[CRITICAL] THE IMMIGRANT

“We are all IN industry “. This is a pub that is happening in my cinema. What am I saying ! This is THE best pub in the world ! And no, this is not my film. See the state of desolation pre-filmesque I enjoy thanks to my false bourgeois but viscerally, country location. Future pharmacist (well, it’s in the talks), ” M**** ! I’d have to take my venlafaxine ! “ I thought so ! But no drug, hard as it is, can resist and help you face the long waves of a 25-minute pubs distressing and trailers poorly lined that separate you from your movie. The only salvation possible is the work itself. And today, it was James Gray. So it was going to be.

It would, finally, to a certain extent. He himself admits : ” I make films sad “. Antithetical cure for depression, isn’t it ? Although according to the rule of signs, less for less, it’s over. But whatever it is, and regardless of the happiness contrary provided, the film remains an effectively sad.

This is the first point that I will discuss. The essential character of the work and above all absolutely undeniable, the emotional intensity generated by this sadness at once felted and gross is simply amazing. During this descent into hell, we get stuck. Snapped up. Engaged and fascinated. The dance of the feelings to which one is in front of the screen can only resonate in rhythm to the depths of our bones at each not supported in this dance macabre. Slowly, gently, cruelly, we are witnessing a febrile decoction of life and the expansion of the blackness sentimental.

James Gray is a modern master of the tragedy. It proves once again masterfully. Its ability to submit the noble kind in the life of little people is an example and a lesson of mastery which arises a cathartic power seizing. Without grandiloquence, while retained and simplicity, James Gray manages to make us see the strong from the weak, the intensity from the banality.

This tragic force classic, he gives us this through a story that might seem simple and well worn. From the first shot, it shows the Statue of Liberty back. The harbinger of a vain promise, a dream already shattered, that the end from the beginning. And this great idea of showing the behind-the-scenes, and the impossible realization of a project, it applies to a fate that is common and simple : that of a young immigrant Polish. From there, interest in the ordinary, it then arrives to release an incredible force and a range of non-standard thanks to the attention brought to the accuracy of the follow-up of this simple life that everyone can identify with. James Gray key then to the universal.

“Always so classic and classy, Gray serves us a lesson by staging outrageously fierce.”

We follow the adventures of this young immigrant, itself, acknowledges its slow asphyxiation to hell. Deeply moving heroine and touching human person, we see it morph into little by little until you become ready to accept the descent, cold and bleak to the depths of humanity. River of hope and optimistic at the beginning, it will then livid and empty of any vital substance in the end of the film. A silhouette of pale wandering, surviving, and struggling in a torrent of woe and sadness.

The arrival of a magician-bel man will change nothing. Glimmer of hope is quickly extinguished as announced in its business : not everything is illusion and stealth. Now, also happy may he be, is only a fragment isolated lost in the ocean painful and cruel life. James Gray breaks everything, destroyed every single hope, kills any attempt of happiness and spread slowly an ominous and delicate black tide. We, therefore, find all the talent of the director and what he likes and, therefore, that one is fond of.

We are in the field known by many points. First, the realization, of course. Always so classic and classy, Gray serves us a lesson by staging outrageously fierce. The paw Gray is there, and it is a pleasure. Even better, it is refined. It improves with time. Each film is indeed a step towards the purification of one style and a perfect mastery sweats each plan. THE IMMIGRANT is no exception to the rule. What a breathtaking achievement indeed ! How not to be captivated by a film so well-measured. Each scene is perfect and fits perfectly. As short can be, as just they are. The story does not suffer any downtime and is based on the essential need of sequences that were tamed. Nothing is too much, nothing is not enough.

The atmosphere, in addition to being served by framing plans and fabulous, rests securely on a soundtrack of hushed always at the service of the stage and the story. The twilight photography warmly cold and exceptionally united completes then all through the moments of grace that she serves. The realization frieze insolently perfection and radiates absolute strength : exemplified by the sequence of the church (and in particular of the confessional) that crystallizes both the emotion and the issues identified by the history and the mastery of the mise en scene.

“The trembling silhouette of Joaquin Phoenix runs through the film as the shadow of death ; physical mephistophelean character to evil for a role.”

What one finds, apart from his talent, it is also the one of Joaquin Phoenix. Trademark also, it’s always a huge pleasure to find it at the cinema, and even more in a James Gray. After a comeback in The Master where it exploded the screen of genius, it can be found here for a role as complex and mastered. Elegant wicked figure, magnetic, and treacherous, and we witness her metamorphosis from bastard without a heart to bastard at heart selective. Imperceptible node voltage, it happens to dazzle and fascinate the spectator by this rage content. While retained throughout the film, we are loving and sublime in every scene. His trembling silhouette runs through the film as the shadow of death ; physical mephistophelean character to evil for a role.

Sober, he will eventually unleash in a final scene deeply moving when all of his resentment and furious sadness to see the day when he can no longer bear it too full of feelings. Here, even the devil feels emotions. It also follows his slow destruction. Consumed little by little, the fire of his eyes and is gradually extinguished to leave only two balls empty, which is no more than to let in the cold light of a life that is slowly dying.

Complex character, the role played by Marion Cotillard . James Gray has perfected the psychology of his characters in the smallest details. They look at them with a tender love cruel. However, as interesting as it is the figure of Ewa (and it is), a small problem appears in the interpretation of the actress. A little too bland and looking to play, she discredits some of the time, the character with a boring interpretation is not very convincing (see the scene where she cries over a death).

Finally, for the negative points, that makes little. But it is necessary to add a surprising optimism in the final part of the developer for once. But nothing that can tarnish the immense dark canvas he has drawn gradually under our eyes. James Gray has given us a painting deliciously dark where the black égaye curiously and warmly even smaller square centimeters.

A true work of art, narrative, ominous, evidence of the ascension of a director, a real slap visual, powerful slap in the face to the emotional, this James Gray is a film that is ultimately very intimate and simple but oh so important and significant in the filmography of the director : at once a cornerstone and a point of no return.

Paul

Your opinion ?