For this, the 5th year of the festival, the theme is especially esoteric. I’m calling it NEONÆSTHETIC, which is distinct from neon lights - evoking the night time scenes of Tokyo or Las Vegas. I could call this year’s theme, “Colorful” or “Visually Striking” but that could also conjure the Technicolor films of the 50s and 60s, which are aesthetically very different.
“A week into Daylight Savings and we're already feeling the vibe shift... If you're ready to fully embrace the dark, we have a film guide just for you. With neons, cool tones, and visually pleasing aesthetics, these moody #Sundance films with bright color palettes may just add some unexpected light into your life, until we turn the clocks forward again.”
I Started by trying to identify pre-1990s films (when digitally processed film emerged) that could fit in aesthetically with the theme, despite being technically technicolor or another pre-digital color process. I already knew of a couple of movies that could work. Seijun Suzuki’s Tokyo Drifter (1966) is considered by some the proto neon-noir, influencing directors such as Jim Jarmusch and Wong Kar Wai, and whose impact can be seen in films such as Thief (1981), Strange Days (1995), and Drive (2011). Another pre-digital entry point is Dario Argento’s giallo horror film Suspiria (1977).
I looked into early cinema Features that used film tinting techniques to apply color, sometimes vivid colors, to the movies. One of the earliest surviving animated feature films, The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) by Lotte Reiniger features a color palette that could be placed alongside any of the films mentioned here. I decided not to include it because It just didn’t seem to fit in. Newer animated films like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) also use vivid neon colors but they’re missing an element of the theme that I can’t quite put my finger on - Moodiness?
One film that I’ve been very interested in watching for a long time is Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s World on a Wire (1973), it was originally a two-episode miniseries for German television, and is in the Criterion Collection but it clocks in at a whopping 212 minutes! Not to mention that his Merchant of Four Seasons (1972) was the opening film of the inaugural festival, and his film The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant(1972) was screened during the 3rd festival. Lots of other science fiction movies also fit into the theme. The neon lights of future Los Angeles in Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017), the computerized mayhem of Tron (1982) and Tron: Legacy (2010), and the new wave acid trip Liquid Sky (1982). Instead I went with a Science Fiction film that was new to me, the afrofuturist-musical Neptune Frost (2021).
Another approach was to identify directors whose styles I associated with this neon/moody/digital aesthetic. Gaspar Noe, Nicolas Winding Refn, Wong Kar Wai, Barry Jenkins, the Safdie Brothers, and Panos Cosmatos. Gaspar Noe’s Climax (2018) nearly made the cut last year, so it was already front of mind. Enter the Void (2009), was actually the first of his films that I considered, but at nearly 150 minutes (that’s the shorter cut!), it could be a bit of a slog. I decided against including another Refn film (specifically Only God Forgives (2013)) since his film Neon Demon (2016) was screened at the 3rd festival. Nearly every Wong Kar Wai film could work (Days of Being Wild (1990), Fallen Angels (1995), Happy Together (1997), In the Mood for Love (2000) , 2046 (2004)), but I narrowed it down to In the Mood For Love, a period romance. Barry Jenkin’s Moonlight (2016) nearly made it, the neon purples and moody blues from the trailer have really stuck with me, but was cut in favor of shorter films. The Safdies’ Good Time (2017), this time with neon reds and purples, was also just a little too long to fit into the schedule. Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010) by Panos Cosmatos, whose sci-fi/horror aesthetics are at least superficially reminiscent of the later half of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and World on a Wire, was surprisingly popular with some friends I surreptitiously polled, and therefore selected over his other film Mandy (2018).
I started to look for gaps and overlaps in my picks and noticed that despite a lot of strong contenders from the 1990s, I had yet to pick one. Most of these happened to be crime films, Deep Cover (1992), Gregg Araki’s The Doom Generation (1995) and Nowhere (1997), Strange Days (1995), Belly (1998). Another two films, Krzysztof Kieślowski’s The Double Life of Veronique (1991) and Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Flowers of Shanghai (1998), were not crime films, and featured a distinct golden hue. I was leaning into the Hsiao-hsien film because another of his movies, Millennium Mambo (2001) had already been cut, but yet again, the shorter of the two movies was easier to accommodate.
I then turned my attention to the long list of 2020s films I wanted to consider. Titane (2021) by Julia Ducournau, a demented horror-science fiction-thriller. Nanny (2022), a slow burn psychological horror film by Nikyatu Jusu. Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022), a horror comedy by Halina Reijn. Ignoring all the horror films left me with Zola (2020) by Janicza Bravo, a comedy, Moonage Daydream (2022) by Brett Morgen, a neon inflected documentary about David Bowie, and Promising Young Woman (2020) which I watched when it was released. I went with the comedy.
Several other contenders that were cut for the sake of variety or time were: Throw Down (2004) by Johnnie To. The Rose (1979) by Mark Rydell. Pariah (2011) by Dee Rees. Guilty of Romance (2011) by Sion Sono. Spring Breakers (2013) by Harmony Korine. Lost River (2014) by Ryan Gosling. Long Day's Journey into Night (2018) by Bi Gan. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and the Wachowski’s neon soaked adaptation of Speed Racer (2008).
Hopefully you’ll watch some of the films that didn’t make the cut this year (you can look at the full list on Letterboxd) and maybe you don’t agree with all my choices, but hopefully, you’ll enjoy watching them!
