🎬 #215 A Film I'm Excited About.
That title makes it sound like I’m not excited about any other films, but rest assured I’m very excited about films that have been released and are currently out. This one is coming out soon or is out right now in the UK, and I’m very excited to watch because it’s from a filmmaker who is probably unlike anyone else - ever. I feel like this is his most accessible film, in his very idiosyncratic way.
Please enjoy
Bry
FILM: Rose of Nevada
2025 Dir Mark Jenkin
1 hr 54 mins
I watched the trailer for the film, and it seems to be in keeping with the stylistic choices of his previous films. His first being Bait, which landed him on the map, and his second being Enys Men. Sadly, stupidly, I haven’t seen either of those, but I’ve always watched him keenly, because, like I said in the intro, he makes his films very much in his own, very uncompromising, very his own voice. Every one of them is his and you can spot it a mile off.
What makes Rose of Nevada the most intriguing to me, maybe because, like I said, it feels the most accessible within his world construct, but also it’s very much the kind of film that I would be drawn to anyway. It’s got a high concept, it’s got science fiction elements, it has horror elements, and it looks and feels incredibly atmospheric.
And perhaps it’s because Mark Jenkin not only writes and directs but edits, scores, photographs and sound designs his films, shaping all or many of the major creative layers of a film, that makes his films so unique. I think that’s what makes his stamp so visible and so distinctive and so recognisable. From the instant you see a couple of frames, a couple of seconds of his films, you get the sense that this is handcrafted, this is from the mind and imagination of a person. He has such a grasp and such a finger on all of those different disciplines within each of his projects, that it can’t help but have his DNA all over it.
A couple of the unique signifiers of a Mark Jenkin film: he shoots all of his films on a Bolex and he post-dubs all of his films. So he prefers to do all the dialogue recording in post, which gives his films a kind of uncanny effect. It’s something about the atmosphere of the voice coming from a different location that feels a bit dislocated, and it creates a really unique effect. Obviously, that’s how they used to do it back in the day, before sync sound and before recording sound on location, so that’s probably one of the most distinctive things you’ll first notice. Then there’s the 4:3 [ish] aspect ratio and the gritty texture of the 16mm film.
Everything just feels a bit more handcrafted, a bit more tactile, a bit less precious, even though everything looks beautifully composed and obviously everything is very considered. It just feels more like someone is crafting a film, like the way a painter might paint on a canvas in their studio. It feels like Mark Jenkin is kind of painting with his techniques to bring his scripts and his ideas to life in very much his own way, and that is very, very exciting to me. It is very attractive to me, and I’m really excited to see this film. I hope everyone who’s interested in this goes and checks it out too, because these are the kind of unique films that people remember and that leave an impression and inspire people to make things their own way. Not everyone can fit into a certain system or a certain methodology, and with today’s technology and all the knowledge out there, it’s just more proof that people can make things their very own way. I really respect that, and I think films like this, especially, will be inspiring for people to see.