On this edition of FLC Luminaries, our video series presented by Netflix, which spotlights talent at all levels of the filmmaking process who uplift the art and craft of cinema, Director of Photography Ari Wegner breaks down her work on Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, the NYFF59 Centerpiece Selection. She also discusses her experience of working with director Jane Campion, the artwork and films that she referenced when finding the visual language of the film, the struggles of shooting on location in New Zealand, and more.
Jane Campion reaffirms her status as one of the world’s greatest—and most gratifyingly eccentric—filmmakers with this mesmerizing, psychologically rich variation on the American western. Adapted from a 1967 cult novel by Thomas Savage notoriously ahead of its time in depicting repressed sexuality, The Power of the Dog excavates the emotional torment experienced at a Montana cattle ranch in the 1920s. Here, melancholy young widow Rose (Kirsten Dunst) has come to live with her sensitive new husband, George (Jesse Plemons), though their lives are increasingly complicated by the erratic, potentially violent behavior of his sullen and bullying brother, Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch), whose mistrust of both Rose and her misfit son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) leads to tragic consequences. Mirroring the unpredictable story turns, Campion crafts a film of unexpected cadences and rhythms, and her daring is matched every step of the way by her extraordinary, fully immersed cast and a mercurial, destabilizing score by Jonny Greenwood.
The Power of the Dog is currently streaming on Netflix.
