Themes, imagery, and obsessions in the director’s filmography.

Thomas Flight looks at recurring themes and stylistic flourishes across the director’s filmography, up to and including Parasite (2019):

The director’s interest in class commentary isn’t restricted to his scriptwriting, but can also be found in his camera work. Insider identifies the director’s unique establishment of the 180 line, and his strategic breaking of it, “when characters first break across, or sabotage, systems of class heirarchy“:

The video above compares more conventional positioning of actors and camera in car dialogue scenes…

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… with the pointedly unconventional composition in Parasite:

Further Viewing

The Parasite Film School is a collection of videos from filmmakers, analysts and essayists, examining the film as a case study in film pre-production, production and post-production:

Film School: Parasite (2019)

What’s “the 180 line”? Dialogue is conventionally covered with mirroring shots, known as shot / reverse shot – here’s a roundup of explainers and examples:

Film School: Shot / Reverse Shot, and the 180 Rule