Euphoria creator Sam Levinson joined filmmaker Jason Reitman for a screening and conversation around the latest episode of the HBO drama Wednesday night.
American Cinematheque held a double feature of Euphoria’s sixth episode of season three, “Stand Still and See,” and Dirty Harry, which Levinson cited as an inspiration for the episode, at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica. The writer-director teased a bit of the last two episodes of the season, sang the praises of composer Hans Zimmer and spoke at length about the season’s exploration of faith throughout the nearly half-hour conversation.
Levinson warned fans of the show that they shouldn’t wait around to watch the final episodes as they hit over the next 10 days. “If you’re not watching episodes seven and eight live — the moment they drop — they will get spoiled,” he said, not offering much more of a tease. “There’s some big things that happen.”
Reitman and Levinson spoke about the sixth episode, which the two watched together with the crowd at the westside theater. “Knowing where it goes in seven and eight, I think this is hands down our best season,” Levinson said.
“I think particularly episode eight reaches a level of poignancy that I could only dream of when I was first working on this show,” he continued, relating it back to the religious imagery and symbolism that was shown through the sixth episode. “I think that there’s a lot to learn from religion, and also just on a purely graphic level in terms of cinematography and imagery, it’s filled with such mythic images that it’s inspiring.”
Levinson and Reitman took a moment to celebrate Zimmer, who served as the sole composer on the season after a widely publicized exit by Labrinth. The pair were originally set to tackle the project together. “Hans Zimmer has been such a blessing because we needed about four and a half hours of music for this season and what he was able to do in such a cohesive way over multiple different genres,” Levinson said. “It’s astounding and I’m so proud of it.”
Reitman and Levinson also touched on their journey with one another’s work, both recalling when Levinson showed Reitman a rough cut of Euphoria’s pilot episode. “If you have a rough cut of anything and you need notes, Jason Reitman is the person,” Levinson told the crowd.
“I bring the pilot over to his house and press play we get maybe 45 seconds into it. He goes, ‘Pause it. What the fuck is that line of voiceover there? That doesn’t make any sense. What’s wrong with the music?’” Levinson continued. “He paused it every 30 seconds until about minute 12, ripped me to shreds, and then sat there silently for the rest of it and turned to me and goes, ‘Well, the problem’s just the first 12 minutes. The rest of it’s great.’”
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