Columbus

One thing that really stood out for me in this film was the use of perspective; particularly 1st point perspective with the centre framed shots of the buildings, looks awesome. This can be said for nearly every scene to be fair, it's all shot so well and structured, which is ironic and also cool seeing the film is all about buildings and how life can be 'built up', 'broken down' and 'rebuilt'. As someone who took architectural drawing for a couple years, the buildings in this film are captured exactly how you would want them to look on an assignment (same goes for the indoors settings too). Although I studied architecture (sort of) for a while, I never interpreted buildings in this way, and I love that I've been opened to this view. To quickly note something since I feel it's sorta on the topic, I dislike a decent amount of rich people for many different reasons, but I envy that they're able to keep everything around them so neat and pretty all the time, especially in their environment; there's a special serenity with having things clean all the time, especially beautiful things that are made to last, although I'm also a big advocate of 'living in' things, like having worn books and tatty jeans. Something else in the film that I really liked was the use of visual metaphors. For example, the leaves on the branch that were dangling in the river when Jin was talking to Eleanor by the bridge about Jin's father (big sentence ik). It's like something beautiful that can grow and produce life such as the branch, like Jin's father, is being dragged away by the cyclical river of life and all we know, and that he's slowly being tugged away; as many times as we lift the branch out of the river, one day it'll fall, or it'll be carried away to who knows where, and all we're left with is what that branch gave us. I felt like it really set the mood for the conversation, as they go on to talk about the inevitable future and how Jin feels about his father. And then what I loved was how it showed the plants after Jin was hugging Eleanor. It's like the entire bridge of stoicism of Jin (pun sorta intended) was teared now. And we are shown that he was just a sad kid that was abandoned mentally by his father who tried to cope with his pain and embarrassment of being alone. What I loved specifically was that in the background is a hazy, blurred plant, like the one that was being pulled in the river. It also shows another plant in front of it, which we could interpret as younger or less rooted, starting to slowly bloom (again). The plant in the back is moving , but the one in front is completely still. It's hard to say how I think about it, or what I think about it, but it's a nice comparison of Jin and his father, and can even be said for Cassandra and her mother, and that sometimes a plant may take longer to show it's beauty. Also wanted to touch up on the music. It was atmospheric in the way that it almost hugged the screen, or gently lay over it. It just encapsulated the feel of the film so perfectly. It's also moody in the way that you're left to think about what you've seen and how the characters are actually feeling, which I feel is quite an abandoned feature recently. The music doesn't feel loud too, which I guess helps push forward my feelings about it, it doesn't feel like it's banging through my headphones, and it is definitely something I'd add to my ambient playlist. I would have loved to see Grouper do this soundtrack though because I loved her work with Paul Clipson, specifically in Made of Air, where her music just feels right for the naturalistic and structural shots, and it weaves through the blended shots almost seamlessly. Last thing, not sure if I specifically mentioned it already but the cinematography and the usage and flipping between nature, buildings, and life is so fucking beautiful. I love how Kogonada shows the tours through the buildings. It really made me think about how something is designed and what emotions and thoughts go into it. For example the Taj Mahal, the guy made it for his wife. You could argue in that time it was a sign of wealth; but how much did he love her, what did he see when he looked at her, what did he see when he looked in the world around him, what emotions went into that buildings and it's design. It's the little things like that that just make me think, and it's such an underappreciated skill. I also particularly liked how the scenes go from nature, to a building/s, back to life. It shows what life is all about and every stage of evolution in design, and how architecture was about designing in the idea of love and emotion for someone. But yeah back to my main point, this film is shot significantly well and it was truly a joy to watch.