These are in no particular order, and include some from 2011/12 that I was slow to catch up on and a 1991 release I had not seen for 20 years.
Gravity – for the
amazing visual achievements of Director
Alfonso Cuaron and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki plus Sandra Bullock’s role and performance.
The
Counselor
– Ridley Scott’s film from Cormac McCarthy’s script confused many critics by
not being what they expected – a Hollywood thriller – but is an inexorable
morality tale very well told, with a great cast and handsomely shot by Dariusz Wolski.
Captain
Phillips
– for the two lead performances by the seasoned pro Tom Hanks and the
non-professional Barkhad Abdi, Paul Greengrass’s Direction and Barry Ackroyd’s cinematography. How true it is to the actual events is
another question.
The
Life of Pi
– amazing beauty and skilful story telling as Ang Lee attempts Yan Martel’s
mysterious novel and Claudio Miranda shoots it. It may not ‘make you believe in God’ but will ask which Grand
Narrative you prefer.
Cloud
Atlas –
what courage it took to tackle filming David Mitchell’s novel – and what wit it
took to make it so well. The
Wachowski siblings worked with Tom Tykwer plus a stellar cast and John Toll and Frank Grieber behind the
cameras. But do read the book.
The
Great Gatsby.
Luhrmann’s is for me the authentic film of the book, and Leonardo
DiCaprio the essence of Gatsby.
Catherine Martin, aka Mrs. L, provided the immaculate Production Design
as usual and Simon Duggan was the DP.
About
Time
– Richard Curtis’s movie has all
the virtues of the traditional small British film showing there is really no
need to ape Hollywood.
Romanticism does not have to slip into sentimentality.
Macbeth – the
National Theatre’s Kenneth Branagh production is the best version of the
Scottish Play I have ever seen.
The language shines as diamonds in the mud and blood. Alex Kingston is a powerful and
sexy Lady M. but the real star is Mr. William Shakespeare.
The
Sound of My Voice. Independent movies rule in Zal
Batmanglij’s work with Brit Marling’s second film. (this was first released in 2011, but it took me time
to get to see it, and I haven’t yet seen her East.)
Zero
Dark Thirty – Jessica Chastain, Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal provide the most sympathetic
– because the most honest – account ho Intelligence services works and of the
CIA’s exhausting hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence are surely the
decade’s great acting finds. DP Greig Frazer.
Silver
Linings Playbook. David
O. Russell brings us ensemble playing at its best, led by the wondrous Jennifer
Lawrence and Bradley Cooper in the happiest and least sentimental movie I have
ever seen about grief and mental illness.
DP Masanubo Takayanagi.
Iron
Man 3. Shane Black put the franchise
back on course after the disappointment of IM2. This is the best IM yet, fast, funny, thrilling and refusing
to take itself too seriously. It
was 2013’s biggest box office hit, which actually gives us some hope for
Hollywood. The DP was John
Toll.
The
Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
It must be have been hard to make part 2 engaging, but Frances Lawrence’s effort shines, working from Simon Beaufoy and
Michael Arndt’s adaptation of Suzanne Collins novel. Jennifer Lawrence delivers again and we have Phillip Seymour
Hoffman added to the mix.
Thank goodness Young Adult lit does not have to be simplistic – or
non-political. DP Jo Willems. ( I also have high hopes for the
Zemekis/Kaufman adaptation of Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking!)
Rust
and Bone
- I didn’t know what to expect of this Jacques Audiard film, but what I got
surprised shocked and moved me. With Marion Cotillard and Matthias
Schoenaerts. Stephane Fontaine DP.
Beasts
of the Southern Wild – blew me away. Who need Hollywood Studio blockbusters when a tiny cooperative/community of dedicated
professionals and non-professionals can intrigue, amaze and overwhelm us so?
Behn Zeitlin, directing his first main feature, interviewed over 3000 young girls
before finding 5 year old Quvenzhane Wallis to play Hushpuppy. Time well spent. The Oscar nomination for a (by
then) eight year old was also well deserved. Watch and wonder.
Raise
the Red Lantern – I saw this lustrous Zhang Yimou film 20 years ago and
have been looking for a decent copy (with English subtitles) ever since. The cover says it only has Thai subs,
but it’s wrong. Thank you,
Remaster Edition. Starring Gong Li.
A word about
Cinematographers and Directors of Photography.
When Orson Welles
directed his Citizen Kane
he insisted that the credits read A Film by Orson Welles and Greg Toland. Toland was the Director of Photography. Toland brought together so many
new cinematic techniques, and invented a few others, to produce a masterpiece, and Welles (even Welles) knew he
could never have made this film without him.
Any established
Director will want to appoint their own DP, and any new one should be provided
with a safe pair of hands behind the lens by the film’s producers. The other key element in bringing a
film to the screen is of course the Editor, but I will write about them at a
later date.
For now let us
consider the varied talents of the men (and they are all men) who set the
lights and cameras for the films listed above. Some of them work consistently with the same Directors
and have built up a joint understanding that helps realize the vision of the
Director. Others have varied
CVs regarding both colleagues and genres.
I have only mentioned some of their well known movies below, but the
Independent Movie Data Base website (IMDb) is a rich fund of information.
Before
Gravity
Emmanuel Lubezki worked with Terrence Malik on To The Wonder as well as the Coen
Bothers’ Burn After
Reading and Cuaron’s Children of Men, Tim
Burton’s Sleepy Hollow. Also Lemony
Snicket; a Series of Unfortunate Events, Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in The Hat, Meet
Joe Black, and Y Tu Mama Tambien
Dariusz
Wolski (The Counselor) previously
filmed Scott’s Prometheus and all of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, plus
Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland and Sweeney Todd and films as
varied as Dark City and Crimson Tide.
Barry Ackroyd (Captain Phillips) has
Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, Ken Loach’s The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Carla’s
Song, Land and Freedom and United 93, Coriolanus and
Green Zone in his portfolio.
Greig
Frazer
(Zero Dark Thirty) was the cinematographer or DP on Snow White
and the Hunter, Killing Them Softly and the US version of
Let Me In.
Masanubo
Takayanagi
(Silver Linings Playbook) previously filmed Warrior and The Grey.
John
Toll
(Iron Man 3); Cloud Atlas, Legends of the Fall, Braveheart, The Thin Red Line, Vanilla
Sky, Gone Baby Gone.
Frank
Grieber; Run Lola
Run, Perfume.
Jo
Willens
(Hunger Games; Catching Fire) filmed 30 Days of Night and Hard Candy. And may have
already shot Hunger Games parts
3 & 4.
Stephane
Fontaine
(Rust and Bone); The
Prophet and
The Beat My Heart Missed.
Some
Directors started off as cinematographers, Zhang Yimou being a prime example. I see about thirty of my favourite movies named in this
article, suggesting that the men
behind the cameras are almost as important as the men and women in the Director’s
chair. The auter theory needs
adapting to include collaborators.
