It felt like love doesnt exactly have a plot, which feels absolutely right for a film whose elliptical yet intensely focused visual style seem to flow directly from lilas consciousness. So quiet you can hear the waves eroding the rocks by the beach while lilas daunting deep eyes stare into the camera. Awkward, lonely, and often playing the third wheel, lila is determined to. Eliza hittmans debut feature, it felt like love, is an unsettling femalecentered take on the experience. It felt like love premiered at the 20 sundance film festival, and subsequently screened at such festivals as international film festival rotterdam, maryland film festival and giffoni film festival. On the outskirts of brooklyn, a fourteenyearolds sexual quest takes a dangerous turn when she pursues an older guy and tests the. Hittman also knows that, in the information age, these practice runs. A poetic, expressive exploration of a young girls sexuality during one hot brooklyn summer. Eliza hittmans debut feature it felt like love debuted in the next section at the 20 sundance film festival. It wasnt about her coming of age sexually but of a child crying out for attention and love. The film was not a success and nothing suggests that goffin or king had seen it. With her second feature film, following 20s it felt like love, she locks our attention upon frankie harris dickinson, a 19yearold boy, living at home, and trying to sort through a lot of difficult emotions in a rather chaotic personal life. Evoking the moods of summertime and an age when selfdefinition took on the most crucial of airs, it felt like love is a bittersweet testament to the immediacy of adolescence, the age when our sense of selfworth and sexual proclivity are most intertwined. I have always been fascinated with the portrayal of comingofage themes in film, as a process of disillusionment.
The dancing in particular is striking, with surprising cuts and edits. A mood poem to summer loving and sexual awakening, it felt like love powerfully evokes a time when flesh is paramount, and peer behavior is the standard by which we judge our own. In it felt like love, a teenager flirts with danger the new york. At times, it felt like love feels too much like a dirge, bemoaning the characters waning hope for the future. The screenplay by colin patrick lynch focuses on two individuals whose relationship slowly evolves from lust to friendship to romance over the course of seven years. Laconic, it felt like love doesnt need many words since it has such beautiful imagery, ethereal cinematography and dazzling colour. It felt like love is the first feature from writerdirector eliza hittman, who understands adolescence as a kind of audition for adulthood, wherein kids begin prepping themselves for the adventures of postteenage life by parroting the language and behavior of their elders.
It felt like love is a 20 independent drama film, the first feature film directed by eliza hittman. The restricted visuals, the supertight closeups that break the actors bodies into cubist chunks of limb, torso and face, and the wobbly, roving camerawork, all combine, enveloping the movie like a tarp. In it felt like love, a teenager flirts with danger. With gina piersanti, jesse cordasco, giovanna salimeni, nugget. This film tries hard to be profound, but in the end its unorganized and empty of meaning. It felt like love peaks into a transition from childhood to young adult that continually makes the viewer feel uncomfortable yet strangely familiar with the beautiful and tight imagery hittman frames. General anxiety is often described as the constant fear that something tragic is about to happen. I t felt like love captures the exclusive properties of sex with a degree of intimacy and empathy that, at times, feels authentically revelatory. After premiering in sundances 20 next section and mounting a healthy run on the festival circuit, it felt like love opens through variance films this friday at the ifc center, with a national rollout to follow. Oscars best picture winners best picture winners golden globes emmys san diego comiccon new york comiccon sundance film festival toronto intl film festival awards central festival central all events. If you like it felt like love you are looking for emotional, touching and realistic movies about with obsession, coming of age, self discovery, best friends, youth, friendship and wooing themes of drama genre shot in usa. Golshifteh farahani felt totally comfortable during extractions big shootout. Enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing it felt like love near you.
Lila wants to emulate the sexual exploits of her more experienced best friend. It felt like love is hittmans first credited feature, and when it begins to slow, one can tell that she is perhaps still navigating the transition from short to fulllength. Love is a film of curious, furtive, longing closeups, while the circuitous rhyming of images proves that theres nothing haphazard about hittmans approach. The film was very cinema verite, literal in its delivery. With its oblique yet unashamed view of sexuality, lack of handwringing, and intimate, caressing camerawork, it felt like love feels like the work of a proto claire denis or olivier assayas, rather than reminiscent of the less visually acute, more garrulous roster of. Theres a disturbing chill that hangs over the film all the way until the silent credits. Tides of adolescent emotion flood it felt like love. What it was really like to film extraction exclusive.
