The Lost City of Z : James Gray in uncharted territory
With The Lost City of Z (2017)James Gray has taken on a great challenge. That of bringing the story of The Lost City of Z by David Grann, inspired by The Adventures of Percy Fawcett. In the film we discover the latter as one of the greatest recognized British. As his family prepares to expand, the Royal Geographical Society of England asks him to leave for an expedition to the Amazon to map part of the continent. After a first trip, Percy returned to England, but still feeling a great fascination for this place. And especially for a lost city that he hopes to discover one day. Despite the difficulties he experienced, and his family who counted on him, he decided to leave again to continue his exploration.
Under his appearance in an adventure film, The Lost City of Z It is above all a rich drama, capable of dealing with both the difficulty of satisfying one’s passion without impacting on one’s loved ones, and the need for them to let someone go and live an experience that, perhaps, will be fatal to them, but necessary for their development. The madness that seizes the protagonists in front of this nature is also for James Gray a way to question himself the limits of man to carry out such research.
Finally, the director does not forget it highlight prejudices of this period (echoing our own time), both by comparing Western beliefs with indigenous civilizations, and simply by the place given to Nina, Percy Fawcett’s wife, within English society.
An important cast put to the test
In order to offer this open-air journey, James Gray filmed part of the the colombian rainforest. A dangerous place due to the presence of snakes, but also due to the risks associated with the dengue virus, formerly called tropical flu or red fever. As can be read in the press kit of The Lost City of Zthe shooting was therefore very difficult for both the technical teams and the casting members. SO, Charlie Hunnam’s eardrum was attacked by a bug, while a member of the team was bitten in the neck by a snakeThe latter owes its survival only to the intervention of someone who sucked the poison out of it.
If Charlie Hunnam plays the lead role in the film, the star of Pacific Rim AND King Arthur It’s not the only star of The Lost City of Z. Even if at that moment Tom Holland he wasn’t as popular as he is today, he had already been introduced as Spider-Man Captain America: Civil Warreleased a few weeks after the film by James Gray. The actor plays Jack Fawcett, Percy’s son who will accompany his father on his adventure. Sienna Miller plays the latter’s wife, while Robert Pattinson It’s Henry Costin, Percy’s friend who travels with him. The actor hadn’t even donned the Dark Knight costume yet (The Batman2022), but his fame was still important.
The press convinced despite the financial failure
All these beautiful people, however, were not enough to allow James Gray to achieve success. However, the director benefited from them its biggest budget For The Lost City of Zestimated at 30 million dollars. Only a few years later this figure was exceeded To Astra (2019), which has cost between 80 and 100 million dollars. The 30 million dollars committed by the production companies may not seem a lot compared to blockbusters, but the failure of the feature film at the box office remains notable. The Lost City of Z managing only to accumulate $19 million in revenue worldwide.
A financial failure all the more deplorable The Lost City of Z It is considered by many a masterpiece and one of the best (if not the best) James Gray films. The press was very complimentary indeed when the film was released, as its average rating shows. 4.5/5 out of 5 Assigned. Among the positive reviews, that of Critic indicated that “James Gray himself reaches the pinnacle of an exciting filmography“, While Telerama found “the majestic and subtle result“. Or again The Obs who wrote: “Great cinemacarried by broad lyricism, tragic poetry“.
Source: Cine Serie
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