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This quadrant explains why Drive is such a stylish film

This quadrant explains why Drive is such a stylish film

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Tony Zhou’s masterful "Every Frame a Painting" series returns to take on Drive, Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 film starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan, once described by the late Roger Ebert as "an elegant exercise in style."

Zhou shows how the film comes "alive" by taking a few scenes and dividing them into quadrants, demonstrating how Refn uses an otherwise conventional storytelling tool to do unconventional things. Shots that split the actors left and right help tell two different stories at the same time. Splitting top to bottom helps the characters show their inner feelings through gestures and fidgeting in a way that faces and dialogue can't. The effect makes Drive predictable and unpredictable at the same time, and stands in stark contrast to the geometric perfection of Wes Anderson films.

Drive quadrant