A Single Man
Tamara and I just got back from seeing A Single Man this afternoon.
It is a beautiful film, visually, aurally, and artistically. Colin Firth plays the lead character, a gay man in the early 60s whose lover of 16 years has recently died in a car accident. Firth is sublime in the lead role, and it is a shame that he likely will not win the Oscar, as I think that, while he's almost always excellent, this may well be his best performance to date.
The score is lovely, and the art direction is mouth-watering. I loved the cinematography as well, and I don't know that I've ever seen such conscious use of saturation/light temperature as a storytelling tool: as Firth's character's moods change (as he (re-)connects with the real world around him) the saturation increases and the light becomes warmer. I think it's handled consistently, well, and not overly intrusively. I also really like the director's choice to use very tight focus (tres gros plan) on the actors through much of the film. It requires each actor to be spot-on with their performance, but most of them pull it off exceptionally well. It's a slow-moving film, and not perfect, but Tamara and I loved it.
It would make a great double feature with the wonderful Todd Haynes film Far From Heaven, and not just because Julianne Moore is in both films: they both deal very well, and very personally, with how social stigma represses, and what the cost of that repression can be. They are also both period-perfect and visually beautiful.
It is a beautiful film, visually, aurally, and artistically. Colin Firth plays the lead character, a gay man in the early 60s whose lover of 16 years has recently died in a car accident. Firth is sublime in the lead role, and it is a shame that he likely will not win the Oscar, as I think that, while he's almost always excellent, this may well be his best performance to date.
The score is lovely, and the art direction is mouth-watering. I loved the cinematography as well, and I don't know that I've ever seen such conscious use of saturation/light temperature as a storytelling tool: as Firth's character's moods change (as he (re-)connects with the real world around him) the saturation increases and the light becomes warmer. I think it's handled consistently, well, and not overly intrusively. I also really like the director's choice to use very tight focus (tres gros plan) on the actors through much of the film. It requires each actor to be spot-on with their performance, but most of them pull it off exceptionally well. It's a slow-moving film, and not perfect, but Tamara and I loved it.
It would make a great double feature with the wonderful Todd Haynes film Far From Heaven, and not just because Julianne Moore is in both films: they both deal very well, and very personally, with how social stigma represses, and what the cost of that repression can be. They are also both period-perfect and visually beautiful.