American Cinematographer - September 2000 - 97

Verre, and La Vengeance
en

Opposite page:
U.S. Supreme

de la Femme

Noir.

Court Associate

If

making a feature film is
demanding, keeping to a TV produc¬
tion schedule borders

Justice Robert

Jackson

(Alec
Baldwin)
questions a

the ludi¬

on

Dostie describes the process

by
recalling the words of Luis Bunuel,
who quipped, "Directing a movie is
very simple: you do a compromise a

witness in

minute

month trial. This

crous.

and

Nuremberg,

during the 11-

essential."

page, top:
Jackson, his

four-hour miniseries

a

which aired

the

save

Nuremberg.
Jackson headed
the prosecution

Turner Network

on

assistant Elsie

Television (TNT) July 16 and 17, had
an 11-week
shooting schedule, only
three weeks of which
the

courtroom

was

trial that

devoted

serves as

Douglas (Jill
Hennessy) and
his team listen

to

to

accused watch
and listen to the

story's core.
Based

Infamy on

Joseph E. Persico's
Nuremberg:
Trial, the two-part movie

recounts

the

on

non-fiction best-seller
first

war

crimes

tribunal in

history, at which 21
members of the Nazi high command

-

including Hermann Goering,

Rudolf Hess and Albert

Speer -
charged with committing
crimes against humanity. The film
focuses on Robert Jackson (played
by Alec Baldwin, who also acted as
executive producer), the U.S.
Supreme Court associate justice who
headed the prosecution team at the

were

than 150' long.
"History helped us, in a way," Dostie
notes. "The city of Nuremberg was
almost completely demolished [by
Allied bombing] except for the cour¬
thouse, which was damaged but still
standing. In repairing the building,
the U.S. Army had one additional
mous

space, more

consideration: the trials

"Fluorescents had

just been
they covered the ceiling
fluorescent lights. [You can] see

with

in

so

November 1945. While the TNT

them in the shots of our

movie

We used

couple of key strategy
by the Allied represen¬

covers a

be

in the courtroom.

in

Germany,

to

photographed by film
agencies and reporters, and those in
charge did not want flashbulbs used.
Therefore, they needed a lot of light

invented,

Nuremberg,

were

filmed and

11-month trial, which commenced

sessions held

testimony.

Bottom: The

the

courtroom.

Optima 32s and put the

ballast outside the

set so we

didn't

have the hum. In addition, I had four
enormous

windows, each 18 feet

high, situated behind the judges -
just as they were in the Palace of
Justice. We placed lOKs and 20Ks on
scaffolding outside the windows."
The level of brightness in the
room
remained fairly constant
throughout the film because the
fluorescents, which provided the
main illumination, were always on.
Dostie says he would have liked to
have varied the brightness coming
through the windows to suggest
sunnier days or the passing of
seasons, but that it wasn't possible
given the time constraints. "In real
life, you would have seen the sky

proceedings. The
courtroom for

the

production

was

constructed

in

Montreal

a

warehouse and
was

just slightly

smaller than the
Palace of Justice
in

Nuremberg.

tatives, as well as the effect of the trial
on the German
defendants, the

picture's emphasis is on the trial itself
and

on

Jackson's determination to

present as fair a trial as possible to
ensure

carry

that the

proceedings would
moral weight and not be

dismissed
"winners"

as

a

of the war's

case

punishing the "losers."

Constructed in

Montreal (because

big enough

was

movie's courtroom

a

warehouse in

soundstage
available), the
no

was

almost

an

replica of the Palace of Justice
Nuremberg, where the trial was
held 55 years ago. Slightly smaller
than the original, it was still an enor¬

exact

in

American

Cinematographer 95
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