American Cinematographer - February 1994 - 70

On Location Where the Rivers Flow North
Cinematographer exploits nature's
to film period drama.

nuances

by Paul Ryan
Where the Rivers Flow North, an

driven

adaptation of Howard Frank
Mosher's period story about a
logger struggling to keep his
land in the face of advancing

on a

modernization, and which cul¬

grow on the land, and the river
is a transportation vehicle for
men and
logs; a soon-to-be com¬

minates in the

great Vermont

flood of 1927, is, in the words of
director Jay Craven, "a film
about water where water is not

piece, but very dependent
visual portrayal of these
characters' relationship to the
land around them. They make
their living from the trees that

pleted

power
this and Noel

dam would end
sees

the dam not

only

as a me¬
chanical intru¬
sion but a per¬
sonal and cul¬
tural threat. In

portraying
these people
and their land,
director Cra¬
ven

hoped to
the

create

"magical real¬
ism" that in¬
fuses Mosher's

novels,

in

eye

and things
not

as

they

I've shot a
| lot of films that
2

&*
~

closely linked
dramatic plot
to the natural

| environment.
1 Early in my

Fox and Treat Williams

supporting roles, is

68

American

a

Cinematographer

play key
character-

we

used the rivers and

moun¬

tains of Montana to underscore

the familial bond between the
McLean brothers and their father.

(The film gained a cinematogra¬
phy Oscar for Philippe Rousselot.)
In the preproduction dis¬
cussion with Craven and assis¬
tant director Mark Yellin it be¬
came

clear that there

were

many

exterior locations to be covered,
and that the actors' tight sched¬

ules dictated a very rigid filming
schedule. As Mark put it, "We're

priciousness of the local climate,
our entire cinematic
approach

^

Bangor (Tantoo Cardi¬
nal). The film, in which Michael J.

sur¬

rounding the characters has on
our
judgment of their actions, a
concept I kept in mind while
working as second-unit cinema¬
tographer on Robert Redford's A
River Runs Through It. In that film

shooting every day, regardless of

1 first appear.

and mate

sual surface of the world

| ters and sure
roundings are
| viewed with a
| transcendent
are

career I was
fortunate to do the second-unit

cinematography on Terence
Malick's Days of Heaven, which
won

Michelangelo Antonioni's ideas
about the profound effect the vi¬

which charac-

^

supposed to be." But it is also a
unique love story about the rela¬
tionship between logger Noel
Lord (played by Rip Torn) and
his Abenaki Indian housekeeper

situations to enhance the look of
the film. We were impressed by

the weather." Because of the

ca¬

would have to allow for fast
movement and visual spontane¬

ity.
It also became clear that
would be spending a lot of
time in trees: Noel and Bangor
live in a log cabin and run a cedar
oil still located deep in a stand of
tall pines. The quality of light in

we

forest is soft yet highly direc¬
tional, and I felt we should main¬
a

tain that. Beautiful

light

as

the natural

I was sure we would
need to light the woods. Vermont
is pretty far north and in Septemwas,

Nestor Almendros, ASC an

Academy Award for Best Cin¬
ematography. Nestor and Terry
taught me a lot about keeping a
flexible approach to the whims
of nature and using unplanned

February 1994

Produced

by Bess O'Brien
Jay Craven
Directed by Jay Craven
and

Director of

photography Paul Ryan
American Cinematographer - February 1994

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