AUTUMN LIGHTS: Film Review
Set against Iceland’s dramatic landscape, Autumn Lights is a provocative yet thought-provoking film about isolation and relationships as seen through the eyes of a foreigner in a strange land. Unfolding in a deliberately rhythmic pace, the film is an impressively understated and flawless study at the inward journey we must all face as we discover our place in this sometimes inhospitable world. Bolstered by award-worthy performances (especially American breakout Guy Kent and Italian film/television star Marta Gastini), sumptuous cinematography, an Oscar-worthy original score, and impeccable editing by BAFTA-winner Valdis Oskarsdottir, the film excels in its subtle ability to capture the viewer from the first frame to the very last and to bewitch your thoughts still days later. Writer/director Angad Aulakh is surely a young filmmaker to watch.
The film opens with David (an unforgettable Guy Kent), an introverted American photographer adrift in remote Iceland while on assignment. When he gets caught in a local investigation after discovering a deserted body washed ashore, David is temporarily bound to a place he doesn’t call home and he acquaints himself with the few inhabitants in the area, among them Marie (Gastini), an Italian woman whose shiftiness betrays not only her beautiful face but her Icelandic husband Johann (Sveinn Olafur Gunnarsson) and his own unruffled demeanor. As days pass, David’s fascination with the couple intensifies and he slowly begins to find himself entangled in their mysterious lives.
As an American writer/director behind this American-Icelandic-French co-production, Angad Aulakh deftly makes use of the overwhelming beauty of Iceland in every frame, creating another character out of the film’s location; a looming, shadowy figure that stands hovering over each character throughout the story. The first feature-film from Aulakh, he directs with confidence and originality, pulling out memorable and inspiring performances from his cast and pushing the envelope both in craft and story. His use of both music and sound design were equally impressive as a filmmaker of the millennial generation, as he uses sound to help shift the tone in unexpected ways that keep the mystery alive and pulsing throughout the film. The placement of camera, with Aulakh’s fingerprints markedly everywhere, turned otherwise familiar cinema devices into something rather different and bold.
And not to be forgotten is the film’s monochromatic cinematography, by award-winning Icelandic cinematographer Arni Filippusson, who created a chilling sense of isolation in the stark Icelandic wilderness. His use of framing, camera movements, and color helped to create a sense of immediacy and informality within the space. BAFTA-winning editor Valdis Oskarsdottir, famous for working with world-renowned film auteurs such as Harmony Korine, Thomas Vinterberg, and Michel Gondry, effortlessly creates a montage of images that should be a masterclass in rhythm and the power of silence. A veteran editor, she is certainly at her best in Autumn Lights.
—
Director: Angad Aulakh
Cast: Guy Kent, Marta Gastini, Sveinn Olafur Gunnarsson
Producers: Angad Aulakh, Guy Kent, Ashley M. Kent, David Oskar Olafsson, Arni Filippusson
Autumn Lights opened in the United States and Canada in October 2016 from Freestyle Releasing/Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures. Writer/Director Angad Aulakh produces with Guy Kent for Last Carnival, alongside Ashley M. Kent and Mystery’s David Oskar Olafsson and Arni Filippusson (the award-winning producers behind Ragnar Bragason’s Metalhead, David Gordon Green’s Prince Avalanche, Either Way).
Behind-the-camera talent includes editor Valdis Oskarsdottir (BAFTA winner for Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, The Celebration), director of photography Arni Filippusson (Icelandic Academy Award winner for Either Way, Reverse), production designer Hulda Helgadottir (Netflix’s Sense8), costume designer Julianna Lara Steingrimsdottir (Icelandic Academy Award nominated Henry and Heimir), hair and make-up designer Steinnun Thordardottir (Icelandic Academy Award winner for Metalhead, Icelandic Academy Award nominee for Black’s Game), MPSE-nominated sound designer Huldar Freyr Arnarson (three-time Icelandic Academy Award winner for Rams, Metalhead, Life In A Fishbowl), and an original score by ISCM-award winning composer Hugi Gudmundsson and Hjortur Ingvi Johannsson (of the award-winning Icelandic band Hjaltalin). The film also features the original song “Seconds” performed by Hjaltalin’s Sigridur Thorlacius, with music and lyrics written by Johannsson. Autumn Lights marks the first independent American-Icelandic co-production in history to have been shot and fully completed in Iceland. Autumn Lights is a Peter Travers New York Film Critics (NYFCS) pick and a Soho House and NeueHouse Film Series pick.
