Cinematography of 2012

The Tree of Life - Emmanuel Lubezki

 

It couldn't be anyone else (although it was almost Robert Richardson). Terrence Malick's films always boasted exceptional cinematography, and The Tree of Life easily stands as the best of the bunch. From dreamlike memories of 1950s domestic life - both blissful & sinister - to absurdly ambitious depictions of the birth & infant years of the universe. Exceptional & impressive in every way.  

Hugo - Robert Richardson

Warm, glowing & perfect in every detail, Robert Richardson's swoon-worthy work for Martin Scorsese's epic but intimate masterpiece almost overtook The Tree of Life for first place. Where Tree of Life has an endless stream of unforgettable images, Hugo has single frames filled with so much incredible detail, you could press pause & just stare for hours. It puts Paris on an impossibly high pedestal.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Hoyte van Hoytema

Dusty, stuffy & always perfectly composed, Hoyte van Hoytema's lensing is quiet & unobtrusive while it sucks you deeply into both the period & the dizzying plot. Looking like a spy thriller lifted straight out of the 70s, it manages to pay homage while creating iconic images all its own (the sound-proof room... the landing strip conversation...)

Martha Marcy May Marlene - Jody Lee Lipes

You could write essays on Martha's mental state based solely on the images composed by Jody Lee Lipes. Shot almost entirely in long, unhurried shots that, together with the editing & performances, create the ambiguous tension of Martha's existence. Subtle & unflashy, but exceptional.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Jeff Cronenweth

Shot on digital in gloomy alleys, apartments, libraries, & the notorious Vanger family island, Jeff Cronenweth's images are by turns intimate, sinister & shocking; always soaking up every last ounce of atmosphere, facial flinch or particular shade of black.  

Hanna - Alwin H Kuchler

There are massive tonal shifts in Hanna, & Alwin Kuchler's cinematography negotiates them all perfectly. From the intimate danger of Hanna's snow hunting to her first teenage experiences on the back of a motorbike, through the diverse escape & fight sequences in underground chambers, dilapidated playgrounds, shipping docks & abandoned theme parks to the cherry on top: a thrilling single-take that follows Eric Bana out of a train station, down an escalator into an empty subway & through a visceral fist fight with a small army of hit men. Exceptional, exciting & effective.     

Drive - Newton Thomas Sigel

Wrapping it's characters in a perpetual warm neon glow, Newton Thomas Sigel makes 80s retro look cooler than ever while enhancing the graceful tension of director Nicolas Winding Refn's pacing. Through the occasional emergence of human warmth & explosions of unexpected violence on screen, Sigel's camera remains as cool & collected as the Driver. 

War Horse - Janusz Kaminski

All the sentimentality of War Horse is forgivable solely on the grounds of how gorgeous it looks. From sun-kissed farmlands to the misty trenches of no man's land, War Horse is ever a thing of painterly beauty.

The Artist - Guillaume Schiffman

The Artist's Hollywood is not a flashy, glitzy Hollywood, but a quietly inventive perspective of one man's life in the movies. Remarkably gorgeous for a simple, uncluttered film shot in grainy period black & white.  

We Need to Talk About Kevin - Seamus McGarvey

A movie that drenches you in blood & violence without showing any actual violence & precious little blood. The colour red refuses to leave the Khatchadourian family alone, while Kevin's expressive eating habits take on a disturbing life of their own. Seamus McGarvey's camera brings director Lynne Ramsay's vision to life.

Honourable mentions:

Jane Eyre - Adriano Goldman

Midnight in Paris - Darius Khondji

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 

- Eduardo Serra

Another Earth - Mike Cahill

Moneyball - Wally Pfeister

We Need to Talk About Kevin - UK Trailer

Another super-stylish trailer for Lynn Ramsay's psycho-drama.

We Need to Talk About Kevin - International Trailer

Highly acclaimed at Cannes, Lynn Ramsay's audio-visual exploration of a mother's strained relationship with her psychopath-in-the-making son. Featuring another epic performance from Tilda Swinton, and a detailed visual essay on the colour red... 

We Need to Talk About Kevin vs Beautiful Boy

One of the most raved films coming out of Cannes, We Need to Talk About Kevin is an adaptation of Lionel Shriver's award-winning novel about a mother's struggle to understand or like the cold and difficult son that her husband adores, and who turns out to be a psychopath that kills nine other kids with a crossbow.  The novel is made up of letters written by Eva to her husband Franklin and chronicles her relationship with their son Kevin, from his childhood to her visits with him in a juvenile detention facility.

Not a light family excursion, then.  

Director Lynne Ramsay (making a comeback after 2002's Morvern Callar)'s experimental film is being called fearless, emotionally complex & a triumph of sound design and cinematography, while her script (co-written with Rory Kinnear) is being hailed for transforming the novel's letter structure into an non-linear collage of a family's disintegration.

Tilda Swinton & John C Reilly (in a welcome return to drama) star as Kevin's parents, while Ezra Miller plays the handsome, troubled Kevin. Swinton is the film's complex emotional core, and reportedly the restrained force that lifts the film's morbid subject matter. With adjectives like 'haunting', 'blistering', 'magnetic' being thrown around in praise of the always brilliant Swinton, big kudos to Kirsten Dunst for beating her to the Best Actress prize at Cannes.

Clip from We Need to Talk About Kevin:

Swinton's performance in this clip alone is stirring (but, gosh, I can't stop thinking of David Bowie when she has short hair), and that baby carriage is straight out of Rosemary's Baby.

Another clip (you may notice the colour red...) :

Tense, creepy and beautifully shot.

Also this year, Shawn Ku's Beatiful Boy tells a similar story, with Michael Sheen & Maria Bello as parents unsure how to grieve the death of their son when he takes his own life after going on a killing spree at his college.

Trailer:

Quite a sappy trailer, actually.

Gus Van Sant's visceral 2003 Palme D'Or winner, Elephant, remains the definitive examination of a school shootout in my book, but by focusing on the aftermath for the parents, both We Need to Talk About Kevin and Beautiful Boy pose a very different perspective. Kevin certainly seems the more creatively challenging of the two, while Beautiful Boy seems more like a melodramatic vehicle for its two stars.