There are naturally difficulties inherent with every genre of film but one stands above the rest; the ensemble cast movie. This type of film typically has several story lines that have to converge by the end and a large cast that form their own little mini universes in which to act. The master of this particular aspect of the craft was Robert Altman. Most of his films were textbook examples of this arduous type of film making. He was able to keep his large and diverse cast all moving forward usually giving some of the best performances of their careers. His stories where like a beautifully made tapestry which each thread representing a fascinating tale on its own; when combined they were sheer magic. He also set the bar for this genre incredibly high for those that dared to follow his lead. A few years ago showed the bar could be reached with his Oscar Best Picture, ‘Crash’. Now another entry to the fray is out on DVD; ‘South of Pico’ by writer director Ernst Gossner. While not up to the level of ‘Crash’ or any of the Altman films this one takes on the difficulties in production and presents an excellent film for the discerning movie fan. This film is an interesting study of human behavior and the uncomfortable feeling some in the audience may get is due to how Gossner uses his work to reflect the best and worse aspects of human nature. This is not an easy film to watch. It is not one that can be relegated to the background as you chat with friends. It demands the attention and concentration of the viewers. This is not to say that it is not worth the effort, it certainly is. All too many films are so devoid of a real story line that when one like this comes a long you might be out of practice having to devote so much of yourself to watching it. The film is out on DVD thanks to Image Entertainment and now there is no excuse not to put a little quality into your viewing.

This is the first high profile feature length film for Gossner. He has a long career with shorts and has learned a lot from them. In many ways this experience with short films was a major help in his style here. A film like this is a series of converging short stories all loosely connected. This in itself reflects a lot of how life actually unfolds. We all have little parts that we play during the day and a usually unaware of what part we have played, however small, in the lives of those whose path we crossed. Very often when a writer director only has experience he lacks the necessary tools to maintain the narrative throughout a longer film. Here, Gossner uses the short story format as pieces of a puzzle; each showing one segment of the over all story. As the writer of the script Gossner not only takes on a difficult format but doesn’t shy away from a subject that will certainly bring about some controversy; the social structure of our country. He capture the human nature of this problem so well that this film won the grand jury prize in the American Black Film Festival and top honors for a screen play in an Austrian film festival. This just demonstrates that the story presented here may be set against an American setting but the issues are universal.

Not only did Gossner’s years of work help out with his scripting it had a pronounced influence on his directorial style. One of the major pitfalls in a film of this type is to concentrate too long on a particular scene or story line. In order to expedite the audiences understanding of the work the director must keep things moving between the interlocking segments. Gossner does this extremely well never letting the viewer lose track of one story by his concentrating on another. Each portion of the story is given its own moment to shine. He also doesn’t force the ultimate connections that the audience has to understand to make the film work overall. He is able to see not only the broad picture but pays attention to the details of each story line. That is a rare quality and one that will certainly only improve with time. Most of us only watch movies so we can’t really appreciate the task involved to actually pull off a complex story like this so well. Gossner holds the film together far more cohesively than most of his peers could have managed. He also eschews the familiar need of a film maker to provide a typical Hollywood conclusion to his movie. Again reflecting real life there are not always nice neat endings to a story. He takes the risk of letting the audience decide what ultimately happens to his characters.

The film begins with a title card that tells us that this story was inspired by actual events. We hear what appears to be a car crash as the shot focuses on a snail slowly moving along. While the following events may seem to be important they go unnoticed by the life around us. The camera pulls back to reveal the aftermath of a traffic accident. There are four people present; two cars and a bike. The people are Carla (Gina Torres), a waitress, Dr. Walter Chambers (Henry Simmons), a pediatric oncologist, Robert (Kip Pardue), a limo driver and Patrick (Soren Fulton), a fifteen year old boy. They all seem in shock; a few have blood splattered on their clothing. As they stand there looking at each other we have no idea as to who they are or what happened. This is another example of how well Gossner is treating this film. These are strangers and we know as little about them as they do. This pulls you in from a purely voyeuristic vantage point and makes you feel as if you were in that group of people. The alternative would have been to build the back stories for each of the four before the accident. This would have spoiled this moment and greatly detracted from the emotional impact of the scene. The main events depicted here occur in roughly a four hour time span. The back stories for each of the characters come out organically filling the audience in slowly letting us become familiar with each of them. The flashbacks begin some 12 hours before the actual event as we see what brought each of them to that evident moment.

This is not a great film but it is much better than you might have imagined. Gossner holds the narrative together and presents a movie that will have you talking for a long time after the final credits. Image Entertainment is one of the places to go for little Indy films like this that otherwise you may never come across. This is an excellent example of how an ensemble film should be done. If this is how Gossner starts his feature film career I can’t wait to see what he has in store next.