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

Film Music of 2011

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross

From sparse, eerie pianos that know all the evil in Lisbeth Salander's world to restrained sonic landscapes layered with industrial noises & looping rythms, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross's score for Fincher's latest is clearly distinct from their Oscar winning (& Hanz Zimmer beating) Social Network score, & fits Fincher's new film like a black latex glove. A bold, ambient electro metal score that is gloomy, mesmerising &, when it needs to be, truly unsettling.     

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Alberto Iglesias

Rich, classy & atmospheric, Alberto Iglesias' score perfectly compliments the reserved intruigue of Tomas Alfredson's masterfully detailed film. The jazzy horns nearly bumped it to first place.

Hanna 
The Chemical Brothers 
(Tom Rowlands & Ed Simons)

The grinding beats for the fight & chase scenes are easiest to remember, with good reason, but the Chemical Brothers' score for Joe Wright's coming-of-age thriller is far more than a thumping electro score cut to action sequences (although there's nothing wrong with that). The clip above includes two good examples of the score's more haunting, thematic parts: the lullaby vocals & baby mobile chimes of Hanna's Theme evoke Hanna's coming of age in a world of wonder & danger, while The Devil is in the Details channels the sound of a theme park carousel on its last legs to capture the film's demented fairy tale theme. A diverse, exciting score.

The Tree of Life
Alexandre Desplat

An epic, impressionist score for an epic, impressionist film that takes in family, childhood, dinosaurs, God, the universe & everything.

Drive
Cliff Martinez

The perfect score for the year's slickest film: smooth urban beats channeling the slick artifice of the 80s while building an undercurrent of romance, tension and real feeling. Compared to Martinez's also excellent Contagion score, its the restrained atmospherics of Drive that really impress. Give this clip, for example, at least a minute to kick off, and two to really impress. Retro synth pop tunes from College, Electric Youth, Lovefox & Desire don't hurt either. 

The Artist
Ludovic Bource

A score that spans the film's full running time & speaks on behalf of its characters, channelling Hollywood circa 1930. Despite Kim Novak's accusations that the romatic themes ripped off Bernard Herrman's classic Vertigo score, this is still an epic, massively charming & effectively nostalgic achievement. 

Rango
Hans Zimmer

Inventive, playful, occasionally raucous Mexican flavoured western score.

Jane Eyre
Dario Marianelli

Weighty, brooding pianos & soaring strings to match Jane's hidden passion & heavy heart.

The Adventures of Tin Tin
John Williams

Like a brisk stroll down a cobbled European street suddenly diverting into an unexpected adventure: a playful, adventurer's score with jazzy basslines & interesting instrumentation.

Take Shelter
David Wingo


A minimal, mysterious score of ambience, dissonance & rhythmic bell sounds, reflecting the eerie uncertainty at the core of Take Shelter and building up to an emotionally epic climax.


Near Misses:

Hugo - Howard Shore

Moneyball - Mychael Danna

Another Earth - Fall on Your Sword

The Descendants - Various

Hanna - Review

Joe Wright's Hanna is sensational. He holds back nothing as he crafts a potent, gorgeous, audacious & aggressively creative coming-of-age thriller. Miles from the period restraints of Pride and Prejudice & Atonement, Wright handles the material with a ballsy confidence. As always, he chooses his lead well - Saoirse Ronan kicks ass as the titular Hanna, pitching her performance perfectly between Uma Thurman's Bride in Kill Bill and Jodi Foster's Nell: an utterly convincing otherworldly girl, raised in complete isolation in the woods, trained to be an assassin, and desperate to discover the world, hear music and feel love. She balances Hanna's tough-as-nails determination with a beguiling naivety and sense of wonder that sells the twisted fairy tale aspect of the story. 

The film itself is a bizarre coming-of-age drama disguised as a pulsating chase movie that takes as much time to appreciate the sun and wind in Hanna's hair as she breathes in the air from a car window, as it does to choreograph dizzyingly hyper-real action scenes to the Chemical Brothers' thumping score. Wright pushes buttons at every turn, never holding back on creative flourish. At times, his approach threatens to be overwhelming, but it is hard not to get caught up in the exhilarating confidence of his unique vision.

Wright delivers one breathtaking set piece after another, while Alwin Kuchler matches the bold, left-of-centre sets with palpably gorgeous cinematography; whether he's filming snow scape hunts, single-take action scenes in eastern european subways or intimate family conversations in sweaty Morroco, his cinematography is mesmerising.

Wright has always drawn exceptional performances from every member of his cast and he gives us another set of fine performances here. Every one of the actors deliver - the heroes with conviction, the villains with bold, cold eccentricity. Tom Hollander is a revelation as perverse, fey blonde ubher hit man, Isaacs & Cate Blanchett unleashes a deeply peculiar, eerily calm villain in Marrisa, a corrupt government agent with deep secrets and an obsessive tooth-cleaning compulsion. Both villains are splendid and frightening creations, with just enough fierce menace to stay just the right side of cartoonish. Blanchett, in particular, finds so much power and force in her performance that her conviction steers Marissa from caricature villain to a pitiable, detestable force to be reckoned with. Wright's again shows his knack with young actors by drawing out an witty, spot on performance from newcomer Jessica Barden as Hanna's only friend - Sophie - an aggressively superficial, effervescent teenager with truckloads of attitude and more words per second than a high level legal secretary.

Wright orchestrates his technical team with bravado, coaxes warmth and complexity out of his cast and shows a briliant eye for striking sets - from gypsies washing clothes at the river, to Moroccan markets  and Eastern European concrete apartments, run down play parks, orange-tiled basements & abandoned theme parks, his sets all feel exhilaratingly fresh. Supremely stylish, cartoonish, yet gritty, his film never questions its own strangeness and, once it gets going, is a juggernaut racing to its blunt, enigmatic conclusion. A striking, original story with layers of character and visual detail that keep unfolding after the initial kick in the face subsides. The purest slice of joyful cinematic abandon of the year.