Sundance 2010 came to a close this weekend and I’m very happy to report that the best dramatic film that I saw there was Blue Valentine – directed by my good friend Derek Cianfrance. It was acquired two days ago by The Weinstein Company for somewhere near one million dollars; a steal for a film of this caliber with such a clear shot at future awards. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams both put in powerhouse performances in a story that interweaves the blossoming love of their relationship in full bloom along with its unraveling demise. TCM viewers will be glad to note that Cianfrance is one of us; a serious disciple of the classics. During his Q&A at Sundance he cited both The Godfather II and D.W. Griffith as influences, and I can personally attest to his dedication as both a film student and general film enthusiast. I remember he attended a campus screening of Pier Paolo Pasolini‘s The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Il vangelo secondo Matteo, 1964) and he was so moved by the film that during the screening he had problems breathing and felt a constriction in his chest. He later told me that he wondered if maybe he’d had some kind of mini-heart-attack brought on by the experience of watching that film.

Derek has had Blue Valentine kicking around his head for over ten years. He was grappling with his parent’s divorce and wrote the first draft to his script in the summer of 1998. To use Derek’s words, the film is about “Honesty. Beautiful ugliness. Terrible beauty. Love.” It’s a mature and genuine work that eschews any kind of cheap thrills and dedicates itself to the very real business of what makes us fall in, and out, of love. It’s visually quite impressive too, and was shot by Andrij Parekh (who has shot 14 features to date, including Half-Nelson which also starred Gosling). Derek also used different mediums to convey past and present:

We shot the past on super 16mm film. 100% handheld. Using one 25mm lens. The idea was to create a visceral film that mirrored the physicality and youthfulness of our characters. Freedom. Opportunity.

We shot the present on two Red Cameras. The cameras were always affixed to tripods and placed as far away from the actors at all times. We affixed long lenses to achieve the suffocating close-ups. The idea was to create a claustrophobic world of close-ups and gestures, faces and feelings, which would mirror the entrapment our characters faced in their own lives. Consequences. Desperation.

Derek co-wrote Blue Valentine along with Joey Curtis and the film was edited by Jim Helton. I want to give both Joey and Jim a shout-out since they are both long-time friends and collaborators with Derek, and also graduated from the Film Studies Program here at C.U. Boulder. (In both the press notes and Sundance catalog they mention studying “at the University of Colorado with celebrated experimental filmmakers Phil Solomon and Stan Brakhage.”) They were all the cream of the crop, and we couldn’t be more proud to finally see them get their due. They were exemplary students who took their classes seriously, valued their academic experiences, and had a deep passion for cinema. They were entranced by the light and are now holding the torch, and I’m here to report that it’s in good hands. In an age enthralled by glib artifice and snappy effects, these guys are keeping it real.