Leviathan. 2012. USA/France/Great Britain. Directed by Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel. DCP. 87 min.
Without dialogue, and composed of visuals captured by a camera without boundaries, Leviathan is a completely immersive experience. Upon a fishing boat that has departed the port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, directors Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel accompany a group of men—who remain nameless—out to sea. The rhythm of the film reflects that of the sea and the routine of the men on board the ship; days and nights become almost indistinguishable, as the punctuation of time passing becomes the suggestion of a man dozing off on his meal break or the brief respite of a cigarette in between slicing extraneous fins from the catch. The camera accompanies fish stolen from the sea in large nets, sloshes on deck with waste accumulated from the ocean, and careens to the heights at the top of the boat. An experimental style, combined with sheer technological inventiveness, results in a manipulation of the documentary form that inverts our very conceptions of what it can be.
WORLD PREMIERE | FILM IN COMPETITION FOR THE ŒIL D'OR AWARD
SYNOPSIS
Five centuries ago, anatomist André Vésale opened up the human body to science for the first time in history. Today, De Humani Corporis Fabrica opens the human body to the cinema. It reveals that human flesh is an extraordinary landscape that exists only through the gaze and attention of others. As places of care, suffering and hope, hospitals are laboratories that connect every body in the world.
Films on Healthcare at the Toronto International Film Festival
Films on Healthcare at the Toronto International Film Festival
If you look close enough at the Toronto International Film Festival’s lineup, you can always find a couple of unique trends and pairings in their programmed oeuvre. Whether the executive decisions were intentional or not, it’s always fun to look within their topical slate of discussion worthy titles and find duelling perspectives on urgent issues. From sexual-repression (Winter Boy & The Blue…
De Humani Corporis Fabrica dir. Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor
Nope dir. Jordan Peele
The Worst Ones dir. Lise Akoka, Romane Gueret
The Batman dir. Matt Reeves
Leila’s Brothers dir. Saeed Roustaee
Everything Everywhere All at Once dir. Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan
*Notable mentions: All The Beauty and the Bloodshed dir. Laura Poitras, Aftersun dir. Charlotte Wells, Ambulance dir. Michael Bay, and Crimes of the Future dir. David Cronenberg.