I wonder, what do most people believe is the duty of a film critic? Is it merely a matter of offering an opinion on a film? Is it important to extract themes out of scenes where the casual moviegoer may see nothing? Or is it something of a combination of both, an understanding the language of film in ways so as to further express why one may have reached their opinion? I ask because video essayist Tony Zhou‘s look at the “Quadrant System” of Nicolas Winding Refn‘s Drive is extraordinarily fascinating as he takes a look at what may seem like obvious, every day scenarios within the film and gives a greater understanding why they work beyond their mundane appearance.
Zhou shines a light on Refn’s use of framing, eye lines and what is going on above, below and to the right and left of the natural sight lines. Highlighting information we absorb, but are most likely not paying particular attention to.
Every so often I’ll notice something like this in a film, but in this case I can’t say I ever explicitly recognized Refn’s framing outside of what Zhou says at the beginning of this video, “It just feels alive.” Thanks to him we have a further understanding of one reason of why that may be.
