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.
The key to great character dramas
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Hello Reader, A great character drama isn't just interested in its characters as individuals but as people responding to the world around them (other people, the culture, systemic structures, etc.). So many movies make the mistake of becoming star vehicles without realizing the star can only shine as bright as the world they're responding to. But there's a new movie out this week that exemplifies this definition of a great character drama: a film as interested in the characters at its centre as the world around them which defines them. That film is... The Girl with the NeedleIt's Denmark's Oscar submission for Best International Film and one of the year's best films. Set around WWI in Copenhagen, The Girl with the Needle sits at the edge between social realism and horror, a black-and-white film about a young woman in crisis in a society that's indifferent at best and actively cruel at worst. But her choices (and the choices of a woman she meets and starts to work for) can only be fully understood through discovering the world they're living in. Today on the podcast...I discuss what good world-building looks like and why it's so important, using The Girl with the Needle as the exemplar. Then, I talk to the film's director, Magnus von Horn, about how he conceived the world of the film (shooting in black and white, working with miniatures, and beyond!) and what that taught him about the characters' choices. Happy watching/listening! Alex P.S. The December Globetrotting Newsletter, which offers streaming recommendations for under-the-radar films, goes out on Friday at 6 p.m. ET. Sign up now so you don't miss it!
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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...