Capital Celluloid 2017 - Day 159: Fri Jun 9

Birth (Glazer, 2004): Picturehouse Central, 9.30pm


Here's a special evening. Variety critic Guy Lodge introduces a 35mm screening of Jonathan Glazer's excellent, unnerving movie.

What screening on celluloid first blew your mind or one that’s meant something to you recently? One of the first prints we screened as The Badlands Collective still stands out as a special moment, and that was Jonathan Glazer’s showprint of Birth, developed on silver nitrate. It was in perfect condition, and had a real shimmering quality.
(Ian Mantgani, Badlands Collective)

Chicago Reader review:
In this eerily tranquil psychological thriller, Nicole Kidman's placid countenance is like a Rorschach: you'll project onto it what you want to see. A widow on the verge of remarrying, she's troubled by the arrival of a ten-year-old boy (Cameron Bright) who claims to be the reincarnation of her dead husband. In extreme close-ups, Kidman stares impassively at nothing. Does she believe the kid? Is he crazy? Is she? Director Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast) unnerves us with an almost sleepy tone, helped by Alexandre Desplat's lush score. The atmosphere is really the point, though I wish the script weren't quite so elliptical.
Hank Sartin

Here (and above) is the trailer.

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