American Cinematographer - March 2022 - 31

AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER ASCMAG.COM
devastated audiences and earned the Golden Prize at the 1985 Moscow
International Film Festival.
Deakins notes that director Klimov drew on some of his childhood
recollections of World War II's Battle of Stalingrad, which he survived
when he, his mother and his infant brother were safely evacuated across
the Volga River on a large raft. Indeed, the filmmaker has said that what
he filmed, as gut-wrenching as it may seem to viewers, was " a lightened-up
version of the truth. Had I included everything I knew and
shown the whole truth, even I could not have watched it. "
Assessing his reaction to Come and See, Deakins says, " It's a child's
perspective of a devastating event, and to think that it's based on things
that actually happened is really horrific. But I'm always drawn to films
that provide authentic, fairly accurate depictions of historical events.
Like some of the other films on this list, Come and See is not really a
traditional narrative movie - it's more experiential, and it puts you in
the shoes of this boy who's enduring a nightmare. There are some very
memorable passages - like the sequence when the boy and a girl are
together in a forest, enjoying a few idyllic moments together before a
bombardment. It's very poetic. Then, when the bombing comes, the boy
loses his hearing, which is conveyed through some wonderful uses of
sound and other techniques.
Deakins has always been impressed with the variety of strategies the
filmmakers applied to create an unforgettably immersive viewing experience:
handheld work, dolly shots, zooms, split diopters, and especially
the incredible Steadicam work. " My wife and I did a podcast with Aleksei
[see sidebar, page 28], and he told us he'd operated all of the Steadicam
footage himself - even though he'd never used a Steadicam before, and
had had just a few days of training for these huge, challenging sequences, "
he marvels. " There are several Steadicam shots in the film that are
quite long and quite brilliant.
" He also told us that they shot everything in sequence, with non-professional
actors playing primary characters - and that the film was very
much improvised as they went along, although they had a year to prep
for a nine-month shoot, " Deakins reveals. " So, they kept revisiting the
same locations, many of which were the real places where the atrocities
had actually occurred. Aleksei told me this gave everyone a real sense of
place, and that working in story order was very helpful for the non-professional
actors. "
Elena (2011)
Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev
Cinematographer: Mikhail Krichman
A meditation on social classes and the cultural divides they create,
Elena encapsulates these themes within a Russian family's corroding
dynamic, centering on the relationship between an elderly couple and
their respective offspring. Elena (Nadezhda Markina) is a former nurse
from a working-class background who's married one of her patients,
the wealthy businessman Vladimir (Andrey Smirnov). When a familial
conflict arises, Vladimir threatens to amend his will and leave the bulk
Virtual to Live, the
KL Panel XL has your
production covered.
Watch the product
video to learn just
how flexible the KL
PANEL XL is.
Color version
C/100 M/50 Y/50 K/50
C/98 M/88 Y/22 K/18
C/0 M/0 Y/0 K/0
www.ElationLighting.com
Grayscale version
C/50 M/50 Y/50 K/100
C/0 M/0 Y/0 K/0
Black version
C/50 M/50 Y/50 K/100
MARCH 2022 / 31
Creative Technology Studio
Las Vegas
http://www.ASCMAG.COM http://www.ElationLighting.com
American Cinematographer - March 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - March 2022
