“That’s the power of cinema”: the resoundingly mediocre movie Joachim Trier still adores
Your collection of favourite films isn’t always going to contain a flawless array of masterpieces, even if we try and argue this as the case.
Joachim Trier, whose most recent film Sentimental Value shows clear influence from the likes of Ingmar Bergman and Robert Bresson, can admit to also loving a slightly less high-brow movie.
Trier is secure in his tastes, knowing that sometimes you can find influence or resonance in the most unexpected of places, and for him, it was a romantic drama that was received with a rather mixed critical reception. When something hits you right in that spot, it doesn’t matter what it is – sometimes it just becomes a favourite, and that’s that.
For Trier, it was Eat Pray Love that changed things for him, which he saw at a “moment of my life when I realised I’d been in a series of relationships, and hadn’t had much time on my own,” he told Dazed.
Directed by Ryan Murphy (yes, the same guy behind Glee and American Horror Story), the movie saw Julia Roberts star as a woman who realises that she is stuck in a state of unfulfillment, and after divorcing her husband, she embarks on a life-changing trip through places like India, Bali, and Indonesia, immersing herself in new ways of living and meeting new people.
Trier has long made films that delve into personal relationships, both between individuals and also probing into the ones his characters have with themselves, so it’s oddly fitting that he would find something worthwhile from Eat Pray Love. On the surface, it looked like a rather forgettable chick flick, and while many decried it as nothing more than a boring example of an American woman finding herself at the expense of other cultures, the Worst Person in the World filmmaker personally loved it.
“A big journey for many of us is finding that space of self-acceptance,” he said. “I remember calling Eskil, my co-writer and film-nerd friend, and saying, ‘I saw a great film last night. You’re going to laugh, because it’s not the type of film we usually talk about. It’s Eat Pray Love.”
Despite the fact that Roberts’ character sometimes does things that Trier can’t ever imagine having his own characters do – she “talks to an elephant”, he says – the director couldn’t help but feel a real sense of connection to the movie.
He explained, “But the fact is, when I saw it, it touched me.”
What’s boring, dull, and probably a little cliché can be a profound experience to another, and maybe it’s just because there’s some personal attachment that forms (there are certain ‘bad’ movies I will defend until the day I die), maybe it’s just a matter of taste, or perhaps it has something to do with communicating innate human truths.
Trier concluded, “This is the power of cinema. Sometimes it goes beyond the context of taste, and you realise that there’s something deeper there. There’s something to be discussed about the ending. We choose a different path. But it’s a film about self-discovery and that journey. I love that.”
