The awards season features countless chatter and campaign interviews about the nominated films, but the opinions and thoughts that resonate most are the ones that come from a pure place. Paul Thomas Anderson, Christopher Nolan, and Jordan Peele have all weighed in on the nominated pictures, and now it’s Greta Gerwig‘s turn.
The filmmaker hit the Santa Barbara International Film Festival where she picked up Outstanding Director of the Year Award, a prize shared with fellow Best Director Oscar nominees Guillermo del Toro (“The Shape of Water“), Paul Thomas Anderson (“Phantom Thread”), Jordan Peele (“Get Out“), and Christopher Nolan (“Dunkirk“). Of course, a Q&A session turned toward Gerwig’s thoughts on the work of her follow contenders, and as always, it’s fascinating:
For me, there are all of these moments. Guillermo’s movie transported me and made me fall in love with love. It did this thing that only movies can do, where you love the lovers. I don’t know that anything else can do that. It was the moment after the water goes out [of the bathroom] and Sally Hawkins is behind the creature, and the look on her face, when she looks at Richard Jenkins, is this look of, “You cannot shame me because I am in love.” It makes me tear up, just to think about it. It’s the most beautiful thing. In Dunkirk, there are so many moments to choose from. The moment that was the most emotional for me is the moment that happens after Cillian Murphy asks, “Is the boy okay?,” and he says, “Yes, he’ll be okay.” And then, he shares a look with Mark Rylance, and Mark Rylance gives him his approval. It’s a lie, but it’s for the good. Also, just the very beginning of it, where you’re instantly in the confusion of war. They’re children, and it’s just utterly confusing. That made me cry, instantly.
With [Paul’s] beautiful movie (Phantom Thread), the scene after he recovers from his first illness and he comes in and asks her to marry him, it’s both perverted and sublimely romantic. It’s so beautiful and so funny, in a way, and twisted, and she’s silent for awhile. She doesn’t answer him, and he’s like, “Why won’t you answer me?!” And I saw [Jordan’s] movie (Get Out) in the best possible way. I saw it in a huge theater in New York City, and everyone was screaming at the screen and to themselves, and everyone was terrified and laughing, and then people started crying. It was like being in a collective experience, watching everyone go through their emotions. For me, it was Daniel Kaluuya’s face when he says, “No, no, I’m not gonna talk about that,” and you see this well of pain that he can’t even articulate. It was this tender detail, in the middle of a genre film.
In a season with a lot of glad-handing and false sentiment, this is what we’re here for. Backlash campaigns are boring; this is real way to toast the best movies of the year. [Collider]
