Welcome to The Queue — your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today, we’re watching a video essay offering a beginner’s guide to the filmography of Chloé Zhao.
It is always a rewarding venture to visit the early films of a director you admire. John Carpenter’s Dark Star (1974) is a revealing hint of the sardonic gait to come. The opening Buck Rogers serial that introduces THX 1138 (1971) feels like a pulpy thesis statement for George Lucas’ career. And the early films of Chloé Zhao underpin the tender, reflective, and observational eye that has come to distinguish her work.
Zhao recently made history as the first Asian woman to win in the Best Director category at the Golden Globes, for Nomadland (which also won Best Drama Motion Picture). It would be, as they say, a very safe bet to assume that Nomadland‘s Oscar buzz will actualize into a genuine nomination. That, coupled with Eternals, Zhao’s upcoming entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, strongly suggests that she is destined to become a huge name in film beyond the humble echelons of the indie scene.
In the interest of introducing newcomers to Zhao’s pre-Nomadland filmography and tracing the thematic and tonal ties throughout her work-to-date, the following video essay looks at her two first feature films: 2015’s Songs My Brothers Taught Me and 2017’s The Rider. They are, to put it lightly, stupendous examples of what makes Zhao such an exciting director: unbridled compassion with a neo-Western sensibility.
Watch “A Beginner’s Guide to Chloé Zhao“:
Who made this?
This video comes courtesy of the fine folks at Little White Lies, a film-obsessed magazine based in the United Kingdom. Will Webb wrote and edited this video. You can follow Little White Lies on Twitter here. And you can check out their official website here. You can subscribe to their YouTube account here.
More Videos Like This
- For the Criterion Collection, here’s Zhao on the impact of Terrence Malick‘s The New World on her film The Rider.
- And here, from the Toronto International Film Festival, is a Q&A with Chloé Zhao and Frances McDormand about Nomadland.
- Here’s another taste of Little White Lies: a video that eulogizes the dramatic power of the movie phone booth.
- While we’re watching Little White Lies videos, and while we’re thinking about 2020 in review, here’s just that: a New Year’s Eve supercut to close off the year.
- Here’s their love letter to the women who took up space on-screen in 2020.
- And another love letter: to the less popular B-movie monsters of the 1950s.
- A montage of every single Matt Damon cameo.
- Here’s their look at how Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar uses sound design to construct vibrant, tactile worlds.
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