American Cinematographer - November 2023 - 22

the exterior porch. "
For the central room in the main house, Lachman established an
El Conde's black-and-white foundation led Lachman to " play more with
hard lighting in ways that I wouldn't do in color. " He cites this scene with
Pinochet's wife, Lucía (Gloria Münchmeyer), positioned near a window in
a kitchen, where he was able to create " strong and beautiful contrast. "
the main areas of the house was to create a kind of semi-diffused light,
coming mainly through the windows; I papered the windows and used
the curtains as diffusion. I didn't want the curtains to blow out when
they were lit, so I had the production team make them a darker, warmer
color. I also had the ability to modify the windows somewhat in post. I
did that work in [FilmLight] Baselight at Harbor Picture Company with
colorist Joe Gawler, who helped me retain all the details I wanted in the
curtains. To my thinking, even if you have sunlight outside, you don't
always see that light come streaming through the windows because of
Director's View | Dictatorship as Vampirism
Lachman spoke with director Pablo Larraín about exploring the reign
of Augusto Pinochet - and the undying nature of dictatorship - within
the framework of a vampire story.
Ed Lachman, ASC: What do you feel El Conde is about?
Pablo Larraín: It's about impunity, how justice is really a collective desire,
but not a reality - how horrible crimes and a lot of horrible things
that happened in history did not get their due justice. I don't believe, at
the end of the road, that people get their deserved justice.
How did you come upon the idea of depicting Pinochet as a vampire?
Societies and countries like ours that were colonized - they were also
colonized with all sorts of ideas. Racism is not our invention; [it comes
from countries that] call us the " Third World. " And that leads me to the
other invention that comes from here, the Northern Hemisphere - the
romantic vampire story. So, I believe we took two elements: One is the
vampire story and the other is racism - and that's the cocktail of this
film, I suppose.
Healing is very needed after that time in Chile with Pinochet, but
the healing comes after justice. We were never able to take him to
trial. He died not only a millionaire, but he died free. He will always be
around us. It's not just the generations to come, it's forever. So, the
only way we can deal with him is through the idea of the vampire - it's
a very simple metaphor.
Amid all the evil the film explores, there is also a lot of beauty. Can
you discuss the idea of combining these two contrasting elements
in the film's imagery?
Possibly the most dangerous [idea] - and because of that, possibly
the most interesting one - is that evil can create beauty whether
you like it or not. Beauty can come from evil, not only from goodness.
There's something in darkness that can create a very strange, attractive
sensibility. And it's in music, plastic arts, painting, theater, sculpture,
opera and cinema - and human expression of art can flirt with
22 / NOVEMBER 2023
overall ambience by hanging a 10K balloon with cost-effective PAR cans
above an overhead 20'x20' muslin. A chandelier is a prominent focal
point of the room, so Lachman had the crew install larger 40-watt bulbs
in the chandelier itself, using that as source lighting along with box
lights above the chandelier fixture. He also had the lights on dimmers to
provide control. " I was aiming for a naturalistic expressionism with texture
in the shadows. So, in that main room, I might have the lights coming
from camera-right through the window, and I would dim the lights
on the left; then, when the camera moved right, I would bring down the
lights on the right and up on the left. I basically used the dimmers to
control the source-light level, while still lighting from the windows. "
For additional areas of the Pinochet compound, light fixtures were
built into the sets, as in a freight elevator where Astera tubes are visible,
and in the long hallway that leads to Pinochet's blood-storage room. The
hallway was tricky, because we were always fighting the shadow of the
Steadicam operator if he got too close to the actors as they were walking.
The set, which had to match a real location, was lined with overhead PAR
cans aimed down through 1000H paper to supplement the bare hanging
bulbs positioned along the corrugated walls. Utilitarian fluorescents
Pablo Larraín directing a scene for El Conde on location.
darkness. Even if you are a politically correct person who says, " I'd
never flirt with those ideas " - yes, you have, whether you like it or
not. There's always something there that's interesting. After certain
scenes, even the production designer would come to me and say,
" You see? Evil can create beauty. " And we, as an audience, are able
to see that, and with film you are able to shoot it.
I'm not saying that working around these figures redeems them.
I don't want to redeem these bastards, I want to expose them -
and when you do that, maybe you find beauty in that, and maybe
that's the only way you can feel, just by the exercise of trying to
portray them. We find redemption in ourselves when we see them
and analyze them. When we look at them, we have an understanding
of who we are, and also why we allowed it to happen. We're a
part of that, too.
Edited by Andrew Fish
American Cinematographer - November 2023

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