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''Suture'' is a 1993 American
thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...
written and directed, and produced by Scott McGehee and David Siegel. It stars Dennis Haysbert and Mel Harris. It was screened in the
Un Certain Regard (; 'A Certain Glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films with unusua ...
section at the
1994 Cannes Film Festival The 47th Cannes Film Festival took place from 12 to 23 May 1994. American filmmaker and actor Clint Eastwood served as jury president for the main competition. French actress Jeanne Moreau hosted the opening and closing ceremonies. American fil ...
.


Plot

After murdering his father, wealthy Vincent Towers decides to fake his own death. He plants a car bomb in an attempt to kill a nearly identical half-brother, Clay Arlington, after persuading Arlington to switch identities with him. Arlington survives, but requires facial reconstruction and also has lost most of his memory. Dr. Renee Descartes is there during his recovery. Towers resurfaces and tries once more to eliminate him, but is killed himself. Arlington makes a decision to make his new identity a permanent one.


Cast

* Dennis Haysbert as Clay Arlington * Mel Harris as Dr. Renee Descartes * Sab Shimono as Dr. Max Shinoda * Dina Merrill as Alice Jameson * Michael Harris as Vincent Towers * David Graf as Lt. Weismann * Fran Ryan as Mrs. Lucerne * John Ingle as Sidney Callahan * Sanford Gibbons as Dr. Fuller (as Sandy Gibbons) * Mark DeMichele as Detective Joe * Sandra Ellis Lafferty as Nurse Stevens (as Sandra Lafferty) * Capri Darling as Soprano * Carol Kiernan as Ticket Agent * Laura Groppe as Sportswoman * Mel Coleman as Sportsman


Production

Scott McGehee and David Siegel had been working together since 1989. They had made two short films: "Birds Past" and "Speak Then Persephone" in 1989 and 1990, respectively. Afterwards, they decided to make a feature-length film and "attempted to construct a story that was generally about identity". McGehee has said that ''Suture'' was influenced by mid-1960s Japanese films and Hollywood films like ''
North by Northwest ''North by Northwest'' is a 1959 American spy thriller film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and James Mason. The original screenplay written by Ernest Lehman was intended to be the basis for ...
''. Specifically, they were inspired by
Hiroshi Teshigahara was a Japanese avant-garde filmmaker and artist from the Japanese New Wave era. He is best known for the 1964 film ''Woman in the Dunes''. He is also known for directing other titles such as '' The Face of Another'' (1966), ''Natsu no Heitai'' ...
's '' The Face of Another'' (1966) and Yoshitaro Nomura's ''Left-Handed Sniper: Tokyo Bay'' (1962), which utilized widescreen black-and-white cinematography. They also wanted to give the film an early '60s sensibility and loved the widescreen black-and-white films from that period: '' The Manchurian Candidate'' and ''
Seconds The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of ...
''. Siegel said, "It's an absolutely gripping look that's used so rarely today, and it's a look from a time period that we wanted to evoke". McGehee and Siegel set up a limited partnership and borrowed money for the $1 million budget from family and friends. They decided to shoot ''Suture'' in
Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...
because McGehee felt that it was "almost like an abandoned city, it's so large and overbuilt and the streets are so dead it feels empty". They liked the city's "high modernist, very spare aesthetic". After seeing an early rough cut of the film,
Steven Soderbergh Steven Andrew Soderbergh ( ; born January 14, 1963) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, and editor. A pioneer of modern Independent film, independent cinema, Soderbergh later drew acclaim for formally inventiv ...
became fascinated with it and helped McGehee and Siegel find completion finances during post-production.


Release

''Suture'' had its premiere at the 1993
Telluride Film Festival The Telluride Film Festival (TFF) is a film festival held annually in Telluride, Colorado, during Labor Day, Labor Day weekend (the first Monday in September). The 51st Telluride Film Festival, 51st edition took place on August 30–September ...
with screenings at the
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...
and Toronto Festival of Festivals. A 4K restoration was completed in 2016, and released on Blu-ray by
Arrow Video An arrow is a fin-stabilized projectile launched by a Bow and arrow, bow. A typical arrow usually consists of a long, stiff, straight shaft with a weighty (and usually sharp and pointed) arrowhead attached to the front end, multiple fin-like St ...
in July 2016.


Awards

*In 1994, Scott McGehee and David Siegel won Best Director at the
Sitges - Catalan International Film Festival SITGES - International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia () is an annual film festival held in Sitges, Catalonia, Spain. It specializes in fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernat ...
*In 1994, Greg Gardiner won the Excellence in Cinematography Award at the
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...


References


External links

* * {{Scott McGehee and David Siegel 1993 films 1993 drama films American mystery films 1990s English-language films Films directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel American black-and-white films The Samuel Goldwyn Company films American neo-noir films Films about amnesia Sundance Film Festival award–winning films 1993 independent films 1990s American films English-language independent films 1993 directorial debut films