{"id":25141,"date":"2021-09-20T08:14:39","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T08:14:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shows4.com\/?p=25141"},"modified":"2021-09-20T08:14:39","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T08:14:39","slug":"the-guilty-trailer-so-taut-you-almost-forget-to-breathe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shows4.com\/?p=25141","title":{"rendered":"The Guilty trailer \u2013 so taut, you almost forget to breathe"},"content":{"rendered":"
Gustav M\u00f6ller\u2019s nerve-jangling thriller about an emergency police dispatcher and one fateful call uses minimal ingredients to devastating effect. he sharpest film-makers realise that cinema is not just what plays out on the screen, it\u2019s also what unfolds in the mind of the audience. Show the viewer everything, in some kind of premasticated slop of pictures and story, and you reduce them to passive consumers, chowing on movie comfort food. Invite them into the film as active participants, allow them to discover the picture from the barest bones of plot, and they will love you for it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a lesson that that first-time feature director Gustav M\u00f6ller has learned early and learned well. His superb, multi-award-winning debut, The Guilty, is a masterclass in wringing breathless tension from just a few key ingredients. The film takes place in two rooms, and the story unfolds in a series of phone calls. A police officer temporarily assigned to emergency dispatch duty takes a desperate call from a kidnapped woman. The 75 minutes that follow are so taut, that you almost forget to breathe.<\/p>\n

The \u201cless is more\u201d message is one that bears repeating. The potential scope and ambition of cinema as a medium is immense. It is limited only by imagination, the special effects budget and perhaps the laws of public decency. However, something interesting happens when you start to impose restrictions. Film-makers are forced to use their wits, rather than their toolkit of effects and gimmicks.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a theory that has regularly been embraced by M\u00f6ller\u2019s Danish compatriate, Lars von Trier, who is perhaps the most enthusiastic fan of creative self-flagellation in the business. He was an originator of the Dogme 95 \u201cvow of chastity\u201d, which urged film-makers to strip their art down to its basic ingredients (the rules included no score, no effects, no added lights, handheld camera only, no genre movies) in order to focus on story and performance.<\/p>\n

The Guilty wouldn\u2019t pass the austere Dogme criteria \u2013 it is lit and photographed conventionally and carefully. And the meticulously crafted sound design, particularly the punctuating moments of silence and stillness, is essential for its success. But the film\u2019s narrow visual focus \u2013 much of the drama plays out in the face of police officer Asger Holm (Jakob Cedergren) \u2013 accentuates the crackling cleverness of a screenplay that allows us to unravel a mystery in real time.\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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