RR (film)

RR (a.k.a. Railroad) is a 2007 film by American filmmaker James Benning.[2]

RR
Directed byJames Benning
StarringRoadRailer[1]
Release date
November 2, 2007
CountryUnited States

Themes

Shot in 16 mm film, as most of Benning's films are, RR is another in Benning's series of American experimental landscape films; this one focusing on trains and their surroundings.[3] In Railroad, Benning explores themes of American consumerism and overconsumption in what Benning calls a "collaboration" with the trains themselves.[4]

Summary

The film is an exercise in minimalist restraint for it is basically a series of static shots of trains.[5] There is an empty frame, the train enters, then it passes and leaves. The obsessive gaze of Benning's fixed static frame causes the viewer to wait and watch, obsessing, like train fanatic Benning does, on the imagery of the locomotive and the exploration of the random colors of its cars, the machinery and the various American landscapes the trains are surrounded by.[4]

References
  1. Peranson, Mark. "Interviews | Trainspotting with James Benning". Cinema Scope.
  2. James Benning - casting a glance and RR|Experimental Cinema
  3. James Benning's RR - LA Weekly
  4. "The end of the line: Trainspotting America with James Benning's RR" SF Bay Guardian, by Mark Peranson, May 7, 2008
  5. AllMovie
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