The Lost City of Z
2017 · Directed by James Gray
Original language: English
- adventure
- drama
- history
The story
A true-life drama in the 1920s, centering on British explorer Col. Percy Fawcett, who discovered evidence of a previously unknown, advanced civilization in the Amazon and disappeared whilst searching for it.
What it’s like
Dense green jungle filmed in humid, sun-dappled light, with the canopy often closing overhead and the camera hanging close to the mud, water and sweating faces. James Gray shoots much of it in classical widescreen compositions, with long unhurried takes that let the frame fill with river, fog and bodies moving through it, and the early Edwardian interiors have a warm amber, candlelit stiffness that gives way to something greyer and more exposed. The score is sweeping and mournful, built on strings that swell over quiet stretches of insect hum, rain on canvas and the slap of oars. The mood is melancholy and contemplative rather than thrilling: a long, patient study of obsession and the cost of a restless man's dreams, with a stretch of real danger in the jungle that arrives in brief, startling bursts, including a few sudden, unflinching moments of violence and illness, but nothing sustained or gory. Its pacing is deliberate and lingering, and its arc follows a driven explorer and the family left waiting behind him as the distance between their ideals and their lives widens. It suits a quiet, rainy evening or a slow watch alone, and it is best for people who enjoy historical drama, nature-heavy visuals and films that linger on character over spectacle.
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