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For a Movie Like ‘The Zone of Interest,’ Check Out This Dread-Filled Drama
Sony Pictures Classics
Where did the children get their evil from? It was not born out of thin air, and Haneke traces it back to their parents’ generation. While most WWII films are content with depicting Nazis as absolute evil, almost like an alien entity, Haneke reveals their systemic roots. Living under widespread oppression, where verbal and physical violence are commonplace, the children resort to violence as an outlet. Their behavior is punished by even more violence, forming a vicious cycle. After watching The White Ribbon, it’s not hard to infer where Holocaust architects got the idea of branding prisoners from – their parents did it to them. The village’s patriarchs frequently guilt-trip, lecture, and berate their children with absolute condescension and zero trust; it is not a parent’s dialogue with their children, but a tyrant’s to their subjects. Later in life, the children would speak the same way as Nazi officials to their oppressed. And when evil is systemic, carried over from generation to generation, it is not isolated. When it is entrenched in the plainest, metaphorical setting of a countryside village, it is ubiquitous. The evil of Nazism is not unique to its era, and did not miraculously disappear after WWII, especially not after generations of people living with it. That means it is still living with us, as seen in Holocaust denial, the continued rise of rightwing neofascism, authoritarian regimes, and genocides still taking place. By establishing this almost hereditary linkage of evil, Haneke urgently reminds us not to forget the past.
Late ‘Parasite’ Star Lee Sun-Kyun’s Talents Shine in This Horror-Comedy
CJ Entertainment
What truly elevates his performance, though, is how it plays into the thematic subtext of the film. Sleep depicts a modernized nuclear family in which the woman is the breadwinner and masculinity is softened—Hyun-su literally ducks behind his wife when embarrassed. But when Soo-jin gradually loses her mind, the film ultimately reaffirms the patriarchy as the reasonable, responsible rock of the family, and Sleep relies on Lee’s performance to deliver this ideology. Lee can be a perfect, cute dreamboat when following his wife’s orders, but just by lowering his voice a few notches, he can easily transform into an imposing, masculine threat. The reason he works as a monster in this horror film is because the audience knows even the gentlest, most respectful husband can be the greatest threat to his wife when left together in a house, and Sleep and Lee tap right into that fear. The scariest moments of this horror film do not feature any possessed monsters wreaking havoc, but when the wife sees the husband quiet, alone, in a mood, and Lee doesn’t need to lift a finger to achieve that. Lee is the reason Sleep's horror works.
Remembering Leslie Cheung: Symbol of a Lost Hong Kong
Janus Films
While the rest of the world moved on, Cheung just froze in time. Hong Kong barely makes movies anymore, and its pop music can no longer inspire fanbase fights as intense as Cheung’s. Andy Lau is still miraculously playing action heroes at the age of 60, but there are no new movie stars. Those who remain have either sworn allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party or gone on self-exile. Democracy, rule of law… all those defining features of the city have been brutally stripped away. But Cheung hasn’t. He never fully made the transition to a China-controlled Hong Kong. The cultural and sociopolitical peak of Hong Kong was ephemeral, but our memory of Cheung—the lovable, British-educated gent—is permanent.
Interview: Ann Hui Discusses Style, Purpose, and Expression Across Her Illustrious Career in Hong Kong Cinema
Golden Scene
In many of the interviews I’ve read, including Keep Rolling, interviewers often ask you about your personal life or thoughts, but rarely about your craft and style. What kind of philosophy or thought process do you have about filmmaking elements such as cinematography and editing?
My thought process begins at the scriptwriting stage. I believe how you shoot your film is inseparable from the structure and story of your script. However, sometimes I come across ideas during different phases of the script’s completion, such as an idea for structure. In this case, I will talk to the screenwriter about it.
May December: Todd Haynes Elevates Tabloid Scandal into a Profound, Personal Interrogation
Netflix
This is most evident in the visual conceit most used by Haynes in this movie: mirrors, us as mirrors, and thus, characters directly looking at us. Haynes’ longtime DP Edward Lachman wasn’t able to shoot this film due to back injury, and Kelly Recihardt’s DP Christopher Blauvelt stepped in … Haynes proves his skill of the highest caliber as he frequently uses lines, divisions, and reflective surfaces to command the audience’s attention and advance the story and themes. When characters stare directly at us in place of mirrors, we are the lens, and the lens is us, so when Elizabeth rehearses a monologue declaring love at the audience-lens-mirror, she’s talking about how much we love her, her work, her star power, despite knowing the immorality of it all, whether it’s the statutory rape of a child, or the artifice and grey areas involved in making a film. May December reveals itself to be about the fallibility of our art form and how loose our craft’s basis is – topics miles away from the premise of a scandalous rape.