Sorry, zombie enthusiasts—the Steve McQueen who directed the
Camera d’Or-winning Hunger is not, in fact, the long-dead star of The
Great Escape. No matter: this Steve is a careful, deliberate English
artist skilled at crafting exquisitely well-composed film frames—and
a new filmmaker worth getting pretty damn excited about. Hunger, set
during the prelude to and beginning of the 1981 Irish hunger strike, is
a painstakingly structured film packed with beautiful, memorable
images. McQueen makes a guard smoking in the snow—and the mopping-up
of urine—into art.
This article appears in Sep 10-16, 2009.