OVP: Best Cinematography (2008)
The Nominees Were...
Tom Stern, Changeling
Claudio Miranda, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Wally Pfister, The Dark Knight
Chris Menges and Roger Deakins, The Reader
Anthony Dod Mantle, Slumdog Millionaire
My Thoughts: Looking at the list above, the first thing that really sticks out to me is that I always forget how troubled The Reader's production was, and how it almost didn't get made (hence two cinematographers when Roger Deakins usually works alone). Otherwise, this is a pretty standard list of nominees for Cinematography, which much like most of 2008 was pretty uniform in the way it addressed its nominations. Three Best Picture nominees, with two films that were clearly on their way to that field (both Changeling and The Dark Knight surely would have made it in a ten-wide slate), so it'll be interesting to see where we take this relatively standard looking lineup right now.
We'll start with The Reader, both because I just brought it up and because it's the final Best Picture nominee we haven't yet discussed. The film is the sort of movie that, were it the early 1990's, would have seemed like an easy Best Picture nominee, and potentially even a threat for the win. Classically-trained actors, beautiful historic sets, and a desperate woman at the center. Throw in the Holocaust and you've got yourself an AMPAS hit. The film itself, though, surprised many by being included in so many categories, one of those great surprises that come from stealth campaigning and underestimating Stephen Daldry. The actual cinematography is fine, but rarely particularly interesting. The early scenes occasionally flirt with eroticism, and the camera knows when to shock us with nudity (David Kross's bare buttocks and Kate Winslet's random naked form both are filmed for complete "what?" factor which is sort of the point of their affair-it's unexpected and not all-together understandable). The film's later scenes occasionally feel fascinating (the whiteness of Lena Olin's apartment), but this isn't really beautiful in a non-postcard way nor is the camerawork interesting in the way we usually expect of Roger Deakins.
Claudio Miranda would four years after this win an Oscar (but not the OVP-click the 2012 button below to find out who did!) for Life of Pi, a similarly-themed film visually, though Life of Pi is a bit more extraordinary in my opinion than Benjamin Button. The movie relies too heavily on the visual effects, which occasionally don't look believable in the way we'd expect, and some of the shots (such as the boat) look too much like CGI for Miranda's own good. The movie does have some beauty (Miranda knows how to frame the ballet sequences quite nicely), but all-in-all this is one of the weaker attributes of this film's technical achievements, and I wasn't smitten in the way I was with the costuming or the visual effects.
Slumdog Millionaire is an odd position here, quite frankly, because I foolishly put one of the best shots of the film up-top in the picture (I love the Monet-style combination of blue and peach in that picture), but the rest of the film doesn't combine that color palette in such an original and inspiring way. Instead we get flashbacks that are meant to be gorgeous but juxtapose together terribly, like we're seeing multiple different movies (occasionally there's a visual fire burning onscreen, while the indoor shots look like we're watching a sitcom). Mantle can't seem to get a handle on what cohesive place he wants to take the film (in his defense, neither can Danny Boyle), and so as a result we get too many different visions as the film goes on, frequently trying to be artistic one moment and the next merely moving along the plot.
Changeling actually works out quite well in comparison, even though it's also a film that I was a bit blase regarding. The film's shots are very aware of the time of the day. You can say in the image I selected above that the sun is overpowering (much like everything is overpowering Christine Collins at that point in the movie), and the night scenes are always dancing with deep blue and black light. I loved the claustrophobia that sets in in the interior shots as well-we see so much of how Christine's world is shaped by Walter, and how getting him back is necessary for her tiny abode to have purpose and not be seen as a prison. The film really has a painter's technique that is missing from most of Eastwood's pictures (Stern has lensed every one of Dirty Harry's films since Blood Work) and I am both surprised that Stern hasn't been able to translate that vision into similar pictures like J. Edgar and American Hustle and that he was able to find it here, in what is a film that didn't (on-the-surface) need such a caring hand.
The final nominated movie is The Dark Knight, where Wally Pfister, who would win the Oscar two years later for Inception, (but not the OVP-come on, click below as I know you're curious) got his third nomination for a Christopher Nolan film. Like all of Nolan's movies, The Dark Knight has some splendid visual cues. The action scenes alone are worth the price of admission, and Pfister knows when to go big and when to go small (how often do you see a car race like that lensed in so many long-shots and various angles rather than in close-ups of the driver's faces?). The film's opening, with its iconic zooming in on a bank robbery is key to Pfister's work here-he knows how to catch your attention, knows when to just push over the edge, and not give us gaudiness or everything we want (we don't actually see the blood of the magic trick, for example, giving us more menace and less killer in the Joker, which is crucial for Ledger's intoxicating of the audience). Pfister isn't perfect (some of the scenes seem a bit less inspired than the one before it, like those in the bat cave), and we aren't talking about something like Emmanuel Lubezki here where everything feels meticulous, but all-in-all this is probably my favorite Pfister creation.
We'll start with The Reader, both because I just brought it up and because it's the final Best Picture nominee we haven't yet discussed. The film is the sort of movie that, were it the early 1990's, would have seemed like an easy Best Picture nominee, and potentially even a threat for the win. Classically-trained actors, beautiful historic sets, and a desperate woman at the center. Throw in the Holocaust and you've got yourself an AMPAS hit. The film itself, though, surprised many by being included in so many categories, one of those great surprises that come from stealth campaigning and underestimating Stephen Daldry. The actual cinematography is fine, but rarely particularly interesting. The early scenes occasionally flirt with eroticism, and the camera knows when to shock us with nudity (David Kross's bare buttocks and Kate Winslet's random naked form both are filmed for complete "what?" factor which is sort of the point of their affair-it's unexpected and not all-together understandable). The film's later scenes occasionally feel fascinating (the whiteness of Lena Olin's apartment), but this isn't really beautiful in a non-postcard way nor is the camerawork interesting in the way we usually expect of Roger Deakins.
