The movie Alexander Payne calls the “one great masterpiece” of the 21st century
Ask a cinephile who they think is the greatest filmmaker of the 21st century, and you’ll get a different answer every time. Sci-fi lovers will point to the likes of Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve, while fans of world cinema might suggest the likes of Lynne Ramsay or Céline Sciamma. Still, there are many quality directors who fly just under the radar, including the incredibly underrated American artist Alexander Payne.
Where the classic style of Hollywood cinema feels long gone when looking at the contemporary industry, Payne feels like one of the last remaining bastions, creating personal character-driven films that originate from the essence of the American spirit. From his phenomenal indie hit Sideways in 2004 to the recent Oscar nominee The Holdovers, Payne has forged an idiosyncratic style that speaks to the existential nature of life on the social fringes.
In the process, he has made some of the 21st century’s greatest films, with the aforementioned festive drama The Holdovers being unlucky not to walk away with ‘Best Picture’ for its utterly charming depiction of lost souls blossoming under each others’ tutelage. Elsewhere, his 2013 Oscar hit Nebraska is perhaps his most unsung classic, with the tale about a disgruntled father who ventures across the country to claim lottery money being the perfect merging of past and present.
Yet, while many would call Nebraska, The Holdovers or even 2002’s About Schmidt 21st-century favourites, the director has personal loves of his own. In an interview with the Directors Guild of America, the filmmaker told all, revealing his love for such classic foreign creatives as Akira Kurosawa and Federico Fellini, as well as silent cinema heroes such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
But, continuing, Payne explained: “At this point in my life, I find myself more influenced by individual films than in a director’s body of work, certainly with modern films.” As a result, he picked out one of French cinema’s finest modern works, stating, “The one great masterpiece I think that this new millennium has produced is Michael Haneke’s Amour. That film is a towering achievement.”
Nominated for four Academy Awards, Haneke’s marvellous film, which tells the story of two old lovers and musicians whose relationship is tested when the woman has a stroke, is a truly heartbreaking drama. Featuring terrific lead performances from Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, the film is a testament to love and the power that such an imperative emotion holds over one’s life.
Humanity is at the core DNA of Amour, with Haneke presenting the lead duo with painstaking emotional detail, so it should come as no surprise that Payne is such a fan of the film. He, too, is a filmmaker who tries to wriggle past obvious personality traits to access the real human behind the eyes, with Amour doing this better than many other movies thanks to its exemplary performances and deft script from Haneke.
