#Daniël Bouquet

[arutai]

Dantè Kedde by Daniël Bouquet

[cemyafilmarsiv]

Çocukken cenazemi düşünüp kendimi ağlatırdım.

Sound of Metal (2019) Darius Marder

[zheezy]

Sound of Metal (2019)

[alotofpockets]

Birthday surprise | Daniëlle van de Donk

Pairing: Daniëlle van de Donk x Reader

Summary: You join your wife at training camp on her birthday with a life changing surprise gift.

A/n: Let's pretend Daan's birthday wasn't like a month ago, I just needed a good setting for this fic haha

Masterlist | Woso masterlist | words: 650

This year your wife's birthday fell during the Dutch National Team's trainingscamp. Usually partners and guests weren't supposed to join the camps, but they had made an exception for you to join them today. You watched their morning practice on a bench in the sun. Watching Daniëlle play soccer was one of your favorite things to do but watching the way her face lights up when she wins one of the drills might make watching her practice even more fun. 

You had known the team for years, so when their training was done most of the girls greeted you with a hug before heading to the changing rooms. Daan loved seeing you at practice, you had always been so supportive of her career and were present at every game you were able to go to. You took the time the girls were in the changing rooms to get Andries Jonker alone, you had called ahead to share your plans with him. He's the reason you're able to be at the training camp today, you wanted to thank him again and hand him the surprise present that you brought. You had arranged that it would be handed to her along with the flowers that she would get from the team, thinking that would make the surprise even bigger not instantly knowing that the gift came from me.

The dining hall filled up with people for lunch time. You sat with your wife’s teammates as you sang happy birthday to her. She stood in front of her red velvet cake, it was her favorite and she was so happy that they were able to get it. She gets handed a bouquet of white roses and as they go to take a picture to document the occasion, she asks for you to join her. You take some pictures before Andries steps up, “We have one more small gift for you.” He says as he hands her a small bag and takes the flowers to put them in the vase on the table. You had planned it exactly like this but you were still nervous, this gift would be life changing. Daan reaches into the bag and pulls out a bundled up jersey, she’s confused why the team would give her a jersey, but she tries not to show her confusion as she hands you the bag so that she can unbundle it. 

She unbundles the fabric, realizing it’s a very small jersey. She turns it around and sees her name on the back. She looks over at you with big eyes, “Does this mean what I think it means?” Your nerves make room for excitement and your smile grows, “It does.” Daniëlle goes right in for a hug with tears streaming down her face. You hold her tight as your own tears run down your cheeks. “This is like the best birthday present ever.” She says as she slowly lets go to peck your lips. The rest of the team who had been just as shocked as Daan, all held their applause for you to have your moment. But the second the embrace ends, they start clapping and cheering. One by one her teammates and the staff members come over to congratulate you. Once everyone had their turn, you asked for a couple more pictures as the both of you held the jersey up, showing the back with the last name showing.

Both of you were overjoyed with the news. You had been trying different ways to get pregnant for a while now, and finally getting a positive pregnancy test meant so much. After lunch the two of you excuse yourselves to go outside and let everything sink in. You sit down on a nearby bench and start talking about how excited you are for this new chapter of your lives. “Happy birthday, my love.” You say before heading back to the team.

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[somebaconlover]

Sound of Metal (2019)

Directed by Darius Marder

Cinematography by Daniël Bouquet

Starring Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Paul Raci, Lauren Ridloff and Mathieu Amalric

"Serenity is no longer wishing you had a different past."

[speakingparts]

SOUND OF METAL [DARIUS MARDER, 2019]

poster art by William Laboury

[sesiondemadrugada]

Sound of Metal (Darius Marder, 2019).

[guy60660]

Marlon James  | Daniël Bouquet | WSJ

[absencesrepetees]

sound of metal (darius marder, 2019)

[vfterluna]

“You saved my life. You made it beautiful.”

