American Cinematographer - October 2014 - 51

Manhattan photo courtesy of Brian Hamill.

he was so knowledgeable, and he was
right.
We began formulating our
approach to Manhattan when we were
making Interiors. We were having
dinner together, and we talked about
how everyone who used anamorphic
was always using it in cowboy movies
and war pictures. We thought, 'Why
don't we make an intimate little blackand-white picture that you would never
use [widescreen] for, and shoot it
anamorphically?' We felt that approach
would create a tension between the
width of the screen, which you were
used to seeing [in other types of movies]
with these panoramic expanses, and the
intimate details and the intimate
romance of the story. We were able to
make New York City part of the movie
as an actual character, subliminally.
I never liked special effects
particularly, and Gordy never trusted
anybody to do them properly. Anything
we could do in the camera, we would.
He liked being able to see the special
effect the next day in dailies, so we
would not have to send [the footage]
out and have it doctored and played
with and have to [lose] a generation on
it. We would come to a scene like the
psychiatrist scene in Annie Hall, and he
would say to me, 'We should not do that
[split screen] afterwards, with a special
effect or anything. You should really
build a set so that you can be on your
couch and Diane Keaton can be on her
couch at the same time. It will look like
a split screen, but it won't be.'
There were a million things like
that. He was technically amazing. It
wasn't just that he was artistically amazing; he had enormous technique, so I
was able to learn a lot from him about
making films.
Gordy was a great, great artist
and a terrific guy, and I had some of the
very best years making movies with him
that anyone could ever ask for.

Silhouetted against rainy windowpanes, Woody Allen and Mariel Hemingway share a
melancholy moment in Manhattan.

fluorescents with very loud ballasts. It
was a huge electrical job. The gaffer was
George Holmes, who did a lot of films
with Gordon. I worked with George on
American Gigolo a few years later, and I
remember him telling me how Gordon
would take an almost perverse delight in
the disdain that the Hollywood establishment had for him.
Fred Schuler, ASC (camera
operator on Annie Hall and
Manhattan): He really changed the
American cinematography style. Take
The Godfather, for instance. Everyone
who criticized him for the look of that
film also envied him. 'You couldn't see
Brando's eyes,' they'd complain; then
they'd turn around and copy it.
Woody [Allen] and Gordy had
an incredible relationship. You could see
they both respected each other
immensely. Prior to Annie Hall, all of the
movies Woody did were standard-type
comedies, not very classy. But Gordy
came with his style and made [Annie
Hall] a classy film. For Gordy it was a
time where he was able to enjoy working
on more of an intellectual, sophisticated
level. Woody gave him a platform to be
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more expressionistic. It didn't have to be
dialogue in all close-ups. You could do
the whole scene in a wide shot.
Everybody's so politically correct
these days, but Gordon would just say
whatever was on his mind. When he
did Windows, he asked me to be his
camera operator, but I had to turn him
down because I was worried it would've
been difficult with Gordon directing
and shooting it. I recommended
another guy to Gordy, and I said, 'He's a
nice guy; you'll like him.' It was the
wrong thing to say, I guess, because his
response was, 'What do you think this
is, a personality contest?'
Douglas C. Hart (camera assistant on Manhattan, Windows, Stardust
Memories, A Midsummer Night's Sex
Comedy, Zelig, Broadway Danny Rose,
The Purple Rose of Cairo, The Lost
Honor of Kathryn Beck, The Money Pit,
The Pick-up Artist, Presumed Innocent
and Bright Lights, Big City): Gordon
was quiet, but he had a temper as well.
He loved quiet on the set; he couldn't
stand noisy sets where people were
screaming at each other from across the
room. That drove him nuts. My favorite
October 2014

51
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American Cinematographer - October 2014

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