Harvey 🎉 🎆 🎉’s review published on Letterboxd:
Movies based on real events ranked
1001 movies you must see before you die (Ranked)
Oscar Winners (Ranked) (2016)
(Best International Feature)
My first Hungarian film. (Yes I know I need to watch some Bela Tarr films)
With how every scene is filmed in this it’s hard not to be so drawn in and feel so personal about it.
If you’ve seen this then you’ll be aware that by far the most striking thing about this film is it’s massively unique cinematography, it’s use of a handheld camera worked so well in immediately immersing you into Sauls horrible world inside of a concentration camp.
Obviously what comes with all of that is a mass amount of closeups on all of the characters really emphasising the shared suffering in those times but each with their individual stories.
On top of the cinematography what really excels in this is the sound design - I’ve seen Mad Max so I understand why that won the award for best sound design - but for me this is just on a whole other level.
The Mechanical noises , the screams , the murmurs, the extras , the gunfire, the flames, the engines every single noise in this (which was way more prevalent than the dialogue) massively contributed to that overwhelming atmosphere that it set out to create. Only being enhanced due to the absence of an actual score.
Genuinely a film that everyone should see purely for the cinematography alone never mind the fantastic story and performances