The Drama - Love and Neuroses in 4K

The Drama takes a relationship born under the best auspices and gradually transforms it into something much more ambiguous and unsettling. Kristoffer Borgli starts from the codes of romantic comedy only to progressively question them, revealing ever deeper cracks behind the apparent harmony of the couple.

Charlie and Emma meet by chance, and an immediate understanding sparks between them, seemingly destined to become a love story. He is a London art expert, she is the girl who attracts him in the coffee shop. The bond grows rapidly until a marriage proposal, but it is precisely at that point that Borgli introduces elements capable of altering the perception of what is truly happening, leading the couple away from the conventions of romance and into increasingly unpredictable territory.

When love starts to get seriously scary

The film's strength lies in the way Robert Pattinson and Zendaya transform the relationship between Charlie and Emma into a continuous psychological confrontation. They are not just lovers dealing with the normal difficulties of a relationship, but two personalities who react unpredictably to their own insecurities.

Borgli alternates more openly ironic moments with increasingly eccentric situations, without sacrificing a taste for the absurd that ultimately becomes an integral part of the story. Some passages may seem forced, especially when pushing the protagonists' hysteria, but precisely this exaggeration allows the film to avoid the more predictable paths of romantic comedy.

The Drama has an increasingly corrosive view of the couple, transforming the relationship into a terrain where certainties slowly begin to crumble. Borgli thus moves between comedy and psychological tension, with a gaze that owes something to American black comedy and the cinema of Master Woody Allen.

Not always balanced, The Drama nonetheless finds its identity thanks to the Pattinson-Zendaya pairing and the director's ability to transform an apparently normal relationship into something decidedly less reassuring. Here is Elisa Giudici's complete artistic review.

Shot on analog 35mm (Panavision Panaflex Millennium XL2) with very high sensitivity negative (500 ASA), 4K master, UHD disc with HEVC encoding (3840 x 2160/23.97p) on BD-66 dual layer, original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The image has an organic and rich appearance in textures, with excellent detail. As mentioned, the grain can be quite pronounced, with an occasional yellowish accentuation due to evident choices by the director and cinematographer Arseni Khachaturan (Bones and All), especially in brighter scenes. Deep blacks, greater emphasis on lights compared to the 2K version on BD-25 (included), thanks to HDR-10 and Dolby Vision, further enhancing some chromatically more incisive passages.

DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (always 16 bit), Italian and English with a good immersive experience, especially in outdoor scenes, where there are more effects from the surround channels. The soundtrack by Daniel Pemberton also benefits from a pleasant spatiality, with well-positioned dialogues and voice-overs. Not exactly a reference disc for multichannel listening due to the very nature of the work. As extras on the 2K disc there is Unpacking The Drama (17'): interesting promotional material with a focus on the work, featuring the protagonists. Includes 3x similar-polaroids with a wedding invitation, embossed O-card slipcover.