If you don’t like reading a lot of text just scroll down to the last sentence of this post.  So tonight I watched Blue Valentine.  I had seen it before, but with watching it again, I was reminded how wonderfully understated it is.  Directed by Derek Cianfrance and starring Ryan Gosling with Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine depicts two very different points of their relationship: the beginning and end, switching back and forth between the two.  Cianfrance was always scared of his parents divorcing as a child and when he was in his 20s, they did, which was, understandingly, a very hard time for him.  With that, he decided he should express those feelings the only way he really knew how, making a film.  Williams was 21 when she first received the script, Gosling receiving it two years later, while filming started another four years after that due to the lack of financing.  Cianfrance ended up having to use his director’s fee to make the movie.  Clearly this was a movie very important to him, a movie that needed to be made.

What I find most interesting about the production of this movie is how Cianfrance went about acquainting Gosling with Williams and how he was able to allow the two actors their own creative input.  Really Blue Valentine ended up being a very collaborative film between the three.  The scenes from the beginning of Gosling and Williams’ relationship were filmed first, both never really having met before.  In the main scene of the trailer that provides the soundtrack for the trailer’s entirety, Gosling was unaware that Williams could tap dance, just as Williams was unaware that Gosling could sing and play the ukulele.  Cianfrance directed them to prepare a hidden talent and not tell each other what that talent was.  So, the scene you see unfold onscreen is real, improvised, and possibly my favorite scene of the whole movie.  To prepare for the scenes of the couple later in life, Cianfrance rented a home, filled it with everything a normal home would have, socks in the sock drawer and everything, and had the two of them, plus their onscreen daughter, live there for almost a month.  He would give the two mini-tasks, like making home movies, or even riskier tasks like telling Gosling to try to make love to Williams one night.  This resulted in Gosling sleeping on the couch.  I love this idea of preparing the actors in a real hands-on way.  It really shows the dedication they had to making their relationship seem as believable as possible.  Their performances resulted in an Oscar nomination for Williams and a Golden Globe nomination for the both of them.

Personally, I don’t find it as depressing as people make it out to be.  It’s life.  Life is depressing.  Blue Valentine is styled like a documentary, having very few, if any, steady shots.  Obviously this was done to make the film seem more real, and I find this technique successful.  But also, it was just beautifully shot, and I think this is much to the credit of the actors.  A movie becomes much easier to film and make interesting when the actors are giving a performance that can command the frame.  Ryan Gosling has come a long way since The Mickey Mouse Club, just as Williams has from Dawson’s Creek, both being two of my favorite actors working in the industry right now.  Their performances were so raw, so stripped down.  It’s a talent when you forget the actors onscreen are acting.  Gosling got robbed from that Oscar nomination, although there were so many good performances that year.  What a contrast to this year’s nominations, am I right?  And I should just mention that the soundtrack was done by Grizzly Bear, I think my favorite song being “Alligator,” which is played at the end credits.  Also, the editing…okay, enough kissing Blue Valentine’s ass.  Watch it yourself.  

I hope you didn’t just scroll to the last sentence.