Ryan Gosling’s first film as a writer-director, Lost River , just had its premiere at Cannes. The semi-experimental drama is a far cry from The Notebook .
Ryan Gosling on the set of Lost River
Warner Bros.
Lost River, Ryan Gosling's filmmaking debut, made its premiere in the Un Certain Regard sidebar program of the Cannes Film Festival today. Surreal, strange, and heavy on the symbolism, the actor's first movie as a writer-director is very far from The Notebook. Here are a few things to know about Lost River, which will receive a U.S. release via Warner Bros.:
Lots of things get set on fire.
Warner Bros.
Lost River is set in a decaying, fictional town that shares the same name as the title, but it was shot in Detroit and has a whole "disintegrating American dream" theme. One character, a nefarious banker named Dave who's played by Ben Mendelsohn, even says as much, early on. The characters wander through and live in battered neighborhoods filled with abandoned houses and overgrown, refuse-strewn lawns, only occasionally interacting with the apparent local. And everything seems to get set on fire — houses, bicycles, books, cars. Fire is one of neighbor Bully's (Matt Smith) weapons of choice, and it's also clearly something Gosling loves the look of, with cinematographer Benoît Debie (who also shot Spring Breakers) capturing it in glorious lushness throughout the film.
