American Cinematographer - April 2001 - 33

(Nicolas Cage), a mandolin-strum¬
ming artillery officer whose exuber¬
ant spirit initially elicits the disdain of

Cameron Crowe,

collaborated

with whom he had
the

charms after the officer is billeted at

critically
acclaimed Almost Famous. Despite
his hectic schedule, Toll graciously
spent part of a Sunday-morning
respite answering questions posed by
executive editor Stephen Pizzello.
(Editor's note: Although Captain
Corellis Mandolin was initially
scheduled to be released in April, the
date was pushed to August at press

her father's home. When the strife

time.)

the natives

notably Pelagia
(Penelope Cruz), the beautiful
daughter of a respected village
doctor

-

most

(John Hurt). Educated and

strong-willed, Pelagia is engaged to

a

local fisherman (Christian Bale), but
she

gradually succumbs to Corelli's
on

on

the island begins to escalate, however,

forced

American

weigh their
feelings for each other against their
ethnic allegiances.
An A-list project all the way,
Captain Corellis Mandolin teamed

Cinematographer:
Did you read the novel by Louis de
Bernieres before you began work¬
ing on Captain Corelli's Mandolin?

Oscar-nominated

shooting the picture, I started to read
the novel, but I quickly decided not
to finish it
I knew right off the bat
that the film would only be able to
cover about 20 percent of the mater¬
ial in the book. On previous projects,
I'd gotten very involved in the book,
only to realize later on that we
weren't really shooting the book.

the lovers

are

to

director

John

Madden

(Shakespeare in Love) with
Academy Award-winning
cinematographer John Toll, ASC
(Legends of the Fall, Braveheart).
Their efforts were bolstered by a topnotch team that included production
designer Jim Clay, supervising art

two-time

director

Chris

Seagers, costume
designer Alexandra Byrne and
makeup artist Lois Burwell.
When AC phoned Toll to
request an interview, he was busy
shooting six-day weeks in Los
Angeles on Vanilla Sky, a project that
reteamed

him

with

director

Toll: When I knew I'd be

-

This time around, rather than be
distracted

by all of the great things in
of the
film, I opted to approach the work
purely as a film that was simply based
on the novel. Otherwise, I might have
found myself second-guessing vari¬

the book that wouldn't be part

ous decisions or trying to talk some¬
body into including a certain scene

from the book. The director, John

Madden, and the screenwriter,
Shawn Slovo, already had their hands
frill

doing the adaptation, and they
involvement as well.
Were you still able to draw
inspiration from the novel?

didn't need my

Toll: The book had

a tone

of

'magic realism' that I found interest¬
ing, but both John and I were drawn
more to the story's realistic elements.
That approach just felt right to me,
because I felt that if

we

leaned

too

much toward the

'magical' elements
danger of making the
film too sweet. Those aspects of the
story worked well in the book, but
when making a film I think you
sometimes walk a very fine line
between what is perceived as 'real'

there

was

a

Opposite page:
Corelli (Nicolas
Cage) and
Pelagia
(Penelope Cruz)
share

a

tender

moment beneath
a

canopy

of

trees on

Cephallonia. Tree
cover

is

relatively

rare

the island,
but careful
on

scouting led the
filmmakers to

a

promising and
romantic spot.
Below: Ruining

the mood of

an

impromptu
beach party, a
German officer

gives Corelli the
dreaded Nazi
salute.

and what isn't. It is

a wonderful book,
however, and the island characters
are

fantastically drawn.
John Madden

came onto

the

picture after the original director
fell ill. How did that development
affect the production?
Toll: John

came

aboard

on

relatively short notice, but the prepa¬
ration of the picture was already well
underway; they were locked into a
shooting schedule because of Nic

American

Cinematographer 31
American Cinematographer - April 2001

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