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The highly-acclaimed psychological drama, The Lost Daughter, premiered today on Netflix and has given the world of cinema yet another masterpiece.
Based on a novel by Elena Ferrante, The Lost Daughter revolves around a middle-aged woman who becomes obsessed with a young woman with a daughter, as she sees a reflection of herself as a mother in her.
The film is directed and written by actress Maggie Gyllenhaal and had its world premiere at the 78th Venice International Film Festival in September.
The stunning cinematography of 'The Lost Daughter'
The official trailer for The Lost Daughter dropped in October and the film had its theatrical release earlier this month. It has received good reviews and holds a score of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Lost Daughter stars Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson, Peter Sarsgaard, Ed Harris, Paul Mescal, Dagmara Domińczyk, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Robyn Elwell, Athena Martin, Ellie Blake and Jack Farthing.
Let's take a look at the three mesmerizing moments from Netflix's The Lost Daughter.
1) The Beach
Leda's story in The Lost Daughter starts and ends at the beach, becoming a full circle even though she found herself at a very different place from where she started.
Her earliest experiences on the beach found her observing the massive family that intrudes her peace. But one person in particular catches her eye, Nina, a young mother who eventually becomes Leda's obsession.
These scenes spread out with subjectivity as everything seen in the film is viewers through Leda's point, especially looking at Nina. Every scene captured on the beach in The Lost Daughter is mesmerizing as it adds more to Leda and her backstory, giving viewers something more to dig into.
One such scene is when Nina thanks Leda for finding her daughter yet the latter is dissatisfied and confused as her life did not look as shiny as the former, even if they seem similar.
According to director Maggie Gyllenhaal:
"We’re doing something that’s very classic cinematically to do to a beautiful woman on film. We’re observing her and adoring her…for this whole first section of the movie, where Dakota doesn’t speak except from really far away."
2) The Confession
The most pivotal scene in The Lost Daughter has to be Leda's confession to Nina at the flea market. This particular scene captures the pain as well as the freedom felt by a young mother upon leaving her daughters. The scene starts off as Leda helping Nina out with her hat and ends with Leda in tears.
This scene's filmic goal in The Lost Daughter was to trap Leda with Nina and get them close, especially in a place where she could no longer hold it in. She had to let her darkest secret out to feel the relief or perhaps the baggage she felt every time she looked at Nina and her daughter. According to Maggie Gyllenhall:
"Not every take looked like this. There were takes where she was totally stoic. There were takes where she was angry. There were takes where she was very quiet and emotional like this. But every take was different because we started at the beginning and we saw where we ended at the end."
3) The Dance party
Following the big confession in The Lost Daughter, Leda finds herself at a party. She lets loose with Lyle and for the first time, she looks and feels happy. This comes as a big change after everything Leda has been going through, especially with Nina's family.
Cinematographer Helene Louvart is able to beautifully capture this joyous scene, with Leda dancing around and letting go of her pain for once.
But this sense of joy turns into dread once Nina's family arrives at the party. Leda feels that things have been off between them since she stole the doll and even though they aren't aware of that crime, they have been giving her hostile stares.
She is also concerned about herself, now that she knows about Nina's affair and how her family does not consist of good people. Her confession to Nina does not seem to matter in this moment as that becomes the last of her worries due to what Leda has been hiding.
Leda's red dress also played a part in adding emphasis to her feelings as it worked as a stark metaphor for how she feels exposed. According to Maggie Gyllenhaal:
"In a kind of cinematic language, shots like this and her P.O.V., they tell you, this is scary, get scared, something scary is going to happen. We wanted to play with the horror movie, the thriller: Is she in peril? There’s a whole tradition in movies where someone might show up at her house and hurt her. We were playing with that."
Catch the cinematic beauty of The Lost Daughter, now streaming on Netflix.
