This is not an ordinary movie. This is in fact the opposite of ordinary movies.
Mainstream ("Hollywood") cinema of today seems (to me at least) to have lost touch with the artistry displayed by previous masters such as D.W. Griffith, Carl Theodor Dreyer and Ingmar Bergman. The art of not just telling a good story, but also telling that story in a good way. This is, in my opinion, done in a very nice way by Lynne Ramsay and her co-workers in this movie.
The things I'm talking about, which they excel at in this production, are all the things that they used to tell the stories in the silent-movie era:
* Lead actors/actresses which can actually cary the movie by facial expressions and screen-presence.
* A soundtrack which works actively to amplify the current situation, as opposed to just being "the next hit single".
* Directing, which include scenes that don't necessarily forward the story, but are used solely to convey the current mood of the characters.
If you just want a good story, you could read a book. To me, seeing a movie is about also getting the extra workmanship of acting, soundtrack and scenery, as perceived by someone else. That is what you get in this movie.
Unfortunately I don't think this performs very well as a movie-script. It may be an brilliant book, I haven't read it, but as a script I find it just plain boring and overly predictable. Having saidthat, I would recommend this movie to anyone who would like to see some excellent cinematic work.
Not just telling a story, but telling it good...
Mainstream ("Hollywood") cinema of today seems (to me at least) to have lost touch with the artistry displayed by previous masters such as D.W. Griffith, Carl Theodor Dreyer and Ingmar Bergman. The art of not just telling a good story, but also telling that story in a good way. This is, in my opinion, done in a very nice way by Lynne Ramsay and her co-workers in this movie.
The things I'm talking about, which they excel at in this production, are all the things that they used to tell the stories in the silent-movie era:
* Lead actors/actresses which can actually cary the movie by facial expressions and screen-presence.
* A soundtrack which works actively to amplify the current situation, as opposed to just being "the next hit single".
* Directing, which include scenes that don't necessarily forward the story, but are used solely to convey the current mood of the characters.
If you just want a good story, you could read a book. To me, seeing a movie is about also getting the extra workmanship of acting, soundtrack and scenery, as perceived by someone else. That is what you get in this movie.
Unfortunately I don't think this performs very well as a movie-script. It may be an brilliant book, I haven't read it, but as a script I find it just plain boring and overly predictable. Having saidthat, I would recommend this movie to anyone who would like to see some excellent cinematic work.
Not just telling a story, but telling it good...