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.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire x Belle x an Education — all in one movie?
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The best film I saw at this year’s Berlinale was a 19th-century period drama that felt like Portrait of a Lady on Fire meets Belle meets An Education. Much like in Portrait of a Lady on Fire, the only men in the film are servants or employees. Which means the story can laser-focus on the racial, class, and sexual hierarchies the women are still subject to, even when men aren’t around. Like Portrait, it is about lesbians. And like Belle, one of the main characters is a racialized aristocrat. The film’s title: The Education of Jane Cumming. This is one of three remarkable films by and about women I saw at the Berlinale. None of these films got widespread attention — largely because they were tucked away in the festival’s sidebar and directed by women making their first or second feature. On the podcast, I talk about all three films, and what makes them feel like a step forward — for their respective national cinemas and for the kinds of stories films are now telling. Like The Education of Jane Cumming, they’re all deeply interested in the systems shaping women’s lives. Want to hear about all three films — and why they feel like a step forward? Alex |
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.
You might be wondering what it's actually like to step into The Deep Focus. So here's a little taste. The first thing I always do is point you to a moment worth looking at. Below is one from the beginning of Sentimental Value. Take a sec to see what you spot in the image. Everything counts — even (and especially) the obvious. You might have noticed: ✨ We're looking through a window (which takes up most of the frame). ✨ We're watching someone through glass. ✨ Someone is leaving. ✨ It's a...
I’m running something new in April. It’s called The Deep Focus. We’ll spend three weeks with two films by Joachim Trier — Oslo, August 31st and Sentimental Value — following how they’re put together. We'll look at specific moments, trace patterns within and across the films, and see how those choices shape what you feel. If you’ve ever felt a scene hit — and weren't quite sure why — this is a space to stay with that question long enough to find an answer. I won’t tell you what to think.But I...
A couple of weeks ago, I was listening to Bill Hader, the SNL star-turned-writer-director, on the Team Deakins podcast. He was talking about rewatching Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, hitting a moment that felt like an emotional gut punch — and literally pausing the film to ask:“Why did that hit me?!” That kind of moment — where something lands harder than you expect —and you feel something strongly before you know why… You’ve probably had that, too. Even Hader — who thinks about directing...