While he is certainly not a prolific filmmaker, having only released two feature films and one episode of television since 2010, the reputation of Italian-Canadian Panos Cosmatos has continued to grow over the years, attracting a cult following from audiences and reverence amongst his peers in equal measure, and for good reason too.
What quickly becomes apparent when experiencing a Panos Cosmatos film for the first time – and believe me, “experience” is the operating word here – is that he is an unapologetic auteur. In each of his works Cosmatos evokes 1980’s aesthetics through synth scoring, elaborate set design, and deliberate, neon-soaked lighting. What’s more, he utilizes lens flaring in a way that would make JJ Abrams blush, but only because of the stylistically applicable and deceivingly restrained way he executes it. Cosmatos’ style is overtly distinctive, even for an auteur, and thus his movies are not for everyone, yet his work is undeniably fascinating and worthy of engagement.
This is exactly how I felt about his 2010 feature film debut, Beyond the Black Rainbow, which embodies every one of the techniques mentioned, in addition to his predilection for brutalist architecture, and although I found it to be frustratingly impenetrable and overindulgent, he certainly had my attention.
Cosmatos then forgoes the intentionally suffocating nature of the brutalist set design in his debut in favour of a more natural setting for his 2018 sophomore effort, Mandy, which not only served as vehicle for one of the most brilliantly unhinged performances of Nicholas Cage’s career (and that is really saying something), but it also proved that Cosmatos’ singular amalgamation of techniques can deliver a truly brilliant genre piece.
Then, his hour-long episode in the 2022 anthology show, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, returned to brutalist aesthetics in its set design and continued to showcase Cosmatos’ visual flare, while also proving to be the most dialogue-heavy piece of his career, to the point that it could be described as a Tarantinoesque surrealist horror.
Thus, it will be interesting to see the confluence of technique and style that will be injected into Cosmatos’ long-awaited third feature film, Flesh of the Gods, which has just cast Academy Award nominated actors Wagner Moura and Kristen Stewart, with the former replacing the previously cast Oscar Isaac, who had to drop out due to a reported scheduling conflict. Promisingly, Academy Award winner Adam McKay will serve as a producer, while industry heavyweight A24 has picked up the U.S. distribution rights for Flesh of the Gods, based off a script penned by Se7en writer Andrew Kevin Walker. According to Deadline, the story centers on:
“Raoul (Moura) and Alex (Stewart), a married couple in glittering ’80s Los Angeles who descend each evening from their luxury skyscraper condo and head into an electric nighttime realm. When they cross paths with the mysterious and enigmatic Nameless and her hard-partying cabal, Raoul and Alex are seduced into a glamorous, surrealistic world of hedonism, thrills and violence.”
It is no wonder, then, that Cosmatos gravitated towards Walker’s script, as this synopsis alone is utterly befitting of the filmmaker’s narrative and visual style, from the setting of “’80s Los Angeles” to the “surrealistic world of hedonism, thrills and violence” that will be depicted. The film is still in the early stages of pre-production, so there is no released date set as of yet, or even a date for the beginning of principal photography for that matter, so we will have to wait even longer yet to see it, but rest assured, the production is currently moving in all the right directions.