Andrea Arnold’s Magnificent Masterpiece “Fish Tank”
Sweet Jesus, where do I start with this film? For one, the opening sequence for Fish Tank is some of the most powerful stuff I’ve seen in a long while. I watched this film at the Chicago Int’l Film Festival back in October 2009, going into the theatre knowing absolutely nothing. What I witnessed inside that room was something of another level, something that truly broke my boundaries as a cinephile. I was not very familiar with the lead actor in the film at the time, Michael Fassbender, whose work has been shining ferociously to this day. His performance along with first-time-actress Katie Jarvis is a chemistry that you only truly see in real life. The film is about a very young girl who lives with her kid sister and single mother, and their mum’s boyfriend (Michael Fassbender).
I had never seen anything by director Andrea Arnold before, but I was so intrigued by her that I did my homework and my jaw dropped with what I discovered. Ms. Arnold is a director who really likes to provoke the fullest potential from her instruments, in the film, namely Katie Jarvis. Andrea works in a way where the actors only get to see their own lines prior to filming, leaving an ultimate unknown for them. Meaning that you only get to see your co-star’s lines on the actual day of shooting film. This is fascinating to me, because some of my favorite musicians work in the same way while recording in the studio. Andrea also films in chronological order while shooting, which I think is very important especially for a film of this emotional magnitude.
Now back to Katie Jarvis, this young beautiful woman was discovered by the casting director’s assistant one day while she was yelling across a train platform to her boyfriend. That’s how easy it is when you have natural talent. She had never been in front of a camera before in her life, and here she is starring in one of the best films of the last decade. Please do yourself a very nice favor and order this film from Criterion. The Collection was classy enough to release it both on DVD and Blu-ray: both containing video interviews with cast, audition footage, and most importantly Andrea’s first three short films. There is so much more to say about this film but to get a true sense of what I am hyping up, please see it for yourself. Thank you. -Pouya G. Asadi
