Filming in mirrors or through sheer curtains, starting shots blurry and then bringing them into focus, the filmmakers create a vibrant, extravagantly beautiful world that, although steeped in global consciousness, feels as recognizable and immediate as any prime-time soap opera.
In their best work, however, the Coens conjure up mythologized places that feel vaguely recognizable and alarmingly peculiar at the same time: a noirish, gothicized Texas in "Blood Simple," a Kafkaesque Los Angeles in "Barton Fink," and in "Fargo" a whited-out Minnesota, presided over by the legendary figure of Paul Bunyan.
Pancake's stories and their characters, though from the nineteen-seventies, felt both immediately recognizable and pertinent to the present moment.
The conflicts Perrotta invents here feel both instantly recognizable and queerly portentous, calling to mind dystopic science fictions from "Body Snatchers," to Ira Levin's "Stepford Wives," to Ray Bradbury's "Martian Chronicles".
Just as there's something essentially Mozartean about the contemporary château setting of Jean Renoir's 1939 film "The Rules of the Game," Eyre's vision of prewar aristocratic styles (just distant enough to feel historical, but recognizable enough to appear contemporary) makes the Mozartean world seem continuous with our own.
Why do you think it felt so immediately recognizable? .
I spent a few hours walking around with my camera through all the familiar places my old neighborhood in the East Village felt only half recognizable in the dark.
The environment feels inhabited and is instantly recognizable to anyone who has spent hours battling thoughts instead of tidying up.
But even as the turns of its narrative and the contours of its characters are recognizable, very little about "Eastern Promises" feels predictable or secondhand.
It's fun, feels contemporary and, perhaps most importantly, has an instantly recognizable tone and aesthetic, which is due to the amazing work of Sophie Campbell, Meredith McClaren, and others.
