Come Swim is a 2017 American short film written and directed by Kristen Stewart.Festival de Cannes, K.J. Stewart - Catalogue Festival de Cannes Accessed May 21, 2017 It was shown in the 70th Anniversary Events section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, and was part of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. The short was produced by David E. Shapiro of Starlight Studios, who worked with Stewart for a period of approximately three years. The film was streamed from November 10, 2017.Kristen Stewart, refinery29 - Streaming: Come Swim Refinery29 Accessed November 27, 2017
Cast Josh Kaye is the only acting cast of the film. Sydney Lopez provides voice-over.
Overview Within a paper published on the subject of a technique developed especially for the creation of the film, the film is described as "a poetic, impressionistic portrait of a heartbroken man underwater ... the film is grounded in a painting of a man rousing from sleep". The Cannes Film Festival described the film as: "a diptych of one man's day; half Impressionist and half realist portraits".http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/festival/films/come-swim Details of film Little White Lies thought the film was about loss.
Cannes Suisse listed the film as Réalité Virtuelle.Canal+ Suisse, K.J Stewart - Site Canal+ Suisse Accessed May 20, 2017 Next projection identified the film as experimental.http://nextprojection.com/2017/05/28/cannes-come-swim/ review
Film concept The idea of the film originated in ("is grounded in"Joshi (Research Engineer), Stewart (Director), Shapiro (Producer) (January 18, 2017) - Bringing Impressionism to life with Neural Style transfer in the film Come Swim Accessed November 23, 2017) a painting by Stewart of “a man rousing from sleep”.A. Pulver - Kristen Stewart co-authors research paper on 'pioneering' film technique The Guardian January 20, 2017 Retrieved November 21, 2017 In a paper co-authored by Stewart, a description of reaction to the "impressionistic" painting states it “evokes the thoughts an individual has in the first moments of waking, (fading in-between dreams and reality)... ” A subsequent exploration correspondent to this painterly thematic element is explored within the film during the introductory and final scenes.
More-over, in accordance to the painting, the original concept for the film came from an image in the mind of Stewart of "...a person sleeping contently on the bottom of the ocean floor, and getting such satisfaction from that isolation..."G. Mumford (May 22, 2017) - Article The Guardian Accessed May 27, 2017 For Stewart, her film is, amongst other things, about an experience of heartbreak (otherwise expressed by her as an "existential netherworld").M. Stout (January 23, 2017) - Interview with Kristen Stewart refinery29 Accessed 27th, 2017
Production In order to create the piece, Stewart, together with film producer David Ethan Shapiro and Bhautik Joshi at Adobe Inc., innovated a technique described as neural style transfer, a technique detailed in a paper submitted on January 18, 2017 to arXiv.A. D' Alessandro, K.J. Stewart - Kristen Stewart on her directorial debut: Come Swim Deadline Hollywood, 2017, January 21 Consulted April 29, 2017B. Joshi, K. Stewart, D. Shapiro - arXiv:1701.04928v1 Cornell University Library Retrieved April 29, 2017
Kristen Stewart partnered with Refinery29 in the production of the work.K.J. Stewart, Refinery29 - Review of short film by Kristen J.Stewart Refinery29 Retrieved April 27, 2017 David Ethan Shapiro, the CEO of Starlight Studios, situated within Los Angeles,Starlight Studios - facebook page Accessed November 24, 2017 was producer.DE Shapiro, K.J. Stewart - Biographical Starlight studios Accessed May 21, 2017
The film uses a score composed by St. Vincent.Kyle Buchanan (January 20, 2017) - Article Vulture Accessed May 6, 2017
Stewart used John Guleserian for cinematography, and Framestore to produce the visual effects.
Release and reception The film was first screened at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2017. Next projection identified the film as portraying in part something described as "nightmarish".C. Rottger - review Next projection May 28, 2017 Accessed May 30, 2017 Robbie Collin from The Telegraph awarded it four stars out of five saying: "It’s an earnest, sombre, often unsubtle work – but it’s also disciplined, sharply coherent, and cine-literate in an old-fashioned surrealist way." Matt Hoffman from Little White Lies (magazine) found minor issues with the script, but nevertheless praised the short: "Come Swim is a beautiful looking piece of work. With the help of cinematographer John Guleserian, Stewart has crafted a rapturous visual wonder that far outshines the deficiencies of the screenplay."
See also Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
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