What "Loving" Looks Like: Visual Simplicity

We take a closer look at Jeff Nichols’ Loving (2016) and the filmmaking philosophy of visual simplicity.

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in Jeff Nichols loving the philosophy of
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visual simplicity keeps us focused on
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the human face and the small movements
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of the actors expressions the
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deliberately minimalist stripped-down
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visual world feels subtle and unassuming
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just like Mildred and Richard loving the
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quiet couple at the center of the 1967
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Supreme Court case Loving v Virginia
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which struck down state laws against
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interracial marriage the choice to step
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back and let the actions play out
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without interference isn’t a lazy camera
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technique it’s a philosophy of
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filmmaking history jumps out of the
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textbook giving us something human to
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connect to the universal story of two
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people in love in a world that’s hostile
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to that love tell the judge I love my
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with loving cinematographer Adam stone
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uses stately no distractions
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person-centered camerawork and lighting
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according to film professor julian
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cornell jeff nichols to me is one of the
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most interesting directors working today
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one of the most interesting things about
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nichols for a contemporary director is
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how little he moves the camera there’s a
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reliance today amongst directors in
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moving camera because you can do it it’s
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feasible and he resists that now why
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does he do that I think a number of
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reasons he does that is it allows for
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more intimate character portraits so
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we’re not caught up in thinking about
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what the cameras doing we feel we’re
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just watching two people unmediated I
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always use it to learn more
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a lot there’s POV is that like it’s not
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a person’s POV in the movie we don’t
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want the camera to get way out there
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filming something I shouldn’t you’re not
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getting of actors saying or not saying
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compensating for their lack of camera
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movement they create depth and dynamism
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through blocking and Composition and
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they’re always stacked three shot if we
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have three people you know it’s almost
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like a wedge or triangle you have
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someone in the foreground so in the
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middle when the camera does make
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unsettling movements they align with the
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outer world and moments when hostile
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forces crash in from outside
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doing in bed with that woman
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how much wise there’s no good in we
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always say like keep it simple stupid I
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love when people saying you know it’s
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simple an authentic Lovings production
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designer Chad Keith chooses locations
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and set dressings that eliminate
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everything in essential so what we see
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in frame is only the honest environment
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the Lovings would interact with it I
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think it’s just important that to not
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have the distraction you don’t have to
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always have something in every frame if
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it doesn’t need to be there then you
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know why is it there I like to give a
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complete set you know even if we’re not
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seeing the whole set at all time so it
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just helps the overall feel it helps the
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characters get more into the moment
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because they can look across the room
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and see that you know the rest of their
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house is actually there if we look
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closer at a few key scenes we notice how
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visual choices like the set dressing and
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framing are also reinforcing important
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moments and themes of the story in
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sophisticated ways for example the
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framing in the jail scene when the
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police won’t let Richard bail a very
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pregnant Mildred out of jail every shot
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contains layer upon layer of prison bars
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it’s a striking visual echo and
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illustration of the overwhelming number
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of layers of institutional forces
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keeping them apart and just how long a
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journey of appeal after appeal they’ll
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have to go through to remove these
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layers of violent separation we asked
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the cinematographer and the production
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is
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to tell us about a couple of their
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favorite scenes in the movie Stone
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points to the dishwashing scene is an
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example of how visual simplicity can
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move us he points out that he went for a
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very basic lighting here Gregg was here
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Mildred is here I would be if I was
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camera we’d be looking this way they’re
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in profile and then super simple baton
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strip tungsten light bulbs up in the
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ceiling and just with a piece of muslin
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in the back to kill some of the shadows
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and that’s what lit it we may lose a
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small battles but win the big war and
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the other thing I kind of love about
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that scene is that don’t just wasn’t
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sitting correctly as it passed the the
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film as a gate basically a cameras just
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a sewing machine that runs films oil but
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it’s one of those neat things with with
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film like you never know what you’re
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gonna get it’s kind of a amazingly
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fragile yet beautiful median to shoot
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with it’s beautifully flawed I guess
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like that scene one specific scene in
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the film that I like is wouldn’t Mildred
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is sitting on the couch watching the
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March with Martin Luther King jr. and
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she’s sitting in her living room and
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she’s basically a few blocks away from
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it where it’s happening that scene is
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just really brings it
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just sort of quiet people in some key
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moments Nichols chooses to cut out from
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closer views of the Lovings emotions to
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a wide shot in these wide shots we grasp
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the big picture of how this couple
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shaped history wider shots of the land
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in Virginia also connect us with the
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Lovings feelings about this place
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come on build you a house house each
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place in the film earns a strong
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emotional presence when Richard and
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Mildred are forced to leave her alergy
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Nia for inner city DC the green open
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space of the countryside is replaced by
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the claustrophobic D saturated feel of a
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city they have no connection to we were
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these really lush environments pumped up
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the greens just a tad and then a little
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bit of D sat and DC a kind of
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counterpoint the production also
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achieved its realism and authentic
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performances by shooting in actual
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places the Lovings inhabited we’re
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walking literally in the footsteps of
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these people where we’re outside the
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jail where she was held and inside the
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courtroom where she was tried the
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courtroom that they were tried in was
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original I think at that point the clerk
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of court even told me the same tables
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and chairs were in there from when they
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were tried which was pretty amazing
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the exterior of the jail was still
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standing using the documentary the
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loving story by Nancy we’re ski as a
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guide the loving team based many visuals
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on 16-millimeter footage of the couple
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made lives of small battles and win big
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war and photos by Life magazine
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photographer gray Villette who’s also a
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character in the film played by Michael
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Shannon
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how he captured such truthful simple
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images he never used a flash he never
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bounced light he’d always find natural
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light he never forced a shot he never
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manicured anything his saying was like I
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wanted him capturing images that are as
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real as real can get and that resonated
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with me I was like hmm that kind of is
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kind of our mantra or Canon the quiet
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elegant nature of the Lovings is
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mirrored in nickels and dice pecked
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achill style we’re not so much focused
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on the experience of watching the film
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in the sense of getting entertainment or
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having visual pleasure his films are
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anti spectacle or another director might
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emphasize action or drama he
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de-emphasizes it I think history is much
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like things today in terms of headlines
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we look for things that blow up those
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are where our eyes tend to fall on the
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train wrecks in this story it was it was
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a psychological violence it was quiet
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violence but the real insidious part
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their persecution was the time that was
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taken away from them we don’t look at
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those types of stories for the audience
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watching the slow burn of the story
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unfolding may take a little patience but
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the payoff is the unexpected swelling of
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emotion that we didn’t notice has been
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gradually building in us all along by
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the end we feel the film has visually
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captured what loving looks like
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[Music]