Claudio Miranda would four years after this win an Oscar (but not the OVP-click the 2012 button below to find out who did!) for Life of Pi, a similarly-themed film visually, though Life of Pi is a bit more extraordinary in my opinion than Benjamin Button. The movie relies too heavily on the visual effects, which occasionally don't look believable in the way we'd expect, and some of the shots (such as the boat) look too much like CGI for Miranda's own good. The movie does have some beauty (Miranda knows how to frame the ballet sequences quite nicely), but all-in-all this is one of the weaker attributes of this film's technical achievements, and I wasn't smitten in the way I was with the costuming or the visual effects.
Slumdog Millionaire is an odd position here, quite frankly, because I foolishly put one of the best shots of the film up-top in the picture (I love the Monet-style combination of blue and peach in that picture), but the rest of the film doesn't combine that color palette in such an original and inspiring way. Instead we get flashbacks that are meant to be gorgeous but juxtapose together terribly, like we're seeing multiple different movies (occasionally there's a visual fire burning onscreen, while the indoor shots look like we're watching a sitcom). Mantle can't seem to get a handle on what cohesive place he wants to take the film (in his defense, neither can Danny Boyle), and so as a result we get too many different visions as the film goes on, frequently trying to be artistic one moment and the next merely moving along the plot.
Changeling actually works out quite well in comparison, even though it's also a film that I was a bit blase regarding. The film's shots are very aware of the time of the day. You can say in the image I selected above that the sun is overpowering (much like everything is overpowering Christine Collins at that point in the movie), and the night scenes are always dancing with deep blue and black light. I loved the claustrophobia that sets in in the interior shots as well-we see so much of how Christine's world is shaped by Walter, and how getting him back is necessary for her tiny abode to have purpose and not be seen as a prison. The film really has a painter's technique that is missing from most of Eastwood's pictures (Stern has lensed every one of Dirty Harry's films since Blood Work) and I am both surprised that Stern hasn't been able to translate that vision into similar pictures like J. Edgar and American Hustle and that he was able to find it here, in what is a film that didn't (on-the-surface) need such a caring hand.
The final nominated movie is The Dark Knight, where Wally Pfister, who would win the Oscar two years later for Inception, (but not the OVP-come on, click below as I know you're curious) got his third nomination for a Christopher Nolan film. Like all of Nolan's movies, The Dark Knight has some splendid visual cues. The action scenes alone are worth the price of admission, and Pfister knows when to go big and when to go small (how often do you see a car race like that lensed in so many long-shots and various angles rather than in close-ups of the driver's faces?). The film's opening, with its iconic zooming in on a bank robbery is key to Pfister's work here-he knows how to catch your attention, knows when to just push over the edge, and not give us gaudiness or everything we want (we don't actually see the blood of the magic trick, for example, giving us more menace and less killer in the Joker, which is crucial for Ledger's intoxicating of the audience). Pfister isn't perfect (some of the scenes seem a bit less inspired than the one before it, like those in the bat cave), and we aren't talking about something like Emmanuel Lubezki here where everything feels meticulous, but all-in-all this is probably my favorite Pfister creation.
Other Precursor Contenders: The ASC is one of my favorite precursor awards, principally because they only go for five nominated films, and they did here, though they almost entirely mimicked Oscar, only skipping Changeling in favor of Revolutionary Road (another Roger Deakins creation, for the record), with Slumdog Millionaire taking the crown. The BAFTA Awards were a carbon copy of the Oscars, both in winner and in nominations. As a result, I suspect that Revolutionary Road nabbed sixth place (Deakins is involved y'all, it had to be close), though I wonder if they may have been close to honoring Mandy Walker for Australia. The film is in this category's wheelhouse (foreign country, expansive outside shots, epic in scope), and Walker could have finally cracked the glass ceiling for the category, as Best Cinematography is the only non-gender segregated category at the Oscars to not have nominated a woman before.
Films I Would Have Nominated: Yikes-I didn't care for this lineup. I would certainly have included Deakins' superior work in Revolutionary Road, while also finding room for the complicated blues and greys (and occasional reds) of Let the Right One In. Otherwise this was not a great year for impressive cinematography, as nothing really stands out in a major visual way from this year.
Oscar's Choice: Enamored with Bollywood and with a foreign culture in a year that was pretty weak overall, Oscar had an easy choice with Slumdog Millionaire over more domestic fare like Benjamin Button and The Dark Knight.
My Choice: I'm actually kind of surprised that I liked Changeling as much as I did in the write-up, but I'm sticking with The Dark Knight for the victory. It's not perfect, but it's by far the best here. Stern gets the silver, followed by Benjamin Button, The Reader, and Slumdog.
Those are my thoughts-what are yours? Are you with me that this was Wally Pfister's time or are you all about Slumdog's overuse of orange? Do you agree with me that this was a pretty weak year for cinematography overall (especially sandwiched between 2007 and 2009), and if not, what am I missing that should have been included instead? And which film of 2008 had the best overall Cinematography? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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