Beasts Co-Composer Dan Romer stopped by East Village Radio yesterday to get into the details of his collaboration with Benh Zeitlin, how he recorded the majority of the film's score in his Brooklyn apartment, and the secrets of transforming a single violin into sixty. This program stream includes a selection of New Orleans inspired tracks, followed by Dan's interview interspersed with several tracks from Beasts of the Southern Wild soundtrack.
What the world is saying about Beasts!
Though Beasts of the Southern Wild is described by some as an American folktale, the struggles and triumphs of its story seems to be striking universal chords among audiences across geographical boundaries.
With the help of some bilingual volunteer Beasts, we've been collecting interviews, reviews, responses and insights about the movie from around the world.
As we continue rolling out across the globe, we'd love to hear what you have to say, too! If you'd like to participate and help us capture the conversation that's happening in your country, please email us at beasts@beastsofthesouthernwild.com.
¿Cómo describirías la película en pocas palabras?
Es una historia acerca de perder las cosas que te hicieron ser quien eres y es acerca de cómo sobrevives no solo física, sino emocionalmente. Está ampliamente inspirada por Nueva Orleans y el Bayou, dos lugares que se rehúsan a ser vencidos por la muerte. Cuando vas a un funeral con jazz en Nueva Orleans, empiezas con un ánimo sombrío, pero mientras vas caminando eso se transforma en un estimulante número de jazz que hace que todos celebren y rían. No se trata de cantar acerca de la tragedia, es vencerla y superarla con un espíritu que se niega a ser aplastado.
How would you describe the film in a few words?
It’s a story about losing things that made you who you are and surviving not only physically, but emotionally also. It’s widely inspired by New Orleans and Bayou, two places that refuse to be defeated by death. When you go to a “jazz funeral” in New Orleans, it starts with a dark mood, but while you walk around it becomes a stimulating jazz “show” that makes everyone celebrate and laugh. It is not about singing about the tragedy, it is about defeating and overcoming it with a spirit that refuses to be crushed.
"W „Bestiach…” poezja doskonale zespala się z realizmem. Oniryzm znajduje swoje miejsce obok naturalizmu. Muzyka wypełnia świat przedstawiony tylko w chwilach, gdy obserwowana przez Hushpuppy natura nie mówi sama za siebie. Feeria barw, która rozświetla świat, gdy dziewczynka biegnie ze sztucznymi ogniami w dłoniach, nie razi w oczy. Nieco oślepia, ale tylko po to, by zmusić widzów do spojrzenia na znakomity debiut Zeitlina oczyma „szeroko zamkniętymi” – przez pryzmat własnych emocji, wspomnień i zagrzebanych w pamięci przeżyć."
"Beasts is poetry perfectly fused with realism...Music fills the world presented only in the moments when observed by Hushpuppy, nature speaks for itself. The blaze of color that illuminates the world when she runs with fireworks in their hands dazzles. A little blinding, but only to force the audience to look at this excellent debut from Zeitlin with eyes "wide shut" - through the prism of their own emotions, buried in memory."
“CE QUI FRAPPE dans les différents premiers films présentés au Festival de Deauville cette année, c'est la recherche d'un sujet. Loin du cliché de la première oeuvre autobiographique, ces jeunes cinéastes puisent dans le monde qui les entoure des histoires uniques qui existent pour être racontées. C'est le cas de cette communauté du sud de la Louisiane, dont la terre est envahie par les eaux et qui est en train de disparaître. Pour ces gens qui ne veulent pas partir de chez eux, la nature n'est pas un ailleurs, elle est l'essence même de leur vie, aussi fascinante que dangereuse. Benh Zeitlin, jeune réalisateur new-yorkais d'origine, qui est allé vivre à la rencontre de ces gens, les raconte dans Les Bêtes du Sud sauvage, un film flamboyant qui a remporté le Grand Prix ainsi que le prix de la révélation Cartier sous les ovations du public.”
"What is striking about the different opening films presented this year at the Deauville film festival, is the research of a subject. Far from the cliché of the first autobiographical work, these young directors draw in the world that surrounds them, unique histories that exist to be retold. It's the case for this community in the south of Louisiana, where the land is invaded by the waters that are also in the process of disappearing. For these people who do not want to part from their home, the nature isn't elsewhere; it is the essence even of their lives, as fascinating as it is dangerous. Benh Zeitlin, a young director from New York, who went to live to encounter these people, tells their story in Beasts of the Southern Wild, a blazing film that won the Grand Prize as well as the Revelation Prize from Cartier, over the ovations from the public."
