The Hypnotic, Subversive Cinematography of The Lost Daughter

The mind of Leda Caruso is a complicated place, brought to always vivid, sometimes erotic, occasionally terrifying life by writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal and her director of photography, Hélène Louvart. Marking Gyllenhaal’s feature directorial debut, The Lost Daughter (on Netflix Friday) is adapted from the novel by Elena Ferrante, and follows a literature scholar on vacation in Greece as she encounters a rambunctious—and, maybe, dangerous—family, whose various incidents and dramas take her back to her own struggles in motherhood. If relatively light on plot, the drama makes for an ingeniously claustrophobic experience, forcing the audience into Leda’s inner-life as she reckons… Read Full Article