American Cinematographer - August 2019 - 88

A Century of Inspiration

The French Connection.

was a key film for me in terms of
consciously noticing stylistic lighting,
mixing warm practicals with dusky
blue day ambience. Vittorio's use of
expressionistic light patterns and
painterly, warm sunbeams, and
Bertolucci's wide, composed tracking
shots and graphic tableaux, all
encouraged me to take risks and
attempt bold choices as I was discovering and experimenting, finding a
style on my early feature work.
Schliessler: The Conformist has
been one of the most influential
movies for me and my craft. Every
frame is a piece of art that stands

alone like a beautiful painting I would
want to hang on my wall. I love revisiting this film and drawing inspiration from Storaro's brilliant use of
composition and lighting to enhance
the story. His cinematography sets the
bar high and encourages me to challenge my own creativity.

8. Days of Heaven (1978), shot
by Néstor Almendros, ASC (Dir.
Terrence Malick)
Robert Primes, ASC: I was
unprepared for the profoundly
immersive images that elevated my
consciousness into the euphoria

Chris Menges, ASC, BSC: The Battle of Algiers is a startling and brilliant film
about the Algerian war for independence from France. Shot in black-and-white, there
are the most amazing re-created scenes of the struggle in the Casbah, the citadel of
Algiers, with thousands of extras. There are scenes in which the tension is so powerful, scenes so moving, that you want to cry out. It is filmmaking at its greatest.
Cinematographer Marcello Gatti wheels the handheld camera to catch the
moment. [Director] Gillo Pontecorvo lets the shots develop, never using the classicalediting reverse-shot technique. It's inspired newsreel style: in black-and-white, with
documentary-type editing to add to its sense of historical authenticity. The technique
is enthralling.
Pontecorvo said, 'My idea was to give the audience the impression that it was
watching a documentary as events happened. We wanted our film to look like newsreel that looked grainy. Using a handheld camera let us spontaneously catch interesting faces and action.'
A superb film - it lives!
88

August 2019

ASC 100th Anniversary

Stephen Lighthill, ASC: Just at
the point when I was discovering my
interest in becoming a filmmaker, I
saw Dr. Strangelove. And the idea
that a black-and-white film could be
comedy, could be serious, could be a
social commentary, could be action
- could be all of those things - it
was an extraordinary experience. I
think that everyone takes away from
a film a certain thing. For me, from
Dr. Strangelove, it was the idea of
being so innovative and approaching a subject in such a fresh way. It
was extraordinary.
generally reserved for Bach or
Beethoven. I had always suspected
that cinema had the potential to
become independent of story and
become more like visual music. Days
of Heaven, with its minimalist story,
felt like being in a gallery of the
greatest impressionist masterpieces.
It transcended what I had presumed
were the apparent bounds of
conventional cinema. It moved the
art of cinematography from being a
supporting player to being the star
attraction.
9. 2001: A Space Odyssey
(1968), shot by Geoffrey Unsