Like nobody less than the Dardenne brothers, Nemes demonstrates a facility for blocking and camera moves that activate screen space rather than simply describing it. Opening on a deceptively verdant blur of green that is quickly blotted out by human bodies in greyed-out concentration camp regalia, Son of Saul challenges and mesmerizes the viewer’s attention for its duration. “Intellectually repellent,” was the verdict of the latter, whose New York Times Cannes dispatch took pains to give credit where it was due for the film’s “meticulously lighted, composed and shot” mise-en-scène -a description which, it must be said, is entirely accurate. The skeptical notes have been sounded by major critics like Dennis Lim and Manohla Dargis, who see in Son of Saul a flexing of cinematic muscle unbecoming of a film about the Holocaust. But while many are eager to christen his maiden voyage a masterpiece, there is something to the cries of dissent from the other side. Here, it would seem, is a born filmmaker. He traveled to New York from his native Hungary to study and perfect his craft he apprenticed with long-take maestro Béla Tarr his feature debut is a hugely accomplished and evidently uncompromised piece of work. So what of Son of Saul? Feted with a Grand Prix at Cannes by a jury that knows from prodigies-members Joel Coen and Xavier Dolan having each already dominated the Croisette at ages where most directors are paying their dues-38-year-old László Nemes checks all the wunderkind boxes. László Nemes, Hungary, Sony Pictures Classicsīrilliance in filmmaking is so rare that it ought not to be underrated.
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