American Cinematographer - September 2008 - (Page 44) Fable D 44 September 2008 A Frightening A mysterious contagion creates an urban crisis in Blindness, shot by César Charlone, ABC. by Jean Oppenheimer Unit photography by Ken Woroner and Alexandre Ermel suddenly lose their eyesight, are quarantined inside an abandoned mental institution, where all semblance of civility quickly evaporates. Only “the doctor’s wife” (Julianne Moore) is immune to the epidemic, but she pretends to be blind in order to remain with her afflicted husband (Mark Ruffalo). “Saramago wrote that ‘being blind was like being in a sea of milk,’” says Charlone, speaking to AC by phone. “I decided to experiment with a series of abstract white images. I didn’t want just white; I felt it was important to add some texture, as if the images [were aspects of] the characters’ unconscious.” He transferred some MiniDV homemovie footage to his laptop and placed a tray containing a mix of irector of photography César Charlone, ABC, whose feature credits include The Constant Gardener (AC Oct. ’05) and City of God (AC Feb. ’03), faced two oddly complementary dilemmas on Blindness, his latest project with Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles. The first was how to suggest the “sea of milk” that engulfs the suddenly and mysteriously sightless characters. The second was how to film scenes that take place in total darkness. Based on the novel by José Saramago, Blindness is an apocalyptic fable about a highly contagious “white sickness” that infects a random collection of people in an unidentified city. The victims, who
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