Cinematographer Style (2006)

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Cinematographer Style, especially compared to a really good documentary on the subject of film lensers like Todd McCarthy's Visions Of Light (1992) is superficial. Too many practitioners are interviewed, in a way that sacrifices depth for breadth. Also, an alphabetical introduction to all those later talking doesn't make up for what we miss by not having their names identified later with each clip. Along the way a few interesting points are made such as the development in more recent years of a "New York look," as more movies were shot on location there and, because of that city's buildings, in contrast to Southern California's, shadows and reflections became a more important part of the style of our cinema. On the commercial DVD of this program, in the extras, an extended 59 minute conversation with the recently deceased Gordon Willis gives us an idea of the kind of insights we might have gleaned if director/co-photographer and co-producer John Fauer had focused in for more of a closeup, so to speak, rather than a long shot.

Should do for Cinematography what "Blow Up" did for stills.Thank you for this film! It eloquently verbalizes through all these cinematographers' voices the very thing which probably drew most of us to work in this industry: to be where art meets technology, and where technology expands art. It is refreshing to hear your interview partners talk about this magic moment again and again.Really, I hope to be able to see the 10 hour version, because in many statements of the film I wondered what other interesting story or insight would have followed - after the deep breath, after the cut.I was happy with the structure of the film. It is the ultimate talking heads film. Because the line of thought going through all the interviews kept me very much attentive. This way all the various statements of different personalities transformed themselves into one statement of one person, the "über"-cinematographer, and thus became tremendously true.In the film there are moments with a very special magic on its own: when Vittorio Storaro moves the light bulb around, or when Roger Deakins demands a different focal length. This is something film can do beyond recording voices and expressions in faces.I'm thankful for this. I want more.