🎬 #148 Great Subconscious Storytelling.
Filmmaking is amazing because it’s a form that’s always trying to capture emotion, internal states, in visual form. Rendering the internal, external. Taking the words of the script and making visual choices that clue us into what the story is, even if we’re not aware of those choices in the moment to moment enjoyment of the film. When you realise how difficult it is to make anything, it’s even more impressive when you feel like you’re being guided effortlessly through a series of visual and audio choices. Choices, that we all added together, make us feel/understand something, even if we’re not fully conscious of it.
Happy choosing, happy viewing
Bry
FILM ONE: ARRIVAL
2016 Dir Denis Villeneuve
1 hr 56 mins
This shot early in the first act of the film is so powerful because although it’s ‘just’ a slow tracking shot following the lead character from behind. But within it lies the entire film. Even a shot that lasts just a few seconds, gives us clues about the journey the character is about to embark on. This is the mark of a great filmmaker. Utilising every ounce of scenery, every single drop of filmmaking technique to tell the story, even if it’s seemingly unimportant to the viewer.
But what we see in the frame above is, [not really a spoiler] a clue to the circular structure of the film. The character is walking down a curved hallway, one section that seemingly if followed would lead her back to where she started. Not only does it nod to her path, it also foreshadows the structure of the alien language and how they view time itself.
This to me is what great ‘subconscious’ filmmaking is. It plants ideas in our minds even if we’re not consciously alert or aware of them. Denis is brilliant at this - even the importance of a seemingly ‘too’ long tracking shot of a tree in the opening scene of Prisoners isn’t revealed until the final minutes of the film. It’s fantastic work.
TL;DR: A curved hallways unlocks the secrets of Denis Villeneuve’s brilliant adaptation of Ted Chiang’s short story.
*Available for a small rental fee on Apple and Amazon in the US and the UK.
Fact: Denis and his team created over 100 logograms of the alien language that were theoretically functional - they included 72 of them in the final film.
FILM TWO: DISCLAIMER
2024 Dir Alfonso Cuarón
5 hrs 43 mins
Ok, so it’s not technically a film, but Cuarón has spoken many times about how he approached it like one long film, even shooting it as such. Covering an average of just one page a day of dialogue, whereas the typical tv show might cover 7-8 pages per day. The shoot lasted an entire year. But when you see the finished product, you’ll understand why.
Most of the film was shot on stage just outside London - the house set in particular, allowed the filmmakers to design the movement of sunlight outside, how the colour of the sky reflected the emotions within the scene. The light hitting exactly right, just at the right moment. It’s this kind of attention to all the elements in the scene that makes the filmmaker who he is, it’s like he’s applying everything he learned during the making of Gravity to a family drama. Constructing sets, art directing them perfectly, and orchestrating lighting to reflect the character’s mood - I feel like you could watch this series endlessly, to pick up on how he’s manipulated narrative to show how narrative can manipulate.
TL;DR: A look into an incident from the past and how we construct ideas in our own mind without knowing everything.
*Available to stream on Apple TV + in the US and UK.
Fact: Kevin Kline was cast because Cate Blanchett suggested him after talking with friends about A Fish Called Wanda. [One of my favourite comedies / films].