Whats exciting about the film is the confidence hittman brings to it, particularly with her visual choices. It felt like love english movie on what seems to be just another ordinary day, a man is exposed to sexism and sexual violence in a society ruled by women. It felt like love doesnt just unreel before your eyes, it weighs on you. Also sign me up for fanmail to get updates on all things movies. One of our most recent crop of 25 new faces, hittman spoke to filmmaker about the need to frame a comingofage film from the female perspective, the importance and challenges of. It felt like love was nominated for two independent spirit awards and is a new york times critics pick.
The film s lack of optimistic levity is one of the things that makes it so powerful, but it also limits our empathy for some of the main characters, for whom happiness seems forever outofreach. For a film as powerful and unsettling as writerdirector eliza hittmans first feature, it felt like love, which will soon have a theatrical run after playing at the sundance next section in 20, we have to go back more than 25 years to david lelands wish you were here with the magnificent emily lloyd in the lead as a girl who both longs. The comingofage drama centers on lila gina piersanti, a 14yearold spending a. It felt like love is a tonic for a pop culture that mindlessly offers us barely postteenage human objects for our delectation on a minutebyminute basis. With her first feature, it felt like love, from 20 which i discuss in this clip, eliza hittman did the nearly impossibleshe took the wellworn path of the comingofage film, and, in. Gorgeously shot in brooklyns beachfront neighborhoods and devoid of easy sentimentality, it felt like love features realistic performances all around, understandable given the cast of mostly. Lila mochte ebenso gerne erste sexuelle erfahrungen wie ihre beste freundin sammeln. Articulating the female in it felt like love film foregrounds the act of watching. It felt like love isnt a great movie, but it is a promising one, for everyone involved. Mff 20s comingofage drama it felt like love returns to baltimore on monday, march 3rd with special guest filmmaker eliza hittman one of the freshest independent films of the last year, it felt like love premiered within sundance 20, went on to screen within dozens of festivals including the prestigious international film festival rotterdam and viennale, and won a special jury. It felt like love an evocatively shot, rawly unsentimental comingofager from debut helmer eliza hittman, it felt like love follows a vulnerable teen who envies the sexual experience of her. Eliza hittman begins her film, it felt like love, with a similar moment, as young lila gina piersanti stares off the coney island coast, the sound of waves crashing all around her, the undertow. Told with fearless authenticity, were given a unique and unsentimental character study of a young girl eager for maturity and thirsting for her sexual awakening. Not a good choice for a casual viewer looking for a spring breakers thrill, hittmans film puts a very fine point on the heavy, achingly quiet loneliness of.
A lot like love is a 2005 american romantic comedydrama film directed by nigel cole and starring ashton kutcher and amanda peet. Set amongst languid summer days filled with hazy teenage ennui, eliza hittmans debut feature it felt like love impresses you right onto the sweatladen skin of its characters. Eliza hittmans film, it felt like love, deftly is walks the line between potentially dangerous consequences of the girl transforming herself for the male gaze and sex object and the rite of passage that is discovering ones own sexuality and the often awkward and mortifying route that discovery can take. Lilas watching makes us aware that we, too, are watching, and often in unsettling circumstances. Sexual awakening can be a real chore, according to it felt. Bolstered by a perfectly modulated lead performance from gina piersanti, it felt like love unflinchingly reveals some of the rawest moments of girlhood in an authentic story of burgeoning identity and sexual awakening. A blunt and authentic rendering of adolescent sexuality, it follows lila, a reticent teenager played by newcomer gina piersanti, bewildered by her own sexual desires.
The 1930 frank borzage film liliom contains the line he hit me and it felt like a kiss in its final scene. She fixates on a tough older guy who will sleep with anyone and tries to insert herself into his world, putting herself in a dangerously vulnerable situation. It felt like love considers the dangers of teenage desire through the experiences of a coltish 14yearold girl who randomly fixes on a. It felt like love 20 with giovanna salimeni, ronen.