Oscar 2014 - Cinematography

I'm writing ... in a pause on writing an article on IT security for a conference where I don't think I'll meet the deadline. To add some extra to the time crisis, I'm also struck by a horrible migraine since this morning. Ergo, don't expect much coherence in what follows. And consequence 2: I've decided, as never before, with apologies for my laziness, that instead of searching for clips from every movie, to choose a very well done mix on the topic, with some comments on which I agree 90% or more. Credits go to fandor.com :

Now .. if the clip was not enough, and you have patience to get extra bored by me, let me throw a couple lines on the subject ...

"The Grandmaster" is yet another movie about Ip Man (or Yip Man depending on the orthography). Yet another = there are no less than 5 (five) movies made in China in the last 6 years which have this main character. Sorry .. who's Ip Man ? Apparently somebody quite important in the world of kung-fu schools, who people say that had also Bruce Lee as student at some point. This movie is directed by Wong Kar Wai, one of the most appreciated Chinese filmmakers, nominated quite often at Cannes. For who knows what we're talking about, there's probably no surprise that "The Grandmaster" is not a "kung fu movie" by definition. Is a melancholic chaos typical for WKW, hard to follow, and even more hard to understand if you see it one small part at a time as I finally managed to do. Even so, it's hard for me to give any circumstance for how "dis-articulated" the production proved to be. It's quite far from better titles by WKW as "Ashes of Time" or "2046". About the cinematography, it's indeed the best part of the movie, but even here, despite the fact that pleases the eye, it's a bit too much excess of gros-plan and slow motion. Overall it looks good, but still Phillipe Le Sourd (the director of photography) is not Christopher Doyle (again, check out "2046" or "Chungking Express"). And that rain is a bit too artificial ...

"Gravity" gets again in the top Oscar contender position, especially given the fact that since "Avatar", this award was unfortunately given too the most visual spectacular movie, and not really for the best cinematography. The comment in the clip is very objective on the question of where does cinematography start and where does it end ? Well ... we still have something called VFX, and we still have something called film editing, and for me there are three different things. Anyway, unlike "Avatar" where the Oscar was given as well as you could give a cinematography Oscar to an animation (by the way, the winner - Mauro Fiore in his whole career by now had only one nomination except "the blue movie" and that on something called DVD Exclusive Awards), in "Gravity" at least we have cinematography. There are close-ups, the camera is playing with the shadows, you get to see super-angular framing, we have out of the ordinary tracking shots. I have to admit, that besides all the VFX it has, "Gravity" has also an excellent cinematography, although in my opinion not the best one this year. Still, Emmanuel Lubezki should've got the Oscar anyway for "Tree of Life", and lost against "Hugo", so ...

"Inside Llewyn Davis" is the main reason (besides the lack of time) for which I preferred the clip above. The second scene presented there perfectly completes what I was saying last time when I wrote about sound mixing. You can feel the winter ... If there is to be any surprise this year, it will come from here (and I'd really like to happen). Bruno Delbonnel has his own well defined style as director of photography, which you can also recognize in "Amelie", in "Un long dimanche de fiançailles" (probably the most close to what we have here), and even in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". Maybe I'm a bit subjective, because from all that gets into cinematography I'm most fond of chromatic filtering, but this movie has more than that. I'll repeat myself, but the second scene presented in the clip, especially in the context where is set in the movie is supported in a very powerful manner by the light & shadows work for obtaining a sensation of "getting lost in life" ...

"Nebraska" is a movie shot in black and white. The first using this technique directed by Alexander Payne. I'll talk more about the movie another time (there are plenty of occasions left) since I'm quite on the rush now. What can I say about the cinematography ... Phedon Papamichael is the usual director of photography working with Payne, and the cinematography wasn't exactly the best part of the movies, by now. In this case we have an exception, especially due to some wide shots. Unfortunately the clip above doesn't present a panorama with a moving car on a U.S. interstate highway, which is probably the most significant scene visually. In any case, since "Schindler's List" I don't think I've seen any black & white movie to emit serious claims for an Oscar. This year neither ...

"Prisoners" is a movie I've written already before, so I'll end quickly, especially since I completely agree with the clip's comment that is a bit on a different league than the others. It's quite far actually from the best of Roger Deakins = "Shawshank Redemption", "The Reader" or "True Grit". I start to believe that the Academy has a sadistic pleasure to just nominate this guy (also last year without much chance for "Skyfall") considering he is for the 11th time on the list, and again quite unlikely to win. There's still time though, maybe next year ;) ...