Oscar 2011 - Cinematography

Unlike last time, I really like writing about cinematography. It's obviously the aspect that gives the most to the visual feeling of a movie (well, sometimes helped ot buried by the editing, but about that next time). So, let me go quickly into the subject :) until I'm not getting again too long ( and out of the subject :) ) in the intro..

Matthew Libatique for "Black Swan" - is the cinematographer who worked at most of the movies directed by Aronofsky (except "The Wrestler"). I think his best remains "The Fountain", but "Black Swan" is not too far. It's the story of a ballerina driven by her obsession for a role up to a thin edge somewhere between psychosis and schizophrenia. The image composition in the movie helps a lot in creating an atmosphere that is a mix between tension and pure madness increasing in intensity as the film gets near its end. Remember "Shining" by Kubrick ? Maybe, it's better to give it as example for the effect of the cinematography in there as a comparison instead rambling general nonsense from my head :) Getting a bit more technical, the image in "Black Swan" is cold, in dark tones, narrow framing (I don't think you have more than 10 minutes in the entire movie in which the visual field covers more than 4-5 square meteres maximum), the camera is usually close to the character, sometimes even pretty "bound" enough scenes being filmed in one shot (one sample below). However, with all these helping a lot to getting the feeling I was telling about, I see "Black Swan" somewhere in the middle of this years nominees. I've said it before :) it was quite a good year for movies ...

The second nominee and one of the main two favorites is Wally Pfister for "Inception". Here also, as in many cases, we have a pair, the mentioned one being the cinematographer preferred by Nolan. Actually, since "Batman Begins", meaning also "The Prestige" and "The Dark Knight" Pfister got every time a nominee for cinematography. No Oscar yet. I personally like his work, but in every movie I have the feeling that something is missing somewhere ... There are some scenes that should be more "warm" instead of looking to cold and dry as they do, generally speaking, not only in "Inception". Actually "Inception" and "The Prestige" suffer less of this problem. I'd say even more, that "The Prestige" has some advantage in the visual aspect of the final result being quite close to perfect, but this taking into consideration that the movie has much lower visual requirements than "Inception" (less location settings, very consistent support from art direction - I can't forget the hats scene :), etc). To cut it shorter, Pfister has pretty big chances this year to get the Oscar for "Inception", but I think he'll wait one more time :) unfortunately .. because something tells me that we won't see anything better as long as he keeps his current style. In "Inception" I think he gave the maximum he can for this type of production (like I said "The Prestige" falls in a different category). At least he is much better here than he was in "The Dark Knight". And that actually counts even for scenes that apparently don't require much like the next one - love the slow motion in the end :) - that's cinematography, not VFX like the water flood by the way (with appologies for one additional click, but unfortunately 99% of what's on YouTube from "Inception" has "embedding disabled by request"):

Danny Cohen for "The King's Speech" - I don't have any clue who this guy is. I think even the BAFTA doesn't :), where this movie was in its own "kingdom" to say so = grabbing any deserved and not really deserved award, but I prefer not to talk more about it ( was expected to be so in UK :) ). Even so, like I said it didn't get the award for best cinematography. I actually find a bit strange the nominee at this category, considering that last year were movies much more deserving like "Shutter Island" or "Ghost Writer". Anyway, this is not the only case here ... We have one more a bit below, which I think it's even worse. Going back to the topic, and trying to be fair, there are some scenes in "King's Speech" well done visually - the walk in the park, or the traveling in the final scene where the camera follows the main character, and even some frames from the therapy sessions. Anyway, in all of these, I think the editing helps a lot. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything from the mentioned ones so I don't have something better to give as sample besides the wine cellar scene. This one is .. well .. pretty normal :), ok with respect to the shadow composition = the image is well balanced regarding the lighting, but that's pretty much of it I think ..

Jeff Cronenweth for "The Social Network" - from my point of view it definitely shouldn't be here. He is the cinematographer who did "Fight Club", and didn't work with Fincher afterward until now. I really believe that the cinematography in "Fight Club" is better than here although I don't remember being impressed by this part there also. What worth mentioning about "The Social Network" with respect to the final look is the editing, but like I said I'll discuss this next time. I don't even know what else to say. If on the above one I did have some examples to give .. here I don't. If this movie gets the Oscar for cinematography, I really think that next year I'll seriously consider not writing anymore about this category, because in that case it would mean that I'm probably waaaaay off the line with my appreciations ( not just way :) ). The only scene that I can mention (although again .. the editing ...) is the one with the boat race:

Roger Deakins for "True Grit" - reached to the ninth Oscar nomination without getting any until now. I didn't see two of his previous works in this list ("Kundun" and "The Man Who Wasn't There") but from the rest, I definitely believe without any discussion that this one is his best movie. Many people consider this guy one of the best cinematographers of the moment, and after seeing "True Grit" I'm also starting to believe it finally :). Also many people consider that he should have won the Oscar for "No Country for Old Men". I totally disagree on this, the cinematography from "There Will Be Blood" was way superior and deserved its award. Here, however it's something totally different, even if it's the same collaboration with the Coen brothers as directors, and even if we have pretty much the same kind of open settings as in "No Country for Old Men". The result it's clearly above. It is the best movie of the last year for cinematography and I don't think it will miss the Oscar. Probably I shouldn't say more, and just let the next clip roll.

Back next time - keyword: editing ;)