By Christian of What Would Toto Watch?.
As a recovering art major, great cinematography often jumps out at me more than, say, a film’s musical score or sound effect design. Film is a visual medium, and how the images are arranged on the screen sets the mood more than arguably any other element in a motion picture.
The 2009 nominees for Best Cinematography represent an eclectic group of films, from big-budget action movies to indie fare able to stand toe to toe with its deep pocketed peers. The award doesn’t go hand in hand with the Best Picture winner, although that was the case last year (“Slumdog Millionaire”). So the winners are often more aesthetically pure then some other awards, which often fall sway to a given year’s sweeping momentum.
While “The Hurt Locker’s” director, Kathryn Bigelow, may make Oscar history by becoming the first women to win in that category, no woman has ever been so much as nominated for Best Cinematography. We’ll have to wait until 2011 to see if that changes, but for now let’s celebrate the cinematic triumphs from last year’s movie assortment.
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Director James Cameron’s “Avatar” (Mauro Fiore) is a stunning visual achievement without or without those 3-D glasses. The film invents from scratch an amazing world filled with beautiful flowers, frightening creatures and a race of blue-skinned humanoids which faces destruction by Earth-based forces.
The seamless integration of CGI and actual footage is simply a small part of the wonders on display. Audiences have never seen anything like Na’vi before, and it’s a testament to the entire production team, from Cameron and Fiore to every techie making those zeroes and ones fall into place.
If visual achievement is first on the minds of Oscar voters, “Avatar” is the safest bet to win the award.
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The “Harry Potter“ franchise remains ridiculously profitable, in part, thanks to the artistic consistency seen in every installment.
“Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (Bruno Delbonnel) is no different, as the boy wizard’s latest adventures are given a lush big-screen treatment. This time around, the filmmakers didn’t have Lord Voldemort to play with, but the latest installment still has the Gothic set pieces and frightening characters to bring us back into Harry’s story anew.
Director David Yates busies himself with some teen romance and a cumbersome story line stretched taut over the course of the franchise. Yet the visual style on display remains compelling, be it the occasional Quidditch match or scenes set in the darkened hallways of the Hogwarts Academy, a formerly safe haven now haunted and severe.
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War is hell, and “The Hurt Locker (Barry Ackroyd) shows why. It’s one thing to capture the arid landscapes of Iraq on the movie screen, but “Locker” renders them in ways we haven’t seen before.
“Locker” presents some stunning moments, where the combination of combustible characters and isolated terrain create sheer movie magic. But it’s those bomb defusing sequences, a symphony of fine acting and smart compositions, which burn in our memories.
It isn’t just the battle sequences which leave viewers aghast at the horrors of war. It’s the smaller moments in the film, like star Jeremy Renner navigating a supermarket and feeling the banality of modern life wash over him.
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Leave it to writer/director Quentin Tarantino to deliver “Inglourious Basterds” (Robert Richardson), a film which resets history on a grand scale. The director’s singular approach to each scene in his Oscar nominated film tends to fracture the story’s momentum, but taken piece by piece the sequences can’t help but stun audiences. From the bucolic opener, set on a quaint diary farm, to scenes of a old-time movie theater bursting into flames, “Basterds” boasts a visual panache that works in lockstep with the bristling screenplay.
“Basterds” marries the standard war picture with sequences drenched in dialogue. But there’s not a dull shot in the film, even if Tarantino and co. opt for less ostentatious angles than in some of his past work.
Consider the extended bar sequence, where the audience is left trapped in a stuffy underground space while several characters speak … and speak … to save their lives and their mission.
“Inglourious Basterds” keeps us off balanced from the opening sequence through the explosive finale.
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“The White Ribbon” (Christian Berger) will likely lose out to its starry competition. That doesn’t delude the impact of the film or its haunting imagery from perennial button pusher Michael Haneke.
The Austrian auteur uses a pre-World War I setting to show us the roots of fascism and how seemingly sane people can be changed by rolling events.
Cinematography Oscars used to be separated into two categories - color and black and white films. So a win for “Ribbon,” told in crisp black and white, would be a throwback, of sorts.
“Avatar” should come away with Oscar gold Sunday night. But if a film can upset the science fiction smash it will be “Inglourious Basterds.”
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Best Cinematography nominees listed in order (most likely to win first)
“Avatar”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
“The White Ribbon”
