The Immigrant

Director: James Gray

2013 / 120min / DCP

Marion Cotillard has one of her greatest roles as Ewa, a Polish Catholic immigrant newly arrived in Ellis Island, trying to find the means to free her sister from quarantine in a c. 1921 New York City that’s full of lures and snares, among them Joaquin Phoenix’s smalltime pimp and tinhorn impresario and Jeremy Renner’s Bowery illusionist. A richly textured film of disarming depths of feeling from Gray, whose beguiling closing shot resonates long after the credits roll. “We effectively destroyed the film negative with various techniques,” said Darius Khondji, “to achieve the desired emotional aesthetic of that era.”

Distributor: Lionsgate

Part of Radical Chiaroscuro: The Work of Darius Khondji