The Place Beyond The Pines - one of the best films of 2013

It's a great title and, trust me, once you discover what happens "beyond the pines", you will never forget it; it's one of those great moments that is life changing, just as the fateful moment that profoundly changes the lives of the characters.

Ryan Gosling, who reunites with writer-director Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine), delivers the performance of a lifetime as a charming, but inherently aggressive and rebellious mysterious and mythical motorcycle racer Luke, whose life changes when he discovers that his former lover (Eva Mendes) secretly gave birth to his son. Bradley Cooper is remarkable as a relentless officer of the law whose morality is challenged when he meets Luke; Cooper has never been better and manages to portray perfectly the fragile vulnerability of a man who is torn between duty and responsibility.

A woman trapped between two lovers

Eva Mendes is equally brilliant as a woman trapped between two lovers and two lives, imprisoned in an emotional war zone where she constantly has to find the balance between right and wrong.

It will be sinful to reveal the rest of the story; let's just say that when the story kicks in, it never lets go. It's a story that is an absolute pleasure to discover and one you want to savour, moment by moment. From the moment you meet the characters and get involved in their respective lives, Cianfrance not only manages fully to engage your senses, but constantly draws you into the darkness of an emotional and hard-hitting journey. It deals with corrupted souls and tainted hearts, and themes revolving around the importance of truth, dignity and honesty. The Place Beyond The Pines is a potent film about family and the bonds that unite (and divide).

The title is personal to writer-director Derek Cianfrance; it's the Iroquois translation of Schenectady, where his wife and the film's co-writer Ben Coccio grew up. For Cianfrance the title has literal and metaphorical meanings and it was appropriate for the film to be shot in Schenectady, which provides the perfect setting for the story. Cianfrance's visual sensibility allows us an opportunity really to get extremely intimate with the world that shapes the characters, spectacularly captured by cinematographer Sean Bobbitt, with outstanding production design by Inbal Weinberg.

In the words of Charlie Chaplin: "We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity; more than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost."

Films like The Place Beyond The Pines echo this sentiment with passion and honesty and not only make us reconnect with our past, but give us a wonderful opportunity to think about how our actions shape and influence the world and the people who share our lives. The Place Beyond The Pines most definitely gets my vote as one of the best films of 2013, not only for its profound and lasting impact, but also for the masterful telling of a heartfelt story that offers a perfect opportunity for you to spend some quality time with friends and loved ones.

Behind the scenes

"A number of years ago, when Ryan and I were working on the script for Blue Valentine, we started talking about this fantasy Ryan always had of robbing a bank on a motorcycle," said writer-director Derek Cianfrance. "And I said: 'You've gotta be kidding me because I'm writing that movie right now.' We both imagined it in the identical way. It was one of several moments where I knew we were meant to make films together."

Cianfrance, who shot and edited his first feature, Brother Tied, at the age of 23, released and also received a lot of attention with his second film Blue Valentine. He has also turned his lens on various topics, from Mixed-Martial Arts fighters for Cagefighter, to Vietnam veteran biker clubs for Rolling Thunder-Ride For Freedom. Serving as director of photography, Cianfrance revealed teen racing and Hispanic subculture in Streets Of Legend, for which he won the Excellence in Cinematography Award at Sundance 2003.

"In 2007, a few months before the birth of my second son Cody, the film came to me. I had been thinking a lot about becoming a father again and the responsibility that came with it. And I was thinking about what kind of dad I was and what kind of things I was gonna pass down to my new boy. And I got to thinking a lot about the fire I felt inside me. This fire had been with me for as long as I could remember. And it helped me do a lot of things in my life. But it was also, at many times in my life, a destructive and painful force. I knew that my father also had this fire in him. And his father, my grandfather had it in him as well. I started wondering how many generations back this fire went. And, thinking about my unborn son, I began to wish that he could be born clean, without this fire. I didn't want to give him all of my pain and mistakes. I wanted him to have his own path."

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