Sound of Metal (2019) directed by Darius Marder

[manuxmon]

Sound of Metal (2019) 

DoP: Daniël Bouquet 

Dir: Darius Marder

[genevieveetguy]

Ruben. As you know, everybody here shares in the belief that being deaf is not a handicap. Not something to fix. It's pretty important around here. All these kids... all of us, need to be reminded of it every day.

Sound of Metal, Darius Marder (2019)

[nclkafilms]

The power of stillness

(Review of ‘Sound of Metal’)

*Warning: contains minor spoilers*

“The world does keep moving, and it can be a damn cruel place.  But for me, those moments of stillness, that place, that's the kingdom of God.”

- Joe (Paul Raci)

What is an addiction? That is in many ways one of the central questions asked by ‘Sound of Metal’, the six time Academy Award nominated feature film debut by Darius Marder. On the surface the film seems like a tale as old as time with a protagonist who all of a sudden loses the ability to do what defines him. This storyline is the recipe for a classic tale: the athlete who suffers a career-ending injury, the surgeon who loses his fine motor skills or in the case of ‘Sound of Metal’, a heavy-metal drummer who loses his hearing. But what makes ‘Sound of Metal’ reach above the bar of this recipe - apart from a stunning technical side - is the fact that it is not as much about losing an ability as it is about facing an addiction. It is in this personal discovery for our main character, Ruben, that the film proves itself deserving of its six Oscar nominations.

As described, we follow Ruben, who is the drummer of a heavy metal band in which his girlfriend through four years, Lou, is the lead singer. However, during a tour, he is suddenly faced with a deteriorating ability to hear. Initially showing itself as a tinitus-like sound, which quickly develops into a deep, humming “lack of sound” making it impossible for Ruben to not only play his drums but simply to keep a conversation. As he is presented with the cold facts that the hearing already lost will never return, he is spiralled towards a tumultuous past of drug addiction. As Lou becomes worried for him she helps set up a meeting - through Ruben’s sponsor - with Joe, who leads a support group for addicts with hearing loss as part of a much larger deaf community. Ruben’s stay with the group is equally conflicting and eye-opening as he is forced apart from Lou, faced with the consequences of his hearing loss and presented with new opportunities under the firm but endearing leadership of Joe. 

As Ruben, Riz Ahmed delivers a career-best turn moving himself further up the Hollywood food chain. It is an extremely nuanced and touching performance. One moment he burns through the screen with a powerful and/or frustrated presence only to almost hide himself in the next sequence as he gives space to Ruben’s vulnerability and inability to fully accept his new reality. Ahmed embodies all these feelings close to perfection and it is topped off by an authenticity in his performance and chemistry with the film’s many deaf actors that underlines his dedication to Ruben’s character arc. Ahmed spent a lot of time in the lead-in to the production within the deaf community and it pays off as Ruben’s growing acceptance of and inclusion in said community feels immensely real.

At the centre of the film’s heartfelt portrayal of the deaf community stands Paul Raci, however. He creates one of the most endearing characters of the year as Joe, a Vietnam War veteran  (where he lost his hearing) and former alcoholic, who now hosts the support group for hearing impaired former addicts. Raci brings the role a natural authenticity as he himself is no stranger to the American deaf community as the child of two deaf parents. He clearly uses this to create a fully fleshed character, who you come to both care for and respect. Because, make no mistake, as heart-warming as many of Joe’s scenes are, he is also at the centre of one of the film’s most heart-breaking scenes towards the end, in which he gives a profound and touching message to a desperate Ruben. Raci plays this scene with such heart and presence that Joe’s emotional reaction towards the end of it feels as if it was Raci’s own reaction to the scene. A stunning performance that would and should have earned Raci many more awards had it not been for a certain Daniel Kaluuya.

