The Tracey Fragments (film)


The Tracey Fragments is a 2007 Canadian psychological drama film directed by Bruce McDonald and written by Maureen Medved. Based on Medved's 1998 novel of the same name, it stars Ellen Page as Tracey Berkowitz exploring the city in search of her missing brother, presented in a nonlinear narrative and split screen format.
The film premiered at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival, where it was awarded the Manfred Salzgeber Prize for innovative filmmaking.

Plot

15-year-old Tracey Berkowitz is in her underwear under a tattered shower curtain at the back of a bus in Winnipeg, Manitoba, looking for her little brother Sonny, who thinks he's a dog.
Tracey's journey leads into the dark underbelly of the city, into the emotional cesspool of her home, through the brutality of her high school, the clinical cat-and-mouse games with her shrink and her soaring fantasies of Billy Zero - her rock and roll saviour. Her travels also put her in contact with the seedier inhabitants of the city, like Lance, her would-be saviour who ultimately puts her life in jeopardy.
Tracey's stories begin to intertwine truth with lies, and hope with despair, as she moves closer to the truth of Sonny's disappearance.

Cast

McDonald read the book and called it "like a contemporary Catcher in the Rye", and contacted to Medved, who wrote a first draft script that was used in the film. McDonald decided to utilize multiframe techniques and split screen format with mosaic images, which was inspired by sources as diverse as The Thomas Crown Affair, The Boston Strangler, a Beastie Boys video, and Piet Mondrian's paintings. Using as many as eight frames at once, McDonald wanted to show the fragmented nature of Tracey's mind and offer "windows" into her consciousness, therefore each section of the screen offers a different perspective or camera angle of the same scene.

Casting

McDonald's first choice was Ellen Page, and he originally talked to her when she was 15, the same age as the character. Page had been recommended to him by Daniel MacIvor and Wiebke von Carolsfeld, the writer and director of the 2002 film in which Page stars, Marion Bridge. At the time, Page said she felt she wasn't quite ready to take on the part, which was described as "a gruelling portrait of a girl suffering from everything from psychiatric abuse to near rape". Her decision turned out well, as McDonald wasn't able to raise the financing until Page was a little more grown up.

Filming

began in early 2006 as an adaptation of the novel. Filming lasted 14 days over a period of four weeks in the spring of 2006, and took place in Toronto, Brantford and the suburbs of Hamilton, Ontario. Cinematographer Steve Cosens shot the film on Panasonic DVX100 at 24p frame rate, with 35 mm film stock. Post-production took almost nine months, along with three editors working on two Macs using Apple Final Cut Pro. One particular bloom sequence used all 99 available tracks of Final Cut Pro, generating nearly 200 minutes of running footage inside two minutes of actual running time. Assistant editor Matt Hannam graduated to become the third member of the editing team while working on particularly complex multi-frame transition scenes.

Soundtrack

The score, released on 13 May 2008, is composed by and features music from Canadian indie rock group Broken Social Scene. The soundtrack also features Fembots, Slim Twig, Duchess Says, Rose Melberg and "Land Horses", a cover version of Patti Smith's "Horses" by Land of Talk's Elizabeth Powell.

Release

The Tracey Fragments was selected to open the Panorama section of the 57th Berlin International Film Festival and had its world premiere on February 8, 2007. It was distributed in Canada by Odeon Films, with world sales were handled by Bavaria Films International. It had its North American premiere at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival on September 12. Canadian theatrical release followed on 2 November 2007. The film was also screened as part of a special series at the Museum of Modern Art on 14 and 18 March 2008. It was acquired for the United States by THINKFilm, and was released May 9, 2008, after its premiere at the AFI Film Festival in Los Angeles in November 2007.
The film was a low-budget production, and grossed $33,183 domestically in 4 theaters.

