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Renowned photographer Laurie Simmons directed “The Music of Regret,” starring a serie

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Translating a photograph into a film is tricky. But translating photographs of puppets, dolls and objects with legs (think walking guns, clocks and cakes) into a full-blown musical motion picture is downright challenging.

Photographer Laurie Simmons, who is known for her photographs of such objects, accomplishes this feat as she brings them to life in the movie musical “The Music of Regret,” which is screening at the UCLA Hammer Museum on Wednesday.

Simmons described her photography’s focus as “women in interior space.” A number of her photographs consist of paper-doll women in dollhouse scenes.

“I’ve been like a dog with a bone,” she said. “My pictures have been variances of the same subject.”

According to Michael Rohatyn, the film’s composer, consistency is not the only notable aspect of Simmons’ work; the themes of the film are both timely and relevant to life.

“I think it’s true to its title,” he said. “I think that disappointment, regret and that kind of background worry of wondering if you’ve blown it, is basically at this moment a very American emotion.”

The 40-minute film consists of three separate acts. The first is about a disagreement between two puppet families. The second is a romance between a woman (played by Meryl Streep) and a dummy. The third consists of a performance by legged objects (portrayed by the Alvin Ailey II dance company). All three acts are inspired by Simmons’ photographic work, pieces that date back to the 1980s.

Simmons is the first to tell you that there’s a big difference between photography and filmmaking.

“I was thinking about the film like thousands of still images. ... Each theme, each moment I had to think not only what the character and subject was, but each move,” she said. “It was very overwhelming to switch from still photography to time-made work.”

However, Simmons, as a first-time filmmaker, was by no means alone in her filmmaking endeavor – she had the help and experience of such big names as the award-winning Streep, cinematographer Ed Lachman (“The Virgin Suicides,” “Erin Brockovich”) and Rohatyn, who also composed scores for films such as “The Ballad of Jack and Rose” and “Arctic Son.”

“In some sense, I didn’t even have an expectation because I didn’t understand the possibilities,” Simmons said. “Someone like the cinematographer Ed Lachman could take my vision and interpret it, and explain to me what the possibilities were, and even then the result was so much more than I’d ever hoped for.”

From the other side, Rohatyn especially appreciated the message behind the film.

“The politics in Laurie’s art and the popular commentary on Laurie’s art are at a very high level and they are transmitted very elegantly,” Rohatyn said. “I hope people just enjoy it and by the end of the (film) they ... can’t believe what they just saw and ... they talk about it with a smile.”

“The Music of Regret” premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in May 2006 and elicited a reaction from viewers that did not necessarily correspond with Simmons’ expectations.

“The audience started to laugh at certain parts and I was just sinking lower and lower in my seat. I had taken every aspect of what I had done so seriously,” she said. “I was so taken aback by the idea that people would be laughing, and I’ve always considered humor, at least in my own work, to be one of the simplest interpretations, and not an interpretation that I really savor.

“My expectations of what the viewer would take from the film clearly weren’t in line with what has actually happened in the subsequent screenings,” she added.

But surely the Hammer Museum’s respect for Simmons and her work is a testament to the artistic merit of the film.

“With the opening of the Billy Wilder Theater, we’re also trying to program more artist-made films, as we now have this beautiful stage to present them in, so Laurie (is one of the first) artists to be featured in this new series of artists,” said James Bewley, director of public programs and education at the Hammer Museum.

Rohatyn also spoke on behalf of the effectiveness of the film’s intrigue.

“I’ve become very self-conscious of my music,” he said. “But watching ‘The Music of Regret’ I definitely am able to sort of drift into Laurie’s world.”

Simmons, like so many other artists, just wants her audience to be affected by what they see on screen.

“I hope that (viewers) find the combination of image and music as powerful as I do,” she said.