Close to the Edge: The Films of Kathryn Bigelow

‘Thrill-seeking adrenaline addicts have always fascinated me. The idea seems to be that it’s not until you risk your humanness that you feel most human. Not until you risk all awareness do you gain awareness. It’s about peak experience. For me, also, it’s about cinema as a cathartic medium.’
– Kathryn Bigelow

Initially pursuing fine art, Kathryn Bigelow turned to cinema after studying under British film theorist and filmmaker Peter Wollen. What emerged was a bold filmmaker with a distinctive style and radical approach to subverting genres. Early features The Loveless and Near Dark demonstrated Bigelow’s talent for blending mood and action. And as her cinematic canvases expanded, the scale of her work soared, albeit underpinned by complex psychology. In recent years, Bigelow’s high style has embraced realism, but the sense of the high-octane remained, as she tackled politically charged stories in the US and internationally. Throughout her work, she explores the expression and representation of violence and identity, and repeatedly examines the human psyche under pressure, particularly through a moral prism. These themes culminate in A House of Dynamite, Bigelow’s knife-edge nuclear doomsday thriller. Bigelow’s is a cinema that demands to be seen on the big screen.

Kimberley Sheehan, season curator