LWLies 93: The North­man Issue – On sale now!

The Amer­i­can film­mak­er Robert Eggers has had quite the career. His 2015 debut fea­ture, The Witch, fol­lowed a group of New Eng­land pil­grims as they are harangued (and worse) by a mys­ti­cal force in the near­by forest.

Then, he went full-on mad­balls with the Beck­et­t­ian absur­do-hor­ror, The Light­house, in which Robert Pat­tin­son and Willem Dafoe bick­er (and worse) as the keep­ers of a storm-lashed light­house. At that point we pon­dered: where could Eggers go next? Maybe dou­ble down on his love of his­tor­i­cal eso­ter­i­ca? Or maybe lev­el up with some­thing tooled for a big­ger audience.

The answer we got is that he did both: The North­man is an intri­cate­ly-designed revenge epic con­cern­ing the must-win mis­sion of a Viking prin­cling-turned-berserk­er who vows to avenge the mur­der of his beloved father. It’s a film that will final­ly send actor​Alexan­der Skars­gård into the stratos­phere, as it charts his Ham­let-esque descent into a rag­ing maraud­er whose desire to com­mit sym­bol­ic mur­der can­not be quenched by any oth­er means.

Not only is this issue a cel­e­bra­tion of Eggers and his stel­lar work inside the Hol­ly­wood sys­tem, but we also look at the con­cept of orig­i­nal­i­ty when it comes to cin­e­mat­ic sto­ry­telling and art in gen­er­al. In this world of pre­quels, sequels, fran­chise-exten­sions and reboots, is there still room for movies that don’t come with their own exist­ing IP fan­base? This is an issue ded­i­cat­ed to all the artists who sing by his or her own hymn sheet.

On the cover

We were thrilled to invite Brook­lyn-based artist Col­in Ver­di to illus­trate our cov­er, and his dig­i­tal work drew inspi­ra­tion from real arti­facts found in the Nation­al Muse­um of Iceland.

Illus­tra­tors inside the issue include Lau­rène Boglio, Emma Bale­bela, Michael Dun­babin, Tavo Mon­tañez, Stephanie Sergeant, Ste­fano Sum­mo and Martha Addy.

In this issue

Read­ing the Runes
In antic­i­pa­tion of Robert Eggers’ The North­man, Tom Hud­dle­ston offers a pot­ted his­to­ry of the Viking movie genre.

Encounter at the End of the World
Robert Eggers, co-writer and direc­tor of The North­man, dis­cuss­es his idio­syn­crat­ic Viking epic.

Sword of Des­tiny
Han­nah Strong meets new­ly-mint­ed lead­ing man Alexan­der Skarsgård ahead of his mus­cu­lar turn in The Northman.

Past Mas­ters
In praise of the great Kate Dick­ie and Ralph Ine­son – always on-call to play char­ac­ters from old­en times.

Here Comes the Lilt Man
Mark Asch is in con­ver­sa­tion with Bren­dan Gunn, an Irish lin­guist who also works as an accent coach to the great and good of Hollywood.

Pure Drops
The top 50 films of the new mil­len­ni­um – not based on exist­ing intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty, and as cho­sen by LWLies contributors.

Threads #21
In our reg­u­lar col­umn on clothes and movies, Christi­na New­land looks at on- screen rep­re­sen­ta­tions of ani­mal pelts and furs.

In the back section

Joachim Tri­er
Han­nah Stong meets the Oscar-nom­i­nat­ed writer/​director of everyone’s favorite exis­ten­tial rela­tion­ship dra­ma, The Worst Per­son in the World.

Ter­ence Davies
Sophie Monks Kauf­man pro­files the arch­ly enig­mat­ic British mae­stro ahead of his melan­cholic Sigfried Sas­soon biopic, Bene­dic­tion.

Sean Bak­er
Han­nah Strong talks to one of America’s most con­sis­tent­ly sur­pris­ing and inno­v­a­tive film­mak­ers ahead of his provoca­tive new work, Red Rock­et.

Lucie Zhang
Josh Slater-Williams inter­views the star of Jacques Audi­ard​’s new urban mood piece, Paris, 13^th Dis­trict.

Paul Ver­ho­even
Jus­tine Smith talks sex, nuns and the life of Christ with the Dutch-born leg­end whose lat­est romp, Benedet­ta, is com­ing soon.

Matt Reeves
Kam­bole Camp­bell geeks out with the direc­tor of The Bat­man on the com­ic roots of its moral­ly con­tentious hero.

In review…

Joachim Trier’s The Worst Per­son in the World
Ter­ence Davies’ Bene­dic­tion
Nan­ni Moretti’s Three Floors
Haider Rashid’s Europa
Cata­ri­na Vas­con­ce­los’ The Meta­mor­pho­sis of Birds
Bler­ta Basholli’s Hive
Jacques Audiard’s Paris, 13^th Dis­trict
Vin­cent Munier and Marie Amiguet’s The Vel­vet Queen
Gra­ham Moore’s The Out­fit
Paul Verhoeven’s Benedet­ta
Sebas­t­ian Meise’s Great Free­dom
Ruth Paxton’s A Ban­quet
Nabil Ayouch’s Casablan­ca Beats
Kiro Russo’s The Great Move­ment
Lau­ra Samani’s Small Body
Gas­par Noé’s Vor­tex
Maria­ma Diallo’s Mas­ter
Sean Baker’s Red Rock­et
Juho Kuosmanen’s Com­part­ment Num­ber 6
Lau­ra Wandel’s Play­ground
Arthur Harari’s Ono­da: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle

LWLies 92 is avail­able to order online now from our online shop. Become a Mem­ber or Sub­scribe today to make sure you nev­er miss an issue.

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