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March 25, 2009
Two Lovers
I went to see Two Lovers last night, after months of anticipation fueled by I know not what - reviews, the trailer, the entire nation of France? I haven't seen any of James Gray's prior work, but something in the images in the trailer and the words in what I was reading about it took my hand, pulled me through the past few days and week and all the films at the festival, into a little seat at the Dobie, the only place in town where it was still playing, and where, from the moment Vinessa Shaw looked at the camera from the center of that medium shot, I was entranced, bewitched, harpooned. I haven't been so physically caught up in a film in I don't remember how long. I'm not sure how much of it was the film reaching out to me and how much was me leaping forward to take it in (I moved up a few rows ten minutes in), but my response was consistently visceral. I was delighted, enraged, laughing out loud.
I think it was simply the steady, formalist hand applied to such a simple story that excited me so, that made me lose my head and almost send a text message I shouldn't have. Gray teases the heart of his script's conflict out with such elegance, such stateliness, all within the confines of a narrative that by all means shouldn't feel so new and immediate, that he practically lays bare cinema's entire raison d'etre. The handful of flagrant formalist moments are perfectly balanced within a text that isn't merely classical, but classic (after watching the film, I read Zach Campbell's brief analysis and was thrilled to recognize the Hitchcock allusions that had been right there in front of me all along).
But that's hardly an explanation. I've contained some void of late that this film managed to fill. Had I a Netflix queue, Gray's other films would be first in line. While I'm at the next festival this weekend, going through the same routine, I might just have to duck back into this one again.
Posted by David Lowery at March 25, 2009 11:48 PM
Comments
Yay!
Posted by: tully at March 26, 2009 5:42 PM
David, you definitely owe it to yourself to check out Gray's other films. "The Yards", especially, is one helluva film. Gray has such a feel for textures, lights, and shadows in his films. He's always breathtaking. That scene in "Two Lovers" where Paltrow comes slinking down the alley surrounded in blackness raises so much unease for something so ordinary.... I loved this movie.
Posted by: Joseph B. at March 26, 2009 11:00 PM