Seventh Row is a nonprofit Canadian film criticism publication and publishing house. We're dedicated to helping you expand your horizons by curating the best socially progressive films from around the world and helping you think deeply about them. This newsletter is run by Seventh Row (http://seventh-row.com) but features exclusive content not found on the website.
How do we know what Julie is thinking?
|
Julie spends most of The Worst Person in the World trying to work out what kind of life she wants. She changes degrees. She changes relationships. She keeps discovering that the life she thought she wanted no longer quite fits. From the outside, it could look like she just can’t make up her mind. But that’s not how it feels to watch her.
Somehow, throughout the film, we always seem to understand:
Even though she rarely explains any of it out loud — in fact, she often can’t yet explain it. We often credit our understanding of Julie to Renate Reinsve’s extraordinary performance. But there’s no facial expression for being 70% of the way to making up your mind. And there’s no body position for why this choice costs so much more than that choice. Joachim Trier’s direction has to make all of that visible. The question is… How does he do that? Let me show you one way he achieves this → Alex P.S. The Deep Focus: The Worst Person in the World is built around one central question: how does Trier let us into Julie's decision-making process throughout the film? If you click through, I'll show you one example of how he does that. We start the first week of August. Enrollment opens July 23. Each cohort is capped at eight people, which is why enrollment isn't open yet: to give you time to work out whether it's an experience you'd enjoy. P.P.S. If you're wondering how you can learn about the program:
If you already know you don't want to join any part of Joachim Trier Summer — including the email series — you can skip future emails by clicking here. |
Seventh Row
Seventh Row is a nonprofit Canadian film criticism publication and publishing house. We're dedicated to helping you expand your horizons by curating the best socially progressive films from around the world and helping you think deeply about them. This newsletter is run by Seventh Row (http://seventh-row.com) but features exclusive content not found on the website.
Charli XCX declared last summer "Joachim Trier Summer" — and Elle Fanning arrived at Cannes in agreement: This summer, I thought: why not make Joachim Trier Summer something you can actually join? So I'm hosting it — and you're invited. If you've been here a while then you probably already know there are few filmmakers whose work I love as much as Joachim Trier's. I named his Oslo, August 31st the best film of the 2010s, Sentimental Value the best film of 2025 — and I'm working on a book on...
If you're considering joining The Long Arc: Looking Season 1, which starts next Tuesday, June 30 — I haven't actually talked about the most important thing. Why a 10-week commitment lets us have a better conversation than something you can drop in and out of. So let me walk you through the long arc you — and the group — will go through, too. (Yup, I'm not just talking about the long arc of a season of TV!) In Week 1, you'll start learning how to investigate this show. As soon as you join,...
Quick question for you, Reader — Have you ever walked away from an episode of TV knowing something about a character without being entirely sure how you learned it? Most of us can tell when a character feels lost, comfortable, trapped, hopeful, uncertain, or in love. We don't usually stop to ask how the show taught us that. And even if we did, where would we start? Because it's usually not any one thing. It's how the dialogue, performances, costumes, shot choices, directing, and editing all...