American Cinematographer - December 2004 - 88

Man of a Thousand Faces
"You can't

fight

in here, this is
the War Room!"
Rush

depicts

Sellers

as

U.S.

president
Merkin

Muffley,

of the three

one

roles he
to

Dr

played
perfection in
Strangelove,

or: How I
Learned to Stop

Worrying and
Love the Bomb

(1964). The
famous War
Room set,

originally
designed by Ken
Adam,

was

approximated for
the telefilm by
production
designer
Norman
Garwood.

Levy

his

own

says

goal

was not to

fanatically
replicate the
work of

Strangelove
cinematographer
Gilbert Taylor,
BSC, but to
suggest it. He

creations in another way:
to

are

were

almost
The

feel

a

bit

more

shot with the lenses

too

sharp, too good."
theatrical lighting

most

Royale magic. I used lights that were
designed for conventions and night¬
clubs; we projected them onto white
walls with all of this op-art stuff
scrolling through the colors. Then we
just had a beam projector with a pink
gel coming straight down on Heidi in

a

the shower, and when the director

Royale, a famously
overproduced farce that even Sellers
fans find barely watchable. In the

says 'Cut,' these lights go out, the
house lights come on, and we see it's

was

reserved for the re-creation of

scene

stock, Kodak's

from Casino

Andress

an empty, white soundstage. I
still get a thrill out of making that
kind of magic in the camera, and I

who is

also

Plus-X 5222.

Sellers walks in

scene,

as

scheming,
black-gloved Dr.
Strangelove.

they

scenes

that existed at the time. Today's lenses

shot these

the

make those

like

sequences on
black-and-white

Below: Rush

"I added
slight vignetting, which helped

some

filled

Ursula

on

(played by Heidi Klum),
taking a shower inside a room
with swirling psychedelic

colors. After Sellers does his bit, the
director calls "Cut," and then
camera

Levy's

reveals that the shower is a set

inside

a

stage.

"That's

vast,

white, empty soundone

of

my

favorite

shots," says Levy, "because I'm just
using light to create that Casino

just

enjoyed demystifying the
for the audience."
Levy employed yet another
style to capture a scene of Sellers
photographing his beautiful wife,
actress Britt Ekland (played by

process

Charlize Theron). Sellers was an avid
was often seen
with the newest, most expensive still

photographer and
cameras

in

he could find. For the

scene

question, Sellers is shown snapping

shots of Ekland in

recalls

famous

a

session that
in

Blow-Up.
This homage reminded Levy of his
own early days as a still photographer
in the late 1960s. "I was inspired by
David Bailey's photographs at the
time," he recalls. "I was emulating that
style myself in my own photography,
so

84 December 2004

it

a

scene

explore the room and pose freely, as
Ekland might have done for her new
husband, and Levy set out to create an
environment that would encourage

that

spirit. "I wanted Charlize to

know that whatever she did, she

would look great - after all, this was
her first film after Monster\ I used big,

old-fashioned, soft frontal fighting.
We

put a Chimera on a long pole, and

my

gaffer, Rocky Evans, held it

the lens,

so

beauty fight went with her.
"There's an unspoken contract
between actresses and cinematogra¬
phers," he continues. "As a cine¬
matographer, it's your job to take
care of them cosmetically, but I think
a lot of that is also about appearing to
take care of it, showing that you're
thinking about it. When Charlize saw
the soft fight, she could feel confident
she would look great. I think

matter

on

movies these days are shot by
inexperienced cinematographers
who forget that unspoken contract."
Levy conducted many tests to
some

determine how best to create the look
of

period newsreels and home

movies that

were

MiniDV

shot

on

8mm and

testing both of those
and
consumer-grade
cameras, he settled on

16mm. After

Hopkins wanted to let Theron

to

the

no

set,

formats

fun

where she went

that

relive that."

was

over

wherever she moved, that
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