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At times, one watches a masterpiece, and they are lost for words. Coming from executive directors David Finch and David Prior, Voir is one such piece of work.
Hollywood is not foreign to docuseries that attempt to map the revolution of cinema. But most are geared towards catering to populist nostalgia rather than exploring cinematic rigor through the ages. But Netflix's Voir is married to love for cinema without attempting to cater to any other propaganda.
The six-episode collection of visual essays is a sensory treat for all cinema lovers.
What is 'Voir' all about?
Voir is a tribute to the world of cinema. The docu-series spanning six episodes of around 20 minutes each is not divided either thematically or temporally. It is a bit of both. But the six entries have one thing in common. They are narrated by interviews by individuals whose love for the medium of cinema ties them together.
McWeeny, Chaw, Stone, Tony Zhou, and Taylor Ramos act as the narrators for the show, and their interviews are interspaced with iconic scenes from legendary movies that left a prominent mark in the history of cinema.
The first episode, titled The Summer of the Shark, revisits the Hollywood spectacle Jaws and how it changed the face of cinema and ushered in the era of blockbusters. It also explores the life of 70s kids who grew up watching the big screen. Ethics of Revenge makes Park Chan-wook’s Lady Vengeance the pivotal point of the episode that examines the trope of 'revenge' in cinema.
This episode weaves in social institutions and human emotions, looking at their intermingling within cinema. It explores a number of iconic movies, including Fincher's own Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, that fall into the revenge genre. The third episode of Voir deals with protagonists that aren't very likeable characters by design. In this context, the episode starts with Lawrence of Arabia but mostly examines Scorcese's directions.
Duality of Appeal mainly focuses on what makes a character appealing. It is imperfections. This episode of Voir examines the world of animation, giving us a backstage tour of crafting animated characters. Episode five is particularly important. It deals with the ongoing and everlasting argument between television and movie theater. The episode charts the history of the audiovisual medium and how both cinema and television have been constantly at tiff with each other over establishing dominance.
Much like the first episode of Voir, the finale episode focuses on a particular movie that marked a watershed moment in cinema, 48 Hrs. This movie sparked a whole slew of interracial buddy movies and also triggered the exploration of African-American roles in cinema. The episode blends in reflection and current analysis, looking at the movie as a text and weaving in star theory and auteur theory.
Why to watch the docu-series?
Though the episodes are disjunctured, the series maintains a sense of continuity in terms of structuration. Most of the interviews take place in the darkened theater, which is an allusion to the theme of the series. They are accompanied by clips from the movies being talked about.
However, the animation episode features interviews with academics and an assortment of big names in the Disney space, including Glen Keane and Brenda Chapman. It also follows the narrators as they proceed to create their magic on paper as well as on-screen.
Rich in content, Voir is equal parts entertaining and informative. It rises to both occasions of being an engaging docu-series that one enjoys in leisure and serves the purpose of a seriously dense documentary catering to cinema lovers.
If nothing, the documentary series will make any cinema lover nostalgic. Nostalgic about the first movie they saw, the experience of the theater when they first discovered their love for movies, and nostalgic about how far cinema as a medium has evolved and come to now.
If you are a film buff, you cannot miss Voir now streaming on Netflix.
