American Cinematographer - September 2004 - 10

EXPLORE

*this month's issue takes us around the world for a
look at some new international productions that

truly stylish cinematography.
Vanity Fair, shot by Declan Quinn for director
Mira Nair, examines both the highs and lows of life in
19th-century England. Based on William Makepeace
Thackeray's novel, the picture juxtaposes the grime of
the streets with the elegance of upper-class drawing
rooms. The filmmakers found inspiration for this
approach when they happened upon an etching in a
print shop in Bath, England, where all of the film's
boast

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shot. As Quinn told New York corre¬

spondent Pat Thomson ("Vicious Circles," page 34), the etching showed Bath's main
boulevard "with just with a few cows and somebody padding them along with a stick.
That stuck with us as an aesthetic - dirty old cows mixed with grand new buildings.
That mixture of dirt and the new appealed to us, so we show, for example, beautiful
clothing with mud caked around the bottoms of the skirts and on the shoes." The
result is a highly entertaining backdrop for the social climbing of Thackeray's relent¬
lessly ambitious heroine, Becky Sharp.
Equally atmospheric is the spirited road picture The Motorcycle Diaries, shot
with considerable flair by Eric Gautier, AFC for Brazilian director Walter Salles. The
film is based on the real-life experiences of Ernesto "Che" Guevara and his friend
Alberto Granado, who as young men took a memorable and life-altering tour of South
America on a rickety motorbike. In reenacting the duo's journey, the production shot
than 30 locations. Gautier recalled his travels for Jean

Oppenheimer ("Kick-Starting
FOR

were

a Revolution," page 46).
also incorporated into the

look of the sci-fi drama Code

46, shot by Marcel Zyskind and Alwin Kuchler, BSC for director Michael
Winterbottom. To create a multinational futurescape, the filmmakers combined real
locations in China, India, England and the United Arab Emirates with footage
captured on soundstages in London. Both cinematographers shared their memories
of the project with Bob Davis ("A World Apart," page 46).
International perspectives also abound in the recollections of several other
esteemed cinematographers. In an excerpt from his new book It's a Wrap, Andy
Laszlo, ASC details a memorable mishap that occurred during production of the 1980
miniseries Shogun ("At Sea in Japan," page 64); Ronald Neame, BSC recalls some
highlights from his diverse career for historian Robert S. Birchard ("A Man of Many
Hats," page 70); and Willy Kurant, ASC, AFC outlines some of the differences
between shooting in America and Europe (Filmmakers' Forum, page 92).
This issue also marks the return of Benjamin Bergery's Reflections tutorials to
our pages. Benjamin's book Reflections: Twenty-One Cinematographers at Work has
proven to be a hit, and readers have often asked if he would ever return to writing
these detailed technical seminars for the magazine. On page 78, our European corre¬
spondent answers the call with a piece about the digital intermediate that JeanMarie Dreujou, AFC supervised for the French HD/35mm hybrid feature Two Brothers.

KDirokulagnlads.

byPhot
www.ctmsolutions.com

Executive Editor

American Cinematographer - September 2004

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - September 2004