American Cinematographer - December 2002 - 121

Illuminating a Tragedy's Dark Aftermath
by Eric Rudolph
it. He spirals downward, huffing
gasoline fumes to escape his misery, and
gradually loses his livelihood, his friends
and, finally, his home.
Louiso says classic films of the
Seventies, such as Hal Ashby's The Last
Detail and Coming Home and Francis
Coppola's The Pain People, inspired Love
open

Liza's look and feel. "I think that era,
when films were very serious and

important, was the best time in
American cinema," he opines.
Of course, the film's look was also
influenced

by budgetary and time
constraints. "We had to make our points
in the strongest way we could, with the
smallest of tools and the least amount of

time," says Rinzler. "So we played with

he is

momentarily out of focus until a
rack move sharpens the image. Rinzler
explains that the somewhat unusual
technique was a simple bit of visual
language that expressed what Wilson
was experiencing.
Another, even simpler in-camera
effect occurs when Liza's mother, Mar/
Ann (Kathy Bates), first comes to visit
Wilson, who has taken to sleeping in his
car in the driveway. Mary Ann walks up
to the car,

in the

In Love Liza,

Mary

Ann

(Kathy Bates,
left) begins to

worry

about her

son-in-law Wilson

(Philip Seymour
Hoffman, below)
when his behavior

becomes

increasingly
bizarre after his
wife's suicide.

and her stern reflection is seen

car

window

as

Wilson

groggily

sits up. For a moment, their faces,
contorted with grief and guilt, partially

overlap like an artful double exposure.
Rinzler explains that this seemingly
complex shot was achieved by finessing

light and dark, with pacing, and with
pieces of glass in front of the lens."
As Wilson drifts further into his

The new film Love Liza, directed by
Todd Louiso, is a
man

torn

wrenching story of a
apart by his wife's suicide.

The

independent production was filmed
days in Alabama and New Orleans
by New York-based director of
photography Lisa Rinzler (Dead
in 27

SYCPleiacoclstuaurnnerftde.ys,
Tobin

byPhots

huffing mania, Rinzler began utilizing a
"ripple-y" piece of glass she purchased
12 years ago and has carried to every set
since. "I never had an appropriate time to
use this piece until Love Liza," she notes.
She held the glass in front of the lens,
moving it slightly and gauging its
distorting effect through the eyepiece.
(She operated the camera throughout the
shoot.) For another eerie

scene,

in which

Presidents, Three Seasons, Pollock). In

Wilson's wife appears to

him in

low-budget style, the film makes
resourceful use of many in-camera
effects, while a somber and stark lighting
style adds gravitas to the emotionally
heavy story.
The suddenly widowered Wilson
Joel (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a socially
backward Web site developer, flounders
as he tries to cope with his devastating

hallucination, Rinzler held

C-strength

true

loss. He discovers

a

from his wife, but

stubbornly refuses to

sealed suicide note

a

a

Mitchell Diffusion filter in front of the
lens

and

moved

it

to

create

a

hallucinatory look.
In another scene, Rinzler

played
focusing barrel. Wilson, who
has been sleeping on the floor outside of
his bedroom, gets a pillow from the bed,
and under the pillow he discovers the
with the

note from his wife. As the camera pans

up

from the note to his astonished face,
American

Cinematographer 117
American Cinematographer - December 2002

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