The state of the world forces us to confront very fundamental questions. Who are we? What matters in life? What do we want? How did we get here? What does the future hold in store for us?
It is from these questions that This Is Ours was born.
This Is Ours is woven from characters who are real, who feel trapped, who yearn for more out of life, who ache to grow and change, who fumble and fail, who laugh and cry, who experience joy and pain.
You know, characters like us. Like you.
And it is through these characters that we can extrapolate the DNA of the film: loss and love, sexual awakening, mortality, the definitions of Man and Woman, the meaning of family, hope, greed and The American Dream.
On the one hand, this film is the simple story of a married couple trying to sell their once-beloved summer home. On the other, it is a richly complex multi-protagonist narrative that is both entertaining and thought provoking.
While the film is universal, it is an intensely personal story. We are the various components of these characters, and the struggles they endure are distillations of our experiences and how we see the world.
Tonally, thematically and stylistically, think Little Children (2006), Up in the Air (2009), Rabbit Hole (2010), Dan in Real Life (2007), The Freebie (2010) and Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005). The film crosses between drama and comedy, from the reflective to the poignant, from tears to laughter.
At every step of the creative process, our research has taken us all over the cinematic map. We stand on the shoulders of giants, bouncing our ideas off the continuum of film history. The comedies of John Hughes, Italian Neo-Realism, lyrical film-essays, mainstream investigations of class and culture, visual extravaganzas, French Poetic Realism, the ‘50s melodrama of Douglas Sirk and Nicholas Ray — we left no stone unturned in our quest for guidance and inspiration.
All this research confirmed for us our three major goals for This Is Ours. We want our audience to believe it, to feel it and to be engulfed by it. We want people to not only say “this could happen”, but “this has happened”, “this is happening”. We are striving for realism, but we also want to utilize the full power of cinematic language.
This Is Ours is a film pulled directly from our hearts. It is a film that captures a vital, kinetic sense of realism. A film that both rings true and echoes truth. A film that embraces all the medium has to offer.
“No film is too personal. The image speaks. Sound amplifies and comments.”
(Anderson, Mazzetti, Reisz, Richardson. “Free Cinema Programme”, February, 1956)
It is from these questions that This Is Ours was born.
This Is Ours is woven from characters who are real, who feel trapped, who yearn for more out of life, who ache to grow and change, who fumble and fail, who laugh and cry, who experience joy and pain.
You know, characters like us. Like you.
And it is through these characters that we can extrapolate the DNA of the film: loss and love, sexual awakening, mortality, the definitions of Man and Woman, the meaning of family, hope, greed and The American Dream.
On the one hand, this film is the simple story of a married couple trying to sell their once-beloved summer home. On the other, it is a richly complex multi-protagonist narrative that is both entertaining and thought provoking.
While the film is universal, it is an intensely personal story. We are the various components of these characters, and the struggles they endure are distillations of our experiences and how we see the world.
Tonally, thematically and stylistically, think Little Children (2006), Up in the Air (2009), Rabbit Hole (2010), Dan in Real Life (2007), The Freebie (2010) and Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005). The film crosses between drama and comedy, from the reflective to the poignant, from tears to laughter.
At every step of the creative process, our research has taken us all over the cinematic map. We stand on the shoulders of giants, bouncing our ideas off the continuum of film history. The comedies of John Hughes, Italian Neo-Realism, lyrical film-essays, mainstream investigations of class and culture, visual extravaganzas, French Poetic Realism, the ‘50s melodrama of Douglas Sirk and Nicholas Ray — we left no stone unturned in our quest for guidance and inspiration.
All this research confirmed for us our three major goals for This Is Ours. We want our audience to believe it, to feel it and to be engulfed by it. We want people to not only say “this could happen”, but “this has happened”, “this is happening”. We are striving for realism, but we also want to utilize the full power of cinematic language.
This Is Ours is a film pulled directly from our hearts. It is a film that captures a vital, kinetic sense of realism. A film that both rings true and echoes truth. A film that embraces all the medium has to offer.
(Anderson, Mazzetti, Reisz, Richardson. “Free Cinema Programme”, February, 1956)