Dying of the Light (2014)

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and language | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

View content advisory »

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

Bahamas

Language:

English | Romanian | Arabic

Release Date:

5 December 2014 (USA) See more »

Also Known As:

A fény halála See more »

Filming Locations:

Bucharest, Romania See more »

Budget:

$5,000,000 (estimated)

Production Co:

TinRes Entertainment, Over Under Media See more »

Show detailed company contact information on IMDbPro »

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Trivia

Cinematographer Gabriel Kosuth publicly disowned this released version of the film: On 8 December 2014 he published a guest column on Variety.com in which he wrote that he "...was denied the possibility to accomplish in post-production what is any cinematographer's duty: from the American Cinematographer Manual:] 'assuring that what audiences will see on cinema and television screens faithfully reflects the 'look' intended by the director'." Kosuth further explained the significant digital alterations made by the producers to his cinematography in post-production: "The film we shot had images with strong, violent colors and was dark. This one is not. (...) Paul Schrader wanted color to play an unusual, extremely important role in the visual style of his movie. An expressionistic approach where color doesn't just represent moods and feelings, but meanings and symbols. This is why he insisted that color should be embedded in the very fiber of the image - using filters on lenses and colored lights - so that we were not merely catching colors on film, but truly sculpting the picture with color. The moment you try to 're-paint' or modify such a thing, it is supposed to crash to pieces. And this is what has happened to Dying of the Light (2014) - an unpleasant and tragic demonstration of the limits to the so-called wonders of digital post-production. By surgically eliminating the expressionistic color from the image - the pasty yellow-green of the African scenes, the dense sepia-chocolate of the American ones, and the bluish-green from the European ones - an unknown author has offered the public not only a crippled caricature of everything, but a collection of images deprived of soul, emotion and significance. (...) As pretentious as it may sound, the reality is that color affects not only the perception of the artist's world on screen, but the perception of an actor's performance too: Eyes, skin, make-up, hair, come to us in an 'intended' emotional color. (For those who don't believe, try watching Apocalypse Now (1979) in black-and-white.) The unbalancing of a well thought 'color formula' has the effect of mutilating not only atmosphere, composition, and centers of interest in the frame, but also detailed production design, costume and make-up concepts all based on that original formula. I'm writing this letter because I'm trying to understand why would someone deliberately ruin such a visual expression. Just because it's possible? By pushing some magical buttons at a console, or because of some kind of aesthetic Daltonism? Why would someone damage something achieved with unknown effort and sleepless nights? Just because there are people today who cannot take a human activity called artistic creation seriously?" See more »

Goofs

When the private jet lands in Mombasa, the Customs official stamps Evan's passport with JKIA. Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is in Nairobi. See more »