American Cinematographer - December 2010 - 8

Editor’s Note
I first met Matthew Libatique, ASC and Darren Aronofsky at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, shortly after their debut film, Pi, won the directing award in the Dramatic category. As they celebrated, I noticed their easy rapport — close friends who were excited to see the future opening up for them. We stayed in touch as they continued taking creative risks with Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain. Their latest effort, Black Swan, generated immediate buzz after it opened this year’s Venice Film Festival. The movie’s dark, experimental tone makes it a must-see for cinephiles who prefer material that transcends established genres — in this case, drama, dance and horror. As Libatique told me during our interview, “When I read the original script years ago, it seemed like a genre film, but on every project I’ve done with Darren, the script is just 25 percent of what the film’s eventually going to be.” You can read much more of his analysis in our Q&A (“Danse Macabre,” page 30), along with Aronofsky’s own reflections on the project (“Directing Black Swan,” page 34). Also testing themselves were Anthony Dod Mantle, BSC, DFF and Enrique “Quique” Chediak, who served as co-cinematographers on Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours. The movie tells the true story of Aron Ralston, a young climber who was forced to amputate his arm after it became wedged between a dislodged boulder and a canyon wall. In addition to working as a duo, Dod Mantle and Chediak had to dramatize a unique dilemma. “With the film’s single character stuck in a canyon for most of the movie, Danny thought it would be interesting to add a bit of chaos by shooting through two sets of eyes, and that started to make sense to me,” Chediak tells Mark Hope-Jones (“Up Against It,” page 50). “It was a real challenge for Quique and me on every level, including operating, lighting and communication,” Dod Mantle adds. “Our job was to help Danny find new ways of keeping the story alive in a very limited space.” Romantic comedy might seem like a conventional form, but Steven Fierberg, ASC and director Ed Zwick mixed things up on Love and Other Drugs, in which a randy pharmaceuticals rep experiences the surprising urge to settle down with a free-spirited artist suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. While the film offers romance and laughs, it also acknowledges the potentially tragic future of the characters’ relationship, so Fierberg took a path that balanced these elements. “We wanted to sculpt their faces in a way that made them appear their most attractive,the strongest version of themselves,” he explains to Michael Goldman (“Romantic Chemistry,” page 64). “That meant lighting faces from a precise angle and not putting much light anywhere else. There are a lot of dark areas in the frame. So even though the movie is largely a comedy, I’d say we lit for drama.” Whereas Black Swan takes a stripped-down approach to dance, Bojan Bazelli, ASC pulled out all the stops on Burlesque, the story of a small-town girl (Christina Aguilera) trying to make it big in a Los Angeles cabaret show.“ Burlesque is the kind of movie every cinematographer dreams about — it’s eye candy,” he tells Iain Stasukevich (“A Big-City Dream,” page 76).

Stephen Pizzello Executive Editor
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Photo by Owen Roizman, ASC.

American Cinematographer - December 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - December 2010