Jude Law plays cross-dressing Minx in new film

By Mike Collett-White

BERLIN (Reuters) - A barely recognisable Jude Law plays a cross-dressing, corset-wearing model called Minx in a new film made up entirely of face-to-camera interviews.

"Rage," which premieres at the Berlin film festival on Sunday, is what director Sally Potter calls "naked" cinema. It cost less than $1 million to make despite starring Law, Judi Dench, Steve Buscemi and model Lily Cole as Lettuce Leaf.

Part murder mystery, part send-up of the fashion industry, the movie forces the audience to use its imagination to fill in what goes on off camera.

All the viewer has to go on is short, confessional monologues by a cast of characters ranging from Dench's acerbic fashion writer Mona Carvell to Simon Abkarian's Merlin, who bears some resemblance to real-life designer John Galliano.

They speak to an unseen character called Michelangelo, a student working on a school project about the fashion industry who posts clips filmed on his mobile phone on the Internet.

Each section is shot against a computerised blue screen normally used for elaborate actions sequences and effects.

Potter merely changes the colours, meaning the only interaction between actor and viewer is facial expression, body language and the script.

"It's about trying to make the most simple, skeletal holding form in order to tell a story through the amazing complexity and variety of the human face," Potter told a news conference following the press screening.