Living

Venice Film Festival #2 – Sala Giardino

Oliver Hermanus’ Living, unbeknownst to me until watching, is a remake of Kurosawa’s masterpiece Ikaru. Having never seen the latter, it benefitted me in being able to approach the film with fresh eyes and not have this persistent idea that I must compare it to arguable one of the greatest films ever made. The film is bittersweet. It’s the word that best encompasses the story, one that pulls on your heart while also being persistently warm. The film follows the same story as Ikaru, from what I gather, as it tells the story of a man who, after learning of a disease he has, decides to take life by the horns and live to the most potential.

What centres this film is the simply exquisite performance from Bill Nighy. The pain the man is feeling is showcased for us all to see in the most subtle ways. The turn it takes from this pain and anguish he feels, to the false joy as he tries to force himself to live more, to the eventual happiness he finds in his life is amazing. Nighy is able to craft this journey in such a well-intentioned performance, it’s hard not to get invested in his story. This film really wouldn’t work as well as it does if it wasn’t for Nighy’s counterpart, Aimee Lou Wood. If there was ever a perfect casting, this is it. Wood exudes this sense of pure optimism and a passion that is the perfect driving force for the film. Any scene that features the two is wonderful to watch, there’s this pure joy to it, while all the time there’s this lingering sadness that is tragically brilliant.

The film is also just gorgeous to look at. The cinematography by Jamie Ramsay really helps create this sense of warmth that the film builds upon. It helps build this intimacy between the two main characters in any of their scenes, there’s a closeness to them despite placing us far away from them. The choice of having the frames being very structured whenever a character was contemplating, and the use of crossfades, gave the film this feeling that he was looking back on his life without having to ever say this to the audience.

The film doesn’t stick the landing though. It has a very meandering start and then rushes to the finish. It would’ve been far more enticing to let the film breathe in the more impactful moments instead of brushing past them. Though still a charming and melancholic, and very British, remake of a classic that is deserving of its own merit