American Cinematographer - June 2000 - 84

acclaimed theater director in London
who

directing Cruise's wife,
play Blue

was

Nicole Kidman, in the hit

Room at the time. Cruise had been

executive

producer of Without Limits
(1998), which Hall had photographed

for Robert Towne, and Hall
Cruise's

first

was

when
Mendes asked him to suggest a cine¬
matographer for his first feature.
suggestion

"When I interviewed for the film, I
told Sam that I loved the

script, but I
concerned with how we
were going to
ultimately like these
characters," Hall recalls. "They were
all so quirky, dysfunctional and basi¬
cally unlikable people. However, Sam

was

very

said if we didn't like these characters,
in deep, dark trouble and

(Editors note: Because Emmanuel

we were

Lubezki's work

couldn't

covered in

film. He made it clear

on
Sleepy Hollow was
comprehensive detail in our

December 1999 issue, we've allotted
more

space to

ASC*

the

involved with

Beauty had any real idea of
it would

success

enjoy," Conrad

us,

Hall, ASC told AC in April. The

Fischer, and he

revered

enjoyed

Love Affair

himself,

ASC's Lifetime Achievement Award

winning an Academy Award, an ASC

(in 1994) and Camerimage's Golden
Frog Life Achievement Award (in
1995), the 73-year-old cinematogra¬
pher doesn't seem to be settling for
quiet convalescence in a retirement
community.

cameraman

of

much

Award,

a

that

has

success

BAFTA Award and

a

National

Society of Film Critics
cinematography. In
addition, his work was nominated by
the Chicago Film Critics, the Online
Film Critics Society and the Golden

Award for his

Satellite Awards.
Hall's

Academy Award for
Beauty was his second; he'd
won a previous Oscar for Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in
1969. He has been nominated

seven

other times, for Morituri (1965), The

Professionals (1966), In Cold Blood
(1967), The Day of the Locust (1975),
Tequila Sunrise (1988), Searching for
Bobby Fischer (1993) and A Civil
Action

was

(1998). Hall's ASC Award was

(1994). A recipient of the

Tightly crafted by first-time
Beauty presents

a

dark, cynical view

of the American dream, but it also
offers a note of hope. The film high¬

lights all of the typical trappings we
supposedly hold so dear in our vision
of average, middle-class, suburban
life, but it "looks closer"

at

these

apparent ideals and examines the
more

insidious elements of

our

Hall

was

offered American

Beauty after Tom Cruise

Sunrise and

mended

him

Hall credits the film's

to

recom¬

Mendes,

an

cast

with

fleshing out its "unlikable" charac¬
ters. "I didn't fully understand
[Mendes's] idea to begin with, but
once the actors
got hold of those
wonderful words and started
to

magic happened.
drama

to react

another, that's where the

one

can

occur,

That's where
and that's where

the

palette for the visuals can become
extraordinary. You can preconceive
all sorts of ways to do a film -
whether you should shoot quickly,
shoot more traditionally, or any
other technique - but to choose
those ideas in advance is

too

hard.

For me,

[inspiration] comes from
watching the actors rehearse with the
director. Ultimately, it's the actors
and the power of their performances
that

complex times.

his third; he had also

won for Tequila
Searching for Bobby

that it

too."

nominated for

film director Sam Mendes, American

American

successful

quite simple to like these charac¬
ters by examining my own psyche -
he asked if there weren't deep, dark
areas within
myself that I perhaps
didn't necessarily act out on, but felt
nonetheless. It then became quite
easy to identify [with] a lot of their
dysfunctionality, because it's within

the other nominees.)

"I don't think anybody

a

to me

was

Conrad Hall,
American Beauty

American

possibly have

made

the

film's

characters

likable."
Hall
American

spent a month on
Beauty before production
American

Cinematographer 75
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