American Cinematographer - June 1998 - 26

The

cinematographer did cart
along a small package of three or four
800W tungsten redheads to offer supple¬
mental light on exteriors, but he never
ended up using them "because when you
turn on one light, you immediately have
100 people around you. The Chinese are
extremely curious and are not very shy.
They'll come within one meter of your
eyes and watch what you are doing -
it's very funny.
"I was glad to have color temper¬
ature problems, because I like to mix the
light," Filac continues. "If you shoot in
Hong Kong without respecting the exist¬
ing lights, you're not really making a
movie about Hong Kong. The city is really
full of colors
neon.

-

red, blue and green

I didn't need to do

balance the

anything [to
colors], and I didn't want to.

As both

an

insider and

an

outsider

his 1994 television series The
that

truly broke

new

Kingdom
ground. In this

director

Center column:

Danish director

of

photography

Eric Kress, DFF

shooting with a
Super 16 Aaton
XTR-Prod.

Right: Stig G.
Helmer (ErnstHugo Jaregard)

look

surveys the
lower depths.

more

reined-in."

Kingdom
by Patricia Thomson
Danish director Lars

bizarre

amalgam of hospital

soap opera

24

von

Trier may

and the occult, von Trier first wed hand¬

held, verite-style cinematography with
spiritual subject matter. With the next
four

episodes

theaters

-

now hitting American
under the billing The

indeed

Kingdom II- hindsight makes the simi¬
larities between the two projects crystal
clear.

intellectually precocious director began
The Kingdom in 1993, he set a challenge
for himself that required a different type
of virtuosity. Von Trier devised a set of
rules, the first being that the entire series

movement. The first month of

camera

shooting

actually very tough,
readjust [our style] all
the time and go further and further."
Kress worked with two light¬
weight Super 16 cameras - a handheld
was

because

we

unit and

a

had to

Steadicam outfitted with

Aaton XTR-Prod
a

Cooke

-

each

"This is

zoom.

an

it's like 10.4 to 52mm.
16mm I would

use a

an

equipped with
older zoom

-

Normally for

Canon 8-64mm lens;

in this case, I preferred the Cooke
version, because it's much lighter and
looks wonderful for television.

"Sometimes

we

had

scenes

with

10 actors and very little room, but I had a
wonderful focus-puller, Claus Rosenlob.

would be shot handheld. "He wanted to

give himself some limits," recalls 36year-old director of photography Eric
Kress, DFF, speaking by phone from
Copenhagen. "Lars wanted a documen¬
tary style that would look as if we had
walked in the door and started filming
right away."
When describing the genre-bust¬
ing Danish series, American critics invari¬
ably come up with catchphrases like "EB

done

Though
some

cameraman

handheld work

Kress had
on commer¬

I would
same

just two

years

around

-

figure out the

filming and
distance to

potentially be filming

next. He didn't know where I would turn

ing into

was

camera

time he had to

the actors I would

with

Trier, Kress

the

distance to the person I was
then [determine], by eye, the

Production Slate, AC Dec.

von

move

right, left, wide shot, close-up - and at
the

recognition for Breaking the Waves (see
'96), but it was

was

ing untrod cinematic turf. "This was the
entirely with handheld
camera, at least in Denmark," explains
Kress. "Lars wanted to go further than
Homicide. He wanted The Kingdom to
look more gritty and raw, with even more

the

great deal of international

he could trust."

first film done

cials and short features, that method
was not his forte. When he joined forces

a

was

essential, since the duo would be explor¬

ence.

have earned

few years

a

Mutual confidence

on

The

institution

same

someone

acid," but the U.S. police drama
Homicide, with its extensive use of hand¬
held camera, is a more accurate refer¬

Rechristening

the

at

searching for a young cine¬
matographer for the offbeat series. Kress
surmises that "Lars was just looking for

film stocks, bravura camera moves
and film history references. But when the

Hong Kong, director Wang holds an
interesting take on how the changing-ofthe-guard will affect the city's prolific
film industry. "What's really depressing
is that they don't even have to pass a law
or say that you can't show these films;
[theater owners] automatically do it
themselves," laments Wang. "And the
sometimes over-the-top sex and violence
[of the indigenous industry] is definitely
going to be curtailed. Films are going to

studies

earlier, but the pair first met while the

ous

(Birgitte
Raaberg) slowly
but surely loses
her sanity in The
Kingdom II.

his

Copenhagen-based National Film School
graduated

from the

techniques applied on The
Kingdom series represent an abrupt
change from von Trier's previous film,
Zentropa (1991), a cinematic tour de
force set in Germany's post-World War II
era of reconstruction. Stylistically selfconscious, Zentropa made heavy use of
noir lighting effects, rear projection, vari¬

to

from

of Denmark. Von Trier had

The

Above: Judith

removed

look

camera.
over

The entire time he had to

his shoulder - without

me

-

bump¬

to see how far away the

OFciolctmobuserft.resy
Phot s
American Cinematographer - June 1998

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