More thoughts (see previous post), on the gorgeousness and fabulousness of "The Knick." We're about half-way through the 1st season, and caught up in a great narrative. The time is 1900 and the new century is one of discovery and invention. Thomas Edison is around hawking electricity and x-rays and the 1st phonograph.
And the key characters of the show are surgeons who are innovators - creative, driven, supremely passionate and flawed beings, trying to do things no one has done before.
So yes, the form of the show, as conceived by Steven Soderbergh, and the theme of the show are totally aligned.
Soderbergh is an innovator - creative, driven, supremely passionate about creating a unique, beautifully filmed series. He pushes himself to create scenes in a new way. And uses the latest technology. But what's brilliant and uncommon - he uses cutting edge technology, and his painter's eye, to film like the old masters. This is not a CGI fest, but a merging of old and new worlds.
So yes, available light, candlelight. Powerful digital camera, giving us exquisitely composed scenes. A powerful dichotomy.
Also wanted to mention the soundtrack. The music pulls you out of it all. It's sort of a "techno," keyboard-driven sound. Not of the time at all. But for me this works beautifully too. In a way, the music is the atmosphere of imagination, and creativity, and technical invention that hovers over all the action.
The series seems to celebrate the best of us. Flawed beings that are able to transcend themselves to discover, experiment, and achieve things that have never been attempted or achieved before. And of course, there's the obsession, the delusion, the ego, the misguided, un-channeled passion that drives and consumes us all.
It's a time of sexism, racism, classism, ignorance, and hubris. Oh yeah, just like today!
Did I give you the impression that I think this series is absolutely brilliant? Oh yeah, and Clive Owen too. Thrilling!