American Cinematographer - March 2004 - 55

and this fact tends

soften the hor¬

to

rible violence.

Bailey: The way you pho¬
tographed the film makes it more
visceral and difficult
also

to

watch, but

compelling. I felt a con¬
throughout the movie,
this sense of being pulled into the
action because of the way the cam¬
era is used. I also felt
repelled and
more

stant

tension

horrified because I felt
what

was

most

of the films I've

happening

so

close

to

onscreen. In
seen about

this

subject, you really sense the
proscenium; there's a sense that the
scenes are
being reenacted out there,
amid grand settings, in front of you,
sitting here, as a member of the
audience. You didn't
camera

the way

use a

handheld

Pasolini did, but I

still felt very close to the action. I felt
like I was in the arena when Pilate
hands Christ

over

to

the Roman sol¬

diers, who later tie him down and

really tear him apart. I felt so close to
these things, so present, that it was
just horrifying. Can you talk a bit
about your inspirations for the look
of the film?
Deschanel: There's been

of talk about

a

lot

Caravaggio inspiring

the look because Mel and I both

really like his work. In Rome, where
we were
shooting, there are at least
16 Caravaggios; there were three
[each depicting scenes from the life

of St. Matthew]

Gericault, Raphael and other artists.

Church of San

I studied art

hanging in the
Luigi dei Francesi,
which is near where I was living in
Rome, and there were a couple more
in the immediate vicinity. Unlike
Girl With a Pearl Earring, though, we
weren't really trying to reenact spe¬
cific paintings. Caravaggio's work
inspired the film as much in terms of
the faces he used in those paintings
as it did in terms of the
lighting and
composition. Those faces probably
inspired the casting of the film. I
keep looking at all the faces that were
found by Mel and the casting direc¬
tor, Shaila Rubin, and they're really
quite extraordinary.
The look was also inspired by

I've been

history in school, and

to a

lot of museums, and

the

paintings that really interest me
the ones that feature good per¬
formances. I'm drawn to that ele¬
are

ment even more

than I

am to

the

graphics or the lighting. What I took
paintings was not so much
a specific way of
representing light
or
creating compositions, but more
emotional content. For example,
Gericault's The Raft of the Medusa
from the

has

a

certain motion toward defeat

and inevitable death. Mel's desire

to

of emotion is what
made us go right in close with the
characters and try to make the story
capture that type

Above: Pontius
Pilate (Hristo

Shopov)asks the
people who they
wish to set free:
Jesus or the
convicted thief

Barabbas(Pedro
Sarubbi). Below:
In his

studies

one of
Rome's edicts.
Deschanel

created bluish

moonlight for the
scene

with HMIs,

while

adding

warmth to the
interior tungsten

lights. He then
"painted" the
scene

with

smaller sources
of light that
would
to the

American

private

chambers, Pilate

seem true

period.

Cinematographer 51
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