There is a fireplace for me Having spent his entire adult life working with some of the most experienced directors and producers in Hollywood, Brad Pitt seems to have acquired a stunningly sensitive sense of success. His production company Plan B Entertainment consistently from year to year produces only a truly worthwhile movie, which necessarily collects a heap of the most prestigious awards. ' Tree of Life', ' Departed'Game to demotion' and the same '12 years of slavery' for which the actor received his first and so far only statuette of the American Film Academy. What's there, even last year's triumphant 'Moonlight' was created with the participation of Pitt. 'The Lost City of Z', Brad's latest production project may not collect a full basket of Oscars. But this film is another proof of the acute intuition of the actor, who knows how to choose the most spectacular and cinematic plots.
Brad, however, did not play the main role in this film, as originally planned, but this did not impoverish the film. Because without its presence on the screen 'The Lost City of Z' is able to impress and delight the viewer in a seemingly long-forgotten way. It's a joke, the picture lasts almost two and a half hours - by the standards of the audience brought up on music videos and YouTube videos - deadly long. So asks a silly phrase, in the spirit of ' this clock flies completely unnoticed' but this, in principle, is true. The viewer simply does not need to follow the time: in the Amazon jungle there is nowhere to charge the phone, and the wristwatch has long broken, so there is simply no concept of time here. And we, picked up by the current, swim through this time, watching the life of the brave Major Percy Fawcett, and somewhere in the background, the First World War begins, icebreakers go to the shores of the Arctic, Percy's children grow up, mustaches turn gray, and the major becomes a colonel. At the same time, the narrative constantly takes away from jungle research and we observe litigation, military everyday life and the life of deer hunters, but, surprisingly, all the mundane events here are no less interesting to follow than the adventures of cartographers.
'The Lost City of Z' recalls those classic Hollywood epics of the middle of the last century, like 'Lawrence of Arabia' or 'Bridge over the River Kwai' The unhurried narrative, covering a total of more than a quarter of a century, shows the story of ordinary people, romantics and dreamers, against the backdrop of great historical events and incredibly beautiful landscapes. Even filmed on thirty-five millimeter film, as in those days ' Golden Hollywood'. Cinematographer Darius Honji, who directed the best films of David Fincher, followed the characters literally through fire and water, managing to equally impressively capture both military battles and fermentation in the jungle. The director of this film, James Gray, among European film critics is commonly called the new Scorsese, although, in this work, he manifested himself more like David Lin. With Lin’s inherent scope, he follows the fate of Major Fawcett, inspired by his impossible dream, managing to infect the viewer with the same obsessive and tempting idea that the main character is ill with. For the Russian viewer, this movie can remind the long-forgotten feelings of worrying for the heroes 'In Search of Captain Grant' Like in the song about the place, ' where it is easy to find a wanderer shelter, where you are sure to remember and wait' Percy Fawcett and his fearless companions, day after day, losing or confusing track, go to the very city that does not exist.
Perhaps someone watching the trailer could think that he was waiting for a new variation on the theme of the remote adventures of Indiana Jones, but, in fact, the desperate search for the lost city by the major is perhaps the absolute opposite of the stories about the archaeologist with a whip. James Gray in this picture unwittingly resembled Martin Scorsese and created, in fact, the same ' Silence', only devoid of religious messages. The hero of Charlie Hunnam, as well as the Jesuit priests, seeks to go through hardship and suffering to find at least some evidence of the existence of an ancient civilization, as if trying to hear the voice of God. And for indisputable proofs of the faithfulness of his own unrealizable idea, he accepts the fragments of clay pots and symbols carved on stones that could be imagined by him, as well as the face of Christ on the water surface. Major Fawcett was born at the wrong time with his ideas that 'savage' in fact, also people who are no worse, but in some ways better than us. Of course, in an archaic society that is just about to shake up the old foundations of war, his ideas are laughed at. Interestingly, the real hero of this story really his thoughts ahead of the time in which he lived, and only recently modern researchers have confirmed that the mythical city of Z is exactly where he was looking for Fosset.
It can be assumed that the closest references of director James Gray were two films, which together with ' The Lost City of Z' even in some sense complement each other, thereby turning into a conventional trilogy. Take a look at these pristine rainforests and the most realistically recreated Indian tribes - if the white man disappears from the frame and any traces of his existence, then we can instantly find ourselves in the Apocalypse & #39; Mel Gibson. There, in all colors, was shown this paradise city of Z, which is so dreamed of seeing Major Fawcett, and the greatness of which will fall immediately after the God appeared far on the horizon, taking the form of Spanish ships. Where Gibson's painting ends begins the shockingly realistic 'Aguirre, wrath of God' Werner Herzog. Literally along the same paths and river paths where the Major's expedition moved, a few hundred years before he had already tried to find the lost golden city of the equally fearless and even insane Aguirre. His journey ended like that of Fosset, and it proves once again that under the moon nothing is new, and dreamers are the same madmen. Although, it is worth paying tribute to the director: he allowed himself to add a small touch in the finale of the film, which cancels all the gloom and hopelessness of the story and makes the audience breathe out with surprise. Something similar was done by Ang Lee at the end of "Life of P'", which made viewers, like Gray, wonder about the inconsistency and ambiguity of this already confusing story.
9 out of 10
Original