{"id":26573,"date":"2024-10-14T00:08:14","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T04:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=26573"},"modified":"2024-10-14T00:08:14","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T04:08:14","slug":"nyff-blitz-delivers-beautiful-cinema-to-watch-not-to-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=26573","title":{"rendered":"NYFF: &#8216;Blitz&#8217; Delivers Beautiful Cinema to Watch, Not to Experience."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>@Courtesy of Apple TV +<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Selected as Closing Film at the 62nd edition of the <\/span><b>New York Film Festival<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the last movie directed by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm2588606\/?ref_=tt_ov_dr_1\"><b>Steve McQueen<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> tells the story of George, a young boy trying to go back to his mother Rita when London is under the bombs of Nazi aircraft. Born out of wedlock with a white mom and a black soldier, he has to face not only the horror of war but also the prejudice of a society still very divided about race and the color of skin.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As already happened with <\/span><b>12 Years a Slave<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, there are some moments in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt15939198\/\"><b>Blitz<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> when you question Steve McQueen\u2019s choices as a director. Why did he decide to shoot in such a beautiful way a specific shot or a scene that is not particularly important for the narrative of his movie? Even though it is quite difficult not to admire the aesthetic of those same moments, at the same time they can create a sort of discrepancy with the dramatic events and characters. It looks like McQueen hasn\u2019t yet been able to find a balance, or at least a coherent way to tell his stories through images, sometimes way too beautifully crafted if compared to what they show. Something that for example didn\u2019t happen in Widows, a thriller that maybe he didn\u2019t feel as personal as <\/span><b>Blitz<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> but realized with a gripping focus on the genre. In fact, it is in our opinion his best work since Hunger.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another problem that deeply afflicted Blitz is the rhetoric of some characters and situations, especially when they address the topic of racism of British citizens. The relationship between Rita and George\u2019s father is presented without any real depth, seeming this way just a tool used to explain how ordinary people and police officers could be abusive and violent against blacks, no matter if common citizens or soldiers: the sequence in which the man is taken away from the love of Rita is so fast and predictable that doesn\u2019t really serve the purpose for which it was created. Same way about the African soldier who helps George in his struggle to go back home: he is such a good, noble, heart-warming character that becomes more of an emblem than a real person.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26605 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/The-Blitz2.png\" alt=\"The Blitz\" width=\"640\" height=\"340\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/The-Blitz2.png 640w, https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/The-Blitz2-300x159.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>@Courtesy of Apple TV +<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">McQueen is so eager to introduce all these themes that doesn\u2019t make them real, adding nuances, or even the right amount of screen time to give them some substance. Working with a screenplay that doesn\u2019t dig deep into the characters\u2019 heart and soul, even usually good actors like <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm1519680\/?ref_=tt_cl_t_1\"><b>Saoirse Ronan<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm6170168\/?ref_=tt_cl_t_2\">Harris Dickinson<\/a>,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm0334318\/?ref_=tt_cl_t_6\"><b>Stephen Graham<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, fail to create figures that are worth to be remembered. <\/span><b>Blitz<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> ends up working only on the surface of its beautiful mise-en-scene, but can\u2019t really develop an emotional connection with the audience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Steve McQueen<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a very talented director who sometimes doesn\u2019t know how to \u201ccontain\u201d his own talent, letting his sense of beauty overcome, if not suffocate, what he should instead focus on. In <\/span><b>Blitz,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> there are some remarkable cinematic moments that are unnecessary, and ultimately distracting from the dramatic events of London being destroyed by the bombs. The viewer experiences the movie without being really moved by what happens to the young protagonist or his mother.<\/span><\/p>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1774669342741533\" data-ad-slot=\"1211148813\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And without a real connection with the characters, even the horror of the war doesn\u2019t truly shock, which is quite disappointing as a result. The sequence shot in the subway galleries is quite emblematic of how much <\/span><b>Blitz<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> lacks intensity, despite being a movie that is technically admirable. Working on a screenplay more capable of creating non-monodimensional figures or more dramatic situations could have helped McQueen to find a cohesive mix between story and visual storytelling.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26606 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/The-Blitz3.png\" alt=\"The Blitz \" width=\"640\" height=\"430\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/The-Blitz3.png 640w, https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/The-Blitz3-300x202.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>@Courtesy of Apple TV +<\/p>\n<p><b>Rate: C-<\/b><\/p>\n<p data-reader-unique-id=\"60\"><strong data-reader-unique-id=\"61\">If you like the articles, share your thoughts below!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-reader-unique-id=\"62\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/author\/adrianoercolani73gmail-com\/\" data-reader-unique-id=\"63\">Check out more of Adriano\u2019s articles.<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-reader-unique-id=\"64\"><strong data-reader-unique-id=\"65\">Here\u2019s the trailer for the Blitz:<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"iZwykQK9aZo\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Blitz \u2014 Official Trailer | Apple TV+\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iZwykQK9aZo?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><br style=\"font-weight: 400;\" \/><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1774669342741533\" data-ad-slot=\"1211148813\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>@Courtesy of Apple TV + Selected as Closing Film at the 62nd edition of the New York Film Festival, the last movie directed by Steve McQueen tells the story of George, a young boy trying to go back to his mother Rita when London is under the bombs of Nazi aircraft. Born out of wedlock&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3044,"featured_media":26575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20471,19],"tags":[1351,24573,3668,327,24407,4617,1058,5735],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>NYFF: &#039;Blitz&#039; Delivers Beautiful Cinema to Watch, Not to Experience<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Blitz : Follow the stories of a group of Londoners during the events of the British capital bombing in World War II.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=26573\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NYFF: &#039;Blitz&#039; 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Critics Choice Association member. Graduated in History of Cinema in Rome, he works as a freelance correspondent for some of the most important Italian outlets like Hollywood Reporter Italy, Comingsoon.it, Cinefilos.it and Ciak Magazine. He started working as a film critic almost thirty years ago: in his career he attended the most important Film Festivals (Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto, New York Film Festival, Tribeca) and conventions (San Diego Comic-Con, New York Comic-Con, Disney D23). All over the years he has interviewed some of the most important contemporary authors like Michael Mann, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Peter Jackson, Alexander Payne, Joel and Ethan Coen, Kathryn Bigelow, Christopher Nolan, Greta Gerwig, Jane Campion). In 2009 he interviewed Christiane Kubrick and Ian Harlan inside Stanley Kubrick\u2019s private office. Other than movies he is fond of American literature and basketball. Los Angeles Lakers fanatic. 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Critics Choice Association member. Graduated in History of Cinema in Rome, he works as a freelance correspondent for some of the most important Italian outlets like Hollywood Reporter Italy, Comingsoon.it, Cinefilos.it and Ciak Magazine. He started working as a film critic almost thirty years ago: in his career he attended the most important Film Festivals (Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto, New York Film Festival, Tribeca) and conventions (San Diego Comic-Con, New York Comic-Con, Disney D23). All over the years he has interviewed some of the most important contemporary authors like Michael Mann, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Peter Jackson, Alexander Payne, Joel and Ethan Coen, Kathryn Bigelow, Christopher Nolan, Greta Gerwig, Jane Campion). In 2009 he interviewed Christiane Kubrick and Ian Harlan inside Stanley Kubrick\u2019s private office. Other than movies he is fond of American literature and basketball. Los Angeles Lakers fanatic. He lives in New York with his wife and his bossy 3-year -old daughter.","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?author=3044"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26573"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3044"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}