Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share your movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page here.
This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Female Cinematographers
Today's theme is a suggestion from Brittani. Wow, today's theme is hard. I would say I usually never know who the cinematographer of a movie is. They're not usually one of those people who do the press junket to promote the movie, so they almost never end up on those little interview promo clips and often I think not even in the making of feature (when there used to be DVDs and I used to watch the features on them). So I basically had to go through films that I love or like and check if they had a female cinematographer. And even among those movies that I like that had a female cinematographer, I remembered the story or the performance more rather than how the movie actually looked like...so this week was super hard...so much so that I only made two picks.
Cinematography by Charlotte Bruus Christensen. While I don't love this movie I did enjoy it and I prefer this adaptation to the 1967 one because I like Mulligan's Bathsheba better, she is less silly, more mature. And of course the movie looks gorgeous. There were a lot of sweeping shots of the country side and the cliffs and the lingering glances between the love interests. One of the most beautiful scenes I thought was the one in the woods; there's a magical dreamy quality to that scene.
Since I featured 5 female DPs, I also have Ellen Kuras and Charlotte Bruus Christensen. I LOVE the visuals of Far from the Madding Crowd, though the film is flawed and I don't care for the casting of Tom Sturridge here.
ReplyDeleteWow you manage to come up with 5!
DeleteI prefer the Julie Christie version of Far from the Madding Crowd, which was also visually beautiful thanks to DP Nicolas Roeg, but I agree this take on it is visually splendid as well.
ReplyDeleteSo many people love Eternal Sunshine but I'm not one of them. It does have a great look though, one of the few positives I'd grant the movie.
This was a tough week and it took quite a bit of research for me to come up with my three.
Beach Rats (2017)-Teen Frankie (Harris Dickinson) drifts aimlessly between his bleak home life, his loser friends, a potential new girlfriend and the older men he meets online. While narratively diffuse, cinematographer Hélène Louvart immerses the film in a shifting collage of mood and atmosphere, smells, sounds, colors, the look of skin in sunlight and darkness, back-lit by the seedy-glamorous colored lights of the picture’s Coney Island setting.
Beau Travail (1999)-French Foreign Legion sergeant Galoup (Denis Lavant) must deal with his jealousy when new recruit Sentain (Grégoire Colin) becomes a hero in the eyes of his men. Frustrated that Forestier (Michel Subor) the superior he admires, does not share his resentment for Sentain, Galoup's envy of the recruit becomes too much for him bear and his downward spiral begins. Cinematographer Agnès Godard uses the sun-bleached terrains of the film’s East Africa setting and juxtaposes it to the sun kissed taut physiques of the participants creating what was termed a “voluptuous austerity” upon the picture’s release.
Swoon (1992)-A highly stylized recounting of the infamous thrill killing of young Bobby Frank by rich teens Nathan Leopold Jr. (Craig Chester) and Richard Loeb (Daniel Schlachet) that led to one of the most notorious trials of the 1920’s. Cinematographer Ellen Kraus uses a black & white palette to blend the anachronistic touches of the film into the disturbing sadomasochistic tone of the story.
Haven't heard of any of your picks except for Beach Rats.
DeleteI absolutely love the visuals from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. But I love pretty much everything about that film.
ReplyDeleteMe too :)
DeleteWe match on Eternal Sunshine! I didn't care for Far From the Madding Crowd but it was shot beautifully. That was one of the strong points for me.
ReplyDeleteThat's the thing with period dramas, even when I don't love them, I usually find they are beautifully shot or have gorgeous costumes.
DeleteThis was tough for me as well and just chose 3 films I had seen that have female cinematographers. I have not seen either of these but I can see the beauty in that last shot.
ReplyDeleteIt's gorgeous right. The bits of light coming through the trees.
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