OVP: Best Cinematography (2003)
The Nominees Were...
Cesar Charlone, City of God
John Seale, Cold Mountain
Eduardo Serra, Girl with a Pearl Earring
Russell Boyd, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
John Schwartzman, Seabiscuit
My Thoughts: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won every Oscar it was nominated for, a total of eleven awards, an unprecedented feat, but not an unprecedented number. Both Ben-Hur and Titanic both won eleven Academy Awards, though neither did so without a loss; Ben-Hur faltered in Best Adapted Screenplay to Room at the Top while Titanic took a trio of losses in both female acting races & Best Makeup. Return of the King, though, was weirdly skipped in two categories it had won in for previous films in the LOTR series, the first of which we're getting to today (Best Cinematography). It seems probable that had it been nominated in this category or Sound Editing (it's other bizarre miss) that it would've taken the title outright. As it is, though, we're left with a lot of what-if's, and since we only consider the five Oscar nominees, you'll have to wait a number of weeks to see where I rank Return of the King in our My Ballot conclusion.
We'll start with the film that Oscar definitely preferred, Master and Commander which gained the most from Oscar missing both of these categories. The movie is, admittedly, a great-looking film. The battle scenes are beautifully etched on the screen, and Boyd (and the editors) are able to make sure we can't tell the scenes actually at sea from the giant shots in a tank. The scenes at the Galapagos Islands are particularly impressive, but they also point to the biggest downfall in the film-they're too different. Master and Commander, almost entirely shot at sea, doesn't get enough contrast to make this a great cinematography banquet-the subject matter is too limited. It understand the assignment, but the assignment isn't that hard.
That's not the case for the gorgeous work Eduardo Serra brings to Girl with a Pearl Earring. Other films (like Mr. Turner and At Eternity's Gate) have mined the trick of painting the screen as if we're watching one of the paintings of our biopic's artist, but Girl with a Pearl Earring invented this style. You get the sense in both the interior and exterior shots that we're walking into a Vermeer painting, never in a gimmicky way (there's not a bunch of winks to anything other than the titular painting), but in the style & approach. It's beautiful work-so much natural light cascading throughout the world of our actors...it's truly a wonder.
The same could be said for John Seale's brilliance in Cold Mountain. While he doesn't have the trick of looking to Vermeer, Seale has his own genius to pull back from, giving us wonderful shots of a wartorn South, and two lovers in the throws of passion (Cold Mountain has one of the sexiest & most graphic sex scenes you'll ever see in a giant, David Lean-style epic). The movie does a bit of closeups, especially earlier on to counter the diluted beauty of Jude Law & Nicole Kidman later in the picture, but it's the wandering hills and the way that the war feels at your doorsteps that gives Cold Mountain so much of its chilling realism.
City of God definitely has been cited as a wonder of cinematography, but that's only because there's clear technical skill in the violence onscreen. Yes, when we see things like the killing of one of the principle characters in a shocking turning point for another, it's jaw-dropping stuff. But it's also lazy-it shows how little narrative detail we're getting in the rest of the film, never equalling those moments visually. That's a problem when you're competing for an Oscar. It might make sense to put all of your effort into key sequences & treat the rest like standard film, but when you're trying to best Girl with a Pearl Earring and Cold Mountain, movies that make every scene fit with the rest of the movie's look, it's hard not to come up short.
At the time, it was assumed City of God was taking the spot that everyone guessed would go to Return of the King, but in hindsight, let's pretend it was Seabiscuit. Similar to City of God, it's a movie where the cinematographer makes mostly boring sequences unless it's a moment the characters will care about (i.e. when the horse is racing). But while City of God inspired a new generation of filmgoers with its provocative subject matter & approach, Seabiscuit was (excuse the punny expression), galloping places other films had trod. There's nothing special in this movie-it just looks like every other racing movie, and feels interchangeable on the best of days.
Other Precursor Contenders: The American Society of Cinematographers goes with just five nominees, but it was oddly out of sync with where Oscar landed. The winner was different (they picked Seabiscuit), and they added both The Last Samurai and Return of the King instead of City of God and Girl with a Pearl Earring. BAFTA gave the win to Return of the King, here over Cold Mountain, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Lost in Translation, and Master and Commander. And yes, Return of the King was in sixth place, this is not up for debate.
Films I Would Have Nominated: I mean, I don't get why they skipped Return of the King, and I'll be rectifying that in a few weeks. But I also have to applaud BAFTA for citing the beauty of Lost in Translation. Sofia Coppola's films don't get enough credit for how well they capture their surroundings, and rewatching this film recently, it's striking to me just how distinctive a film shot in just a few weeks looks (I think the decision to use film rather than digital gives it a softer quality).
Oscar's Choice: With the Hobbits on the sidelines, Oscar favored the waterlocked world of Master and Commander, probably over Seabiscuit.
Oscar's Choice: With the Hobbits on the sidelines, Oscar favored the waterlocked world of Master and Commander, probably over Seabiscuit.
My Choice: A tight race, but I think I'll favor Girl just barely over Cold Mountain, though both would've made worthy winners. Master and Commander is not an embarrassing win either, and it gets my bronze, followed by City of God and Seabiscuit.
Those are my thoughts-how about yours? Are you sticking with Oscar & Master, or do you want to get decked with the Girl with a Pearl Earring? Is there anyone who really loved Seabiscuit, or are we all kind of in the "yawn" category on this film? And how the hell did Oscar skip Return of the King? Share your thoughts below!
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