I wanted to love The Immigrant more than I did. Sorry. It was good. Well made. But it dragged a little. Perhaps the lighting was a little too dark. Or perhaps the subject just was so harrowing and so well portrayed that I left feeling drained.
And typically, this is the one film that I got interviewed about. When you leave the movie theatre at the Palais, with a crush of journalists all rushing to be the first to file their story in the press room…there are always TV crews outside waiting to be the first to send back a live report on how the movie fared to the critics. (And to get a good seat in the press conference.) And this morning, I got trapped. So I said what I could…which was that I was so disappointed in the end…even though I understand it…
The movie is directed by James Gray and stars French actress Marion Cotillard (who plays a Polish woman who emigrates to the USA) and sometimes troubled but always talented American star Joaquin Phoenix. Phoenix was unable to attend today’s press conference, after the film, because he’s on location shooting at the moment.
Gray obviously thoroughly enjoyed working with the star and said today that as a director “we spend our lives revolved around actors. We realise that with some of them, we have the same feelings about life, art and human behaviour. Our first film together showed me that Joaquin Phoenix has a very wide range of emotions to offer.”
Gray also discussed how in favour of immigration he is, that it “enriches society, vitalises culture and makes it versatile and dynamic.