Columbus was one of my favorite movies last year (here’s the review I wrote for Ebert). I only saw it once, to review for Ebert – and that was at home, on my laptop. Seeing it huge was overwhelming. The leitmotif of the film, its organizing principle, is the astonishing array of modernist buildings in Columbus, Indiana. Director Kogonada uses the architecture as framing, as interstitial images, as moody set-pieces, and while all of this may sound very intellectual and pretentious, the story – of the two main characters – throbs with passion and feeling. It’s not a love story, and yet the film is not un-romantic. Attraction comes in many different forms. Shared interests can translate into intense connection. I was bowled over by the intensity of the film in my first viewing (which you can hear in my review), and I felt it even MORE so seeing it on that gigantic screen.
Kogonada and his whole producing team was there (four people!). It was such a reminder of how important the “money people” are. People who are not artists, but who love artists, people who are willing to take a risk on a first-time director by giving him money to make his film. The fact that Columbus is Kogonada’s first film is truly astonishing, once you see it. Clearly influenced by Ozu, Columbus shows a confidence in approach which normally takes years to blossom. Kogonada has been “around” for years, creating incredible video essays about film. This is his first feature. As a Midwesterner, he wanted to take the eye of Ozu – the stylistic sophistication he so treasured – and bring it into a Midwestern milieu.
The normal concept of the Midwest is farmlands, McDonalds, and strip malls. But the Midwest also produces people like Kogonada, someone who looks at the environment and really SEES it, sees its potential. One interesting and infuriating thing was: He wrote the script very quickly, and then sent it around to producers, looking for financing. One of the main comments he got was: Change Jin to a white man, because nobody will go see a film with an Asian male lead.
That’s what we’re up against here. That kind of small-minded INCORRECT ignorance.
Thank goodness he found the “money people” who never once asked him to change the race of his lead character, who let him do what he wanted to do.