Director Alfonso Cuarón has seen The Northman, Robert Eggers' upcoming Viking revenge epic, and he seems impressed.
"Every single frame is charged with all the thematic elements of the whole film," Cuarón told The New Yorker. "I have to say, it is very complex, it is very complicated what he does."
Speaking about the long scenes that Eggers frequently has in his films, Cuarón added: "The impression is almost of intoxication. You are there, and you’re breathing with those actors."
The Northman follows a Viking prince who will stop at nothing to avenge his murdered father. It features an all-star cast including Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, and Björk. Taylor-Joy previously played the lead role in Eggers' debut feature The Witch, while Dafoe starred in the director's 2019 follow-up The Lighthouse opposite Robert Pattinson.
As for Cuarón, he's directed movies like Children of Men, Gravity, and Roma. The filmmaker read an early draft of The Witch for Eggers in 2013, and the two directors have been close ever since.
"I was just in awe of it," Cuarón said of the 2015 movie. "It’s as if those [supernatural] elements are as natural as the weather. And people coexist with those elements as a matter of existence. There’s no question about the existence of witches. There’s no ulterior explanation… It was just witches."
The Northman arrives on the big screen on April 22 – you can read our interview with Skarsgård and Taylor-Joy about the movie here. In the meantime, check out our list of the other movie release dates that we think should be on your radar this year.
