American Cinematographer - May 2003 - 47

A stern chess
master

(Ben

Kingsley)
lectures his
reluctant but

prodigiously
gifted pupil (Max
Pomeranc) in

Searching for
Bobby Fischer
(1993), a family
drama that Hall
ranked among his
best efforts. His
luminous

cinematography
was

honored

with both

an

Award and

ASC

an

Oscar
nomination.

the

of her eyes -

she has no
conception of light in her mind. So
when she opens the door, wham! The
two men are blinded by the sun. We
see nothing but blank film; she's
sun

out

there, but

we

can't

see

her. Then

suddenly she steps in front of our
blinding light and is revealed
perfectly lit."
After finishing Jennifer Eight,
Hall went

on

to

shoot two films

with

distinctly different styles, both
stand as outstanding
examples of the master's touch.
With Searching for Bobby Fischer
(1993), Hall and writer/director
of which

Steve

Zaillian

embraced

wonders of childhood

the

they told
touching tale of a young chess
prodigy (Max Pomeranc) who
confronts the pressures of his own
excellence with the help of his father
(Joe Mantegna). And with Love
Affair, directed by Glenn Gordon
Caron, Hall proved that he could
recapture the kind of old-fashioned
glamour favored by his early photo¬
graphic mentors; in addition to
gorgeous footage of Hall's native
the

as

Tahiti, the film boasts

a

romantic

ambience that is

rarely seen in
modern films. The former film

much
out,

light that it would blow things

but other scenes

are so

dark that

coming down a hallway where there's
so much light they seem to be float¬
ing. I used 20Ks and just blew out the

you're almost struggling to see. Of
course, such an approach has to be
integrated so it doesn't distract from
the story."
In summing up the rich arc of
his career, Hall suggested that cine¬
matography, like every other art
form, can only be satisfying if the
practitioner is open to exploration in
the purest sense of the word.
Alluding to the Zenlike sense of
fulfillment he felt while shooting
Bobby
Fischer, he
asserted,
"Filmmaking is about finding things
out, it's about examining, it's about
discovering. You should approach
your work in the same way that a
child discovers new aspects of the
world. I draw inspiration from
absolutely everything around me,

the end of the hall. It's

and what I observe from life. When

earned Hall his seventh
Award

Academy
nomination, along with

another ASC Achievement Award;
the latter

picture earned

an

ASC

Award nomination.

Hall

particularly fond of
Bobby Fischer, for which he created a
style he dubbed "magic naturalism."
He explained, "Prior to this film, I
had been moving towards natural¬
ism on several other pictures -
naturalism being, to me, 'the way it
is.' The magic consisted of stylistic
touches to heighten the atmosphere.
A good example of this approach is a
was

shot in which the father and

windows

at

those little
sense

things that give

of 'I've

and that's the

never seen

son are

you

that

this before,'

of what

magic
Throughout Bobby Fischer, I used
light in both exorbitant and under¬
stated ways. I'd occasionally use so
is.

essence

you get to be a visual
learn to watch how

storyteller, you

people behave
things - to study the
light, to watch a field as you're
driving by it in a car. It's like making
movies 24 hours a day."
■
and

to see

American

Cinematographer 43
American Cinematographer - May 2003

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