“Se llama magia. Cuando un director desconocido, del que no has oído hablar en tu vida -dos premios en Sundance y otro en Cannes ¿y qué?- y al que no pones cara, va y te golpea con una película maravillosa… no tienes más remedio que rendirte ante el séptimo arte. Hoy eso ha ocurrido en San Sebastián ante un cuento titulado Beast of the Southern Wild dirigido por Benh Zeitlin.”
“It’s called magic. When an unknown director, one you've never heard about, wins two awards at Sundance and another at Cannes, so what? It hits you in the face with a wonderful film… You can’t do anything except to surrender to cinema. That’s what happened today in San Sebastián with a fable called Beasts of The Southern Wild.”
[비스트 오브 더 서던 와일드]는칸영화제에서 황금카메라상을 받은 영화다. 물론 그런 수상 이력이BIFF에서 볼 영화를 선택하는 데는 전혀 영향을 미치지는 않는다. 순전히 시간과 장소에부합하는 영화를 고르다 선택한 영화였는데, 시놉시스도 그다지 끌리지 않아 사실 별 기대가 없었다. 그러다 굉장히 큰 소득을 얻은, 올해 부산에서 건진 영화라고 할수 있겠다.
"Beasts won the Camera D'or at this year's Cannes Film Festival. That said, the acclaim is not the reason why I chose to watch the movie at the Busan International Film Festival. I chose to watch it because the venue and timing fit my schedule. In fact, I wasn't even interested in the movie based on its synopsis and was not looking forward to it. I was wrong. Beasts has another advocate in me, discovered in Busan."
“A personagem principal do filme costura a realidade que vê em sua frente com seus desejos de um mundo idealizado, repleto de uma magia bruta, uma magia da natureza, a única que ela, em sua inocência, consegue visualizar. Se seu pai, interpretado pelo também ótimo Dwight Henry, é, ao mesmo tempo, sua raiz e sua força, é ele também que fornece a Hushpuppy sua herança mágica. Na convivência entre os dois, o espectador encontra uma história de amores brutos, um retrato ultrarrealista do isolamento e um pequeno conto em que o encontro com as fadas é rápido, mas serve para carregar as baterias. “
"The film's main character sews the reality she witnesses in front of her with her desire for an idealized world, filled with a raw magic, a magic of nature, the one that she, in her innocence, can visualize. Her father, played greatly by Dwight Henry, is at the same time her root and her strength, and he’s also the one who provides to Hushpuppy her magical heritage. In the coexistence between the two characters, the viewer finds a story of raw love, a hyper-realistic portrait of isolation and a story where the encounter with magic is fast, but enough to charge the batteries."
From Czech Republic's Films that Film Critics Love
Vulture's Summer Movie Alphabet
Q — Quvenzhané Wallis: Look, we don’t know how many ways to tell you this, but you just need to go already and check out this young girl’s performance inBeasts of the Southern Wild.
Beasts appears in Vulture's Summer Movie Alphabet (two letters!).
Beasts of the Southern Wild - Sydney Morning Herald
Shooting on 16-millimetre film, the camera swings and weaves through all of this - sometimes it's as drunk as the locals - and wherever it alights, there's the sense of a living world in the rubbish and animal pens, shanty bars and salvaged vehicles. The trend in US independent cinema has been towards minimalism and empathetic quietness - actors improvising in a room at the level of the Mumblecore movement - but Beasts flies in the face of that. It's expansive, engaging and sometimes overwhelming.
With the polar ice caps melting, prehistoric creatures are roaming the land and their imminent arrival plays like the signal for a conclusion, although that's not how Hushpuppy sees it. American culture is laced with images of children communing with nature, and Hushpuppy memorably furthers a lineage that includes Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn; if there's no land, she'll just sail away
Read the whole thing at the Sydney Morning Herald.
A Must See - Huffington Post
Zeitlin's craft in constructing a world unique to his vision has created a film that viewers will forever recall as original and one of a kind. Beasts of the Southern Wild presents a world seemingly familiar to the reader but becomes completely foreign with the addition of a few simple elements. Adding to the wonder, Zeitlin's talent with visual effects is displayed in how he creates motorboats built out of truck beds, mobile homes float 15 feet above ground, and a functional town exists in the center of a swamp that appears to have no connection to the outside world.
Read the rest at the Huffington Post.