You can literally see it all in the new meta-documentary about Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes.
The film, co-directed by Lance Oppenheim and comedian Nathan Fielder, who also appears on screen, reinvents the genre – or perhaps returns it to its roots. Initial filming took place in the 34 days before Holmes began his federal prison sentence for defrauding investors, during which time Fielder lived with Holmes and his partner Billy Evans in their rented beach house in Del Mar. The crew had much more access than filmmakers typically have – the title refers to a text Holmes sent to Fielder about his freedom to film.
In a recent interview with GQOppenheim (who also directed the drama “To Catch a Predator”)Prime time” speculated about why Evans agreed to be completely naked, in the shower, on camera. The scene is one of many standout moments that left the audience and Fielder himself both stunned and uncomfortable.
“I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t know,” Oppenheim said when asked why Evans did that scene. “It’s beyond me, but I’ve heard some interesting theories that people have when they see it. I mean, in terms of how the moment was captured, it’s kind of the way you see it. There’s a camera in the bathroom, there’s a camera that was on Nathan, there’s a camera outside the bathroom, and there’s an interaction that we see after Billy leaves where he kind of looks at the camera and smiles.”
“So I don’t know what that means, but I feel like there’s enough in there that makes me feel like maybe he was excited that people could see everything and there was full access, I guess,” he continued. “But it really beats me, honestly. We were in the car coming back from the gym and I told Billy, ‘We’ll give you some time to take a shower.’ And Billy said, “You want to film me showering?” I offered to film him in a way to avoid seeing his genitals, but Billy said he didn’t mind being seen naked.
The filmmaker compared “You Can See Everything” to a observational truth cinema, one of the oldest forms of documentary filmmaking. He referred Michael Moore And Ross McElwee films as similar cases in which a director becomes present on screen. Oppenheim compared the second half of the film, which relies on reenactments, to the style of Errol Morris: “The thin blue line.”
“In reality, we feel like we created a giant by simply responding to what was in front of us,” he said, “with all the basic principles of documentary filmmaking.”
An exercise in truth, perception and distortion, most audience members leave the theater unsure of what is real – including whether Fielder is playing a character. Oppenheimer, for his part, thinks it’s “as close to his real face as possible.”
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