is good, but because it is so truly awful it has to be seen.
Originally promoted by the slogan "A film with the passion of Tennessee Williams", the movie tells the story of Johnny, a San Francisco banker played by Wiseau, whose fiancée Lisa has an affair with his best friend Mark.
Along the way there are a series of cul-de-sac sub-plots which lead nowhere, random characters who are never properly introduced, continuity errors and out-of-focus camera work.
Some scenes take place on a roof with glaringly fake background shots of San Francisco landmarks and there are some examples of truly terrible acting.
The muscly Wiseau delivers his lines in a voice reminiscent of the early Hollywood career of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Like "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" audience participation has become a feature of screenings and some fans turn up dressed as Johnny, delivering their own versions of his best known line: "You are tearing me apart Lisa!"
Wiseau, who wrote, produced, directed and starred in the film, is now mobbed at screenings and his new found success marks an unlikely triumph after he was dismissed as a "narcissist nonpareil" by Variety.
Much of his past remains a mystery but he is believed to have raised the money to make the film from a business importing leather jackets from Korea.
More than 400 people were employed in its production and the film was promoted with a giant billboard in Hollywood, which featured a brooding picture of Wiseau.
He is adamant that the perceived mistakes in the film, including the out-of-focus camera work, were deliberate and that the humour is intentional.
The film was meticulously prepared and the actors spent six months rehearsing, he says.
Wiseau calls the bile heaped on his film by critics "completely absurd" and says they just "didn't grasp" it. He says he is "thrilled" that audiences are "expressing themselves" when they go to screenings.
"If you look at Tennessee Williams and others, we are on the same page but sometimes the critics are not on the same page," he says. "I wanted to make a movie and bring it to the people. They can be the ones who decide if it's good or not."
Fans of the film call themselves “Roomies” and it has also sold out screenings in Canada and Australia. Wiseau is getting recognised in the street in Los Angeles and New York.
In the UK, the cult has moved beyond London and the film is now being shown in Leeds. The cinema screening it there said in its programme: “We must admit we scoffed a tad when first asked about The Room. The fact is we were wrong.”
Hollywood star Alec Baldwin told how he recently arrived at a cinema to find hundreds of people queuing for a film he had never heard of.
A bemused Mr Baldwin said: “I got to the theatre and there was this line of people. I said 'What’s going on?’ They said 'It’s this movie The Room’. I said 'What’s that?’ They said it was the best worst movie ever made.”
One fan standing in line outside a cinema in Los Angeles, who had previously failed to get in because it was full, said: “I don’t even know what the film’s about but I just know I have to see it before I die.”
Ross Morin, an assistant professor of film studies at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, described The Room as “one of the most important films of the past decade.’" He told Entertainment Weekly: “It exposes the fabricated nature of Hollywood. The Room is the Citizen Kane of bad movies.”
* The Room – The Lowlights
* Rooftop shots use fake backdrops of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge
* There are four overly-long love scenes, one of which is recycled later in the film
* The film features unexplained framed pictures of spoons – audiences now throw plastic spoons at the screen when they appear
* Lisa's mother announces she has breast cancer but the subject is never mentioned again
* A sharp bone looks set to come out of Lisa's neck, which is not explained
* In one scene, the characters are wearing tuxedos for no apparent reason
* In another unexplained interlude, the characters pass a football to each other
jwm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...2/The-Room-the-Citizen-Kane-of-bad-films.html
The Room: 'the Citizen Kane of bad films'
When The Room was released six years ago, it was labelled "the worst movie ever made", "the epitome of wretchedness" and even "the Citizen Kane of bad films."
By Nick Allen in Los Angeles
Published: 6:52PM GMT 01 Nov 2009
According to the movie magazine Variety, audiences were leaving The Room after 30 minutes and asking for their money back.
One review said: "This film is like getting stabbed in the head."
But now Tommy Wiseau, the would-be auteur behind the $7 million (£4.2 million) production, is having the last laugh as his film has become an unlikely cult sensation.
Five thousand people have joined a group dedicated to it on Facebook and fans have begun recreating scenes on YouTube.
More than 1,000 people are regularly showing up for midnight screenings in Los Angeles and a showing at the Barbican Centre in London was sold out last month.
According to fans the reason is not that the film is good, but because it is so truly awful it has to be seen.
Originally promoted by the slogan "A film with the passion of Tennessee Williams", the movie tells the story of Johnny, a San Francisco banker played by Wiseau, whose fiancée Lisa has an affair with his best friend Mark.
Along the way there are a series of cul-de-sac sub-plots which lead nowhere, random characters who are never properly introduced, continuity errors and out-of-focus camera work.
Some scenes take place on a roof with glaringly fake background shots of San Francisco landmarks and there are some examples of truly terrible acting.
The muscly Wiseau delivers his lines in a voice reminiscent of the early Hollywood career of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Like "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" audience participation has become a feature of screenings and some fans turn up dressed as Johnny, delivering their own versions of his best known line: "You are tearing me apart Lisa!"
Wiseau, who wrote, produced, directed and starred in the film, is now mobbed at screenings and his new found success marks an unlikely triumph after he was dismissed as a "narcissist nonpareil" by Variety.
Much of his past remains a mystery but he is believed to have raised the money to make the film from a business importing leather jackets from Korea.
More than 400 people were employed in its production and the film was promoted with a giant billboard in Hollywood, which featured a brooding picture of Wiseau.
He is adamant that the perceived mistakes in the film, including the out-of-focus camera work, were deliberate and that the humour is intentional.
The film was meticulously prepared and the actors spent six months rehearsing, he says.
Wiseau calls the bile heaped on his film by critics "completely absurd" and says they just "didn't grasp" it. He says he is "thrilled" that audiences are "expressing themselves" when they go to screenings.
"If you look at Tennessee Williams and others, we are on the same page but sometimes the critics are not on the same page," he says. "I wanted to make a movie and bring it to the people. They can be the ones who decide if it's good or not."
Fans of the film call themselves “Roomies” and it has also sold out screenings in Canada and Australia. Wiseau is getting recognised in the street in Los Angeles and New York.
In the UK, the cult has moved beyond London and the film is now being shown in Leeds. The cinema screening it there said in its programme: “We must admit we scoffed a tad when first asked about The Room. The fact is we were wrong.”
Hollywood star Alec Baldwin told how he recently arrived at a cinema to find hundreds of people queuing for a film he had never heard of.
A bemused Mr Baldwin said: “I got to the theatre and there was this line of people. I said 'What’s going on?’ They said 'It’s this movie The Room’. I said 'What’s that?’ They said it was the best worst movie ever made.”
One fan standing in line outside a cinema in Los Angeles, who had previously failed to get in because it was full, said: “I don’t even know what the film’s about but I just know I have to see it before I die.”
Ross Morin, an assistant professor of film studies at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, described The Room as “one of the most important films of the past decade.’" He told Entertainment Weekly: “It exposes the fabricated nature of Hollywood. The Room is the Citizen Kane of bad movies.”
* The Room – The Lowlights
* Rooftop shots use fake backdrops of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge
* There are four overly-long love scenes, one of which is recycled later in the film
* The film features unexplained framed pictures of spoons – audiences now throw plastic spoons at the screen when they appear
* Lisa's mother announces she has breast cancer but the subject is never mentioned again
* A sharp bone looks set to come out of Lisa's neck, which is not explained
* In one scene, the characters are wearing tuxedos for no apparent reason
* In another unexplained interlude, the characters pass a football to each other
