Press
THE EYES OF MY MOTHER
“New York Times Critics Pick: A Woman’s Horrific Unraveling in ‘The Eyes of My Mother’”
“Impeccable art direction by Caroline Keenan Russell and costume design by Whitney Anne Adams, both of these create a cohesive look and give the film a somewhat timeless or period less style as they are from a not clearly identified period yet feel familiar and comfortable. ”
“An exquisite waking nightmare, its meticulous monochrome imagery caressing the eye even as the filmmaker brandishes a scalpel before it”
“Nicolas Pesce’s stunning, sick-as-fuck debut that quickly establishes itself as a high point of modern art-horror nightmare fodder. ”
“This is a film that claws into your subconscious and lingers there. A sick, simmering nightmare of a movie”
“There’s no denying that Pesce delivers ugliness with uncommon elegance. Movies designed to make audiences feel really bad rarely look so good.”
“Fusing classic horror ingredients with haunting gothic imagery and expressionistic dread, “The Eyes of My Mother” mashes its gorgeous components into a shockingly original tone poem...when all the cards are on the table, it’s a spectacular view”
“To describe it all as beautiful may sound odd, but it’s right. The black and white imagery (Zach Kuperstein is the director of photography), the music (with a score by Ariel Loh), the sparseness of the dialogue, the stilted nature of the relationships, and more combine to make a movie which feels beautiful while remaining horrifying.”
“And because it’s shot in serene, carefully graded monochrome, the story seems like it could be set anywhere and any time, existing equally in the past, present, and future.”
“The film creates extreme beauty out of ugliness”
“Despite this being Pesce’s film debut, his direction is that of a veteran behind the camera, crafting one of the most visually appealing and haunting films I’ve seen this year. Shot by cinematographer Zach Kuperstein in stark black and white, the film’s lonely forest backdrop only adds to the sheer beauty of nearly every frame of every shot, even those that are more difficult to endure”
“A visual and aural nightmarish feast for those brave enough to partake in it. The Eyes of My Mother is a beautiful nightmare from start to finish.”
“Shot in black and white, the film is a work or art. Experimental when it needs to be, textbook when called upon, there’s solid direction throughout. Pieces’ gives so much strong composition you could open a successful art house hanging just half the shots”
“Visually, the film is a masterpiece. Shot entirely in black and white, with carefully composed shots – almost feeling like a total arthouse picture”
The A.V. Club: The Eyes Of My Mother’s Nicolas Pesce on how his family shaped his gruesome debut
AVC: the film is set in an ambiguous time period. What were you going for with that?
NP: I think that I wanted to be ambiguous, and the only clue as to when it takes place is the cars that are in the parking lot of the bar, and the way that Kimiko is dressed.
AVC: Her jean jacket did make me go, “Ohhh.” I thought the story was set in the ’50s until I saw that jacket.
NP: I’d say that sequence is 1988, and then you can backtrack from there.
AVC: It does span decades.
NP: Yeah. In my opinion, it goes from late ’60s to early ’90s. And the cues are really just the bars. That’s the only thing that gives you a sense of when and where you are. I liked that, in this movie, where [an audience member] is like, “This is the ’50s or ’60s,” and all of a sudden there’s this girl who looks like she watches Beverly Hills, 90210. And it’s like, “Whoa, wait a second, where are we?” This isn’t as far off as you thought it was.