The films that inspired Chloé Zhao’s visual world
Formerly a director of smaller indie films, Chloé Zhao‘s Oscar success with western drama Nomadland made her one of the most admired filmmakers in Hollywood. Her work is extremely location focused, built on sweeping landscapes and often populated by characters from various universes, like on the Marvel film Eternals.
Her attention to detail when it comes to crafting elaborate visual worlds also weaves itself into her personal taste in films, and over the years she has taken the time to name those that have influenced her most. Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 was one that impacted Zhao, because it transports its audience to a vast, empty landscape. “Every detail,” said Zhao, “[the] structure, colours, how is this character interacting with the location,” made it one of her favourites. As is often the case in her work, the set can serve to amplify the emotional world of one character.
That space and scenery can shape a character also made Interstellar another firm favourite. The sci-fi drama, Zhao said was “ahead of its time” in its handling of profound social commentary. “I think in another 10 years when you watch Interstellar, it’s going to take a whole different meaning about our relationship with the planet, our planet’s relationship with the cosmos, and what’s the destiny of humanity.”
Zhao has also taken time to praise fantasy trilogy Lord of the Rings, with Peter Jackson’s second film, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, having a huge sense of scale that appealed to her. “The landscapes, the epic battles, it makes you fall in love with these characters and root for them in their struggles,” she said in a Google interview.
This theme is consistent across Zhao’s list, her appreciation for director’s making deep considerations of where character’s are placed. On Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights adaptation, she praised Arnold’s “strong sense of place” on the gothic romance. “She’s constantly looking: ‘What else around us can we capture?’ And the way the characters are interacting with this place says so much of their innocence and love for each other.”
Aside from Arnold, she once named Werner Herzog as one of the most essential figures in the craft, with 2011’s Into the Abyss having a striking effect on her. A profile of two men given the death penalty following a triple homicide, Zhao insists the wasn’t really what the film touches on. “That’s what the genius of Werner Herzog is, it’s always about more. It shows you how much life can shock you, and how magnificent it is to be alive in the most bittersweet way.”
Ultimately, these films all speak to her broader embrace of location as a crucial element of narrative arc, which has been evident ever since her first feature, 2015’s Songs My Brothers Taught Me, and has now made her one of the most coveted directors in Hollywood.