Critical reception

website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 42% of 38 critic ratings are positive for the film, with an average rating of 5.11/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Splitscreen intensive and at times ambiguous, this Ellen Page vehicle cum psychodrama takes audacious risks that may confuse." Metacritic calculated a weighted average score of 54 out of 100, based on 10 reviews, citing "mixed or average reviews".
Boston Herald called the film's visuals "fascinating and ambitious", and the narrative is "like origami, folded and refolded upon itself", adding that it "should be seen by anyone interested in the art of film and the art of bravura film acting. It is also a further reminder that Page is the real thing. But we knew that already." A. O. Scott of New York Times wrote, "In the hands of a more literal-minded filmmaker The Tracey Fragments might well have been dreary and unbearable, a chronicle of florid self-pity justified by arbitrary cruelty. Instead it is fierce, enigmatic and affecting. Some of this has to do with Ms. Page, who seems to be everywhere these days in the wake of Juno and who brilliantly embodies precocious intelligence under various forms of duress. While the full range of trauma that befalls Tracey does not seem entirely plausible, Ms. Page is never less than convincing." V.A. Musetto from New York Post applauded McDonald's "high-octane approach" and Page's "daring performance". Peter Howell of Toronto Star was positive towards film, praising Page's performance and labeling the film as "a tough watch, but a rewarding one for those open to experimentation." The Playlist started their review by writing the film "is going to be polarizing in the blogosphere, not so much for the splintered film techniques, but more because of hot-button topic actress Ellen Page whose role in Juno, seemed to provoke a lot of ire of many a blogger and armchair critic who evidently hates teen girls that deign to speak in pop-cultural tones", opining that the split screen technique was "not obnoxious as it sounds" but it was "both effective and grating at times and will likely make or break the film for audiences." They concluded, "The performances are strong, the visuals are striking and romantic, the music is typically evocative yet subtle, and in spite of the dark premise, it's a lot more funny and playful than it ought to be." Boston Globes Wesley Morris noted that Page was "an amazing combination: the Bizarro Natalie Wood and the Bizarro Wednesday Addams" in a film that "never settles on an emotional tone". Joe Neumaier of New York Daily News gave the film a negative review, referring to the film as "a grating stunt that plays like a film-school project, cutting a bland story into a million tiny irritating pieces". He also stated that Page "needs to drop the smart-aleck Juno bit and act her age." Writing for Reelviews, James Berardinelli commented, "This unexceptional and uninteresting story of a self-pitying borderline-personality teenager verges on being unwatchable as a result of McDonald's decision to bombard the audience with extraneous images in lieu of telling the story."
In his DVD review, James Musgrove from IGN said that Page "tackles yet another intense and nuanced role", and she "has never been an actress to shy away from different and demanding roles, always performing them with impeccable talent and dedication. Ladies and gentlemen, she's done it again!" He found extras to be "more or less passable". In the bottom line, he wrote "Not for everybody, but relevant to everyone. There isn't a person alive who hasn't felt like the world was falling apart around them, and it is here that we can truly empathize with Tracey. This movie may make certain viewers scratch their heads, but without the daring approach that it took, it would perhaps be nothing compared to what it became. Watch it, if only for Page's fantastic performance." Another DVD review came from The A.V. Clubs Noel Murray, who thought that without the "visual play", the story "wouldn't be all that exceptional" and "McDonald's collage approach is hit-and-miss, there are moments in The Tracey Fragments as exhilarating as any in recent indie cinema."

Accolades

On 11 December 2007, The Tracey Fragments was chosen as one of Canada's Top Ten Films of 2007 by Toronto International Film Festival.
YearAwardCategoryRecipientResultRef.
2007Berlin International Film FestivalManfred Salzgeber AwardThe Tracey Fragments
2007Atlantic Film FestivalBest Canadian FeatureThe Tracey Fragments
2007Atlantic Film FestivalBest DirectorBruce McDonald
2007Atlantic Film FestivalBest ActressEllen Page
2008Vancouver Film Critics Circle AwardsBest Actress in a Canadian FilmEllen Page
2008Genie AwardsAchievement in DirectionBruce McDonald
2008Genie AwardsPerformance by an Actress in a Leading RoleEllen Page
2008Genie AwardsAdapted ScreenplayMaureen Medved
2008Genie AwardsAchievement in EditingJeremiah Munce, Gareth C. Scales
2008Genie AwardsAchievement in Overall SoundJohn Hazen, Matt Chan, Brad Dawe
2008Genie AwardsAchievement in Sound EditingSteve Munro, Paul Shikata,
John Sievert, David Drainie Taylor
2008Key Art AwardsInternational PrintThe Tracey Fragments
2008Directors Guild of CanadaSound Editing – FeatureSteve Munro, David Drainie Taylor
2009Women in Film and Television Vancouver Spotlight AwardsArtistic Achievement AwardMaureen Medved
2009Chlotrudis AwardsBest Adapted ScreenplayMaureen Medved
2009Chlotrudis AwardsBest Supporting ActorJulian Richings

Other media

''Tracey: Re-Fragmented''

Tracey: Re-Fragmented was a project by the director and producers that was launched on 29 October 2007, and made available all footage from the film shoot and the soundtrack to download and remix into "their own related projects, including music videos, new trailers or to re-edit the entire movie themselves". The footage was released under a Creative Commons licence as four torrents, each approximately four gigabytes in size. Registration for the project ended on 31 January 2008. A contest was held for the best use of the footage, with the winner getting an Apple Final Cut Pro software prize pack and the winning material being included on the DVD release, in addition to a video by Ottawa-based punk band Sedatives. This was the first time in the history of cinema that a director made free downloads of a film available to fans concurrent with the film's theatrical release.

Tie-in media

The film and the novel inspired a comic book based on Tracey's adventures beyond the film by Andy Belanger, also titled The Tracey Fragments, that was released to promote the source materials.

Home media

A DVD launch screening in Toronto took place on 6 July 2008 with giveaways, a Q&A with Bruce McDonald, screenings of the Tracey: Re-Fragmented contestants and a sneak peek at McDonald's next film Pontypool, followed by a DVD release in Canada and the US two days later.