As Lou, Olivia Cooke is somewhat sidelined half way through the story, and knowing that the Marder brothers did write her story in full detail, I would have loved to see more of it and discover how she dealt with her own addiction(s). Admittedly, I guess that would have been at the cost of the film’s quite tight focus, but the main reason I wanted to see more of her story, is that Cooke manages to create a fascinating character with the limited screen presence she gets. Her scenes with Ahmed as their characters try to realise the extent of Ruben’s hearing loss both individually and as a couple are simply heartbreaking. Most of the film’s remaining supporting cast were found in the deaf community and it - once again - helps heightening the film’s anchor in reality. To highlight a few, Lauren Ridloff brings charm to a teacher in the deaf community school, Chelsea Lee brings life and heart to one of Ruben’s new-found friends and Jeremy Stone, who also worked as Ahmed’s personal ASL teacher and Marder’s creative assistent on the film, features in a specifically memorable scene as an - surprise - ASL teacher. 

This desire to include the deaf community as not only a focus point of the film, but as an active part of the production is a clever and brilliant move by director, Darius Marder. Not unlike the nomads in Nomadland, it creates a certain sense of some of it being close to documentary, although ‘Sound of Metal’ is much clearer in being a work of fiction. It is obvious that the story is deeply personal to the Marder brothers who co-wrote the script on from an original story by Derek Cianfrance (‘Blue Valentine’, ‘Place Beyond the Pines’) with the film being dedicated to their grandmother who went deaf herself. One of many personal touches is the choice to open caption the film, which - of course - can be seen as a statement to make more films accessible for the deaf community, but it also heightens the film’s creative vision to put the viewer in the shoes - or rather ears - of Ruben.

The main reason why this works, however, is the film’s absolute strongest asset: the daring creative choice to create a (with Marder’s own words) Point of Hearing (PoH) experience. Years of work has been put into the film’s work with its sound and how it connects with its imagery. In many situations the way they try to portray the sensation of deafness could have felt gimmicky and, thus, fallen flat. It doesn’t, however. From the first scene in which we experience Ruben’s auditory sensations, I bought it all the way and it truly heightened the film experience. An experience I would love to have in a cinema. It works thanks to the immaculate work by the Marder brothers in their script, the intimate cinematography by Daniël Bouquet and most of all the collaboration between Danish editor Mikkel E.G. Nielsen and the sound department under the leadership of supervising sound editor Nicolas Becker. The way they first create some of the best concert footage of recent years (featuring only live performances by Ahmed and Cooke) and then one of the best realised depictions of a sensation so many of us never have had or will have is awe-inspiring.  

Ultimately, ‘Sound of Metal’ is just as much a film about facing your past and your ideas for the future as it is about a deaf drummer learning to live his new life. As such it features some the same thematic questions as other films of the year (‘Soul’ and ‘Another Round’ to name just two): what drives and what should drive your life. What is purpose, what is a meaningful life? As the quote in the beginning of this review hints at, life has a cruel tendency to roll on no matter where you are in your life. For Ruben, his journey reveals that while distancing himself from his drug addiction he might just have moved on to a new addiction: an addiction to sound and the world that sound opened up for him. The world of Lou, the world of love, the world of purpose. In a telling scene after Ruben has made a life-changing decision, a clearly hurt Joe calmly says to Ruben that he sounds like an addict. And he does. Ahmed delivers this scene with such necessity, such desperation and inconstancy that we feel his addiction to sound, to hearing. The following and final 30 minutes of the film end up being both hurtful and hauntingly beautiful as Ruben comes to terms with his addiction in a realistic and satisfying way. The final scene is up there with the best of the year; you can literally hear it and feel. The power of stillness. 

4,5/5

[typo1]

Daniël Bouquet 

[weandthecolor]

Daniël Bouquet Identity by Remote Forms

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[scenesandscreens]

Sound of Metal (2020)

Director - Darius Marder, Cinematography - Daniël Bouquet

"I wonder, uh, all these mornings you've been sitting in my study, sitting, have you had any moments of stillness? Because you're right, Ruben. The world does keep moving, and it can be a damn cruel place."