“A Single Man” by Tom Ford
22 Feb
Tom Ford is without a doubt one of our generation’s greatest fashion and design icons. When I heard he was making his directorial debut, I was curious to see how this visionary would lend his talents to the big screen. “A Single Man” is set in Los Angeles during the height of the Cold War and takes the view through chronicles a day in the life of a gay university professor (George) who abruptly loses his partner (Jim) who perishes in a car accident.
While I am partial to 60s design, architecture, and fashion; I found the cinematography to objectively breathtaking as Tom Ford’s ability to convey the era’s aesthetic was nothing short of brilliance. As I sat during the opening credits I thought critically about the title of the film, “A Single Man.” The existentialist sentiment was quite apparent as the underlying theme of the film is how we all deal with being alone. During a brief philosophical discussion with one of George’s students, he is told that “we’re born alone, and we die alone sir.” Should this film had debuted half a century ago, Jean-Paul Satre would have been that creepy fucker on the back row eating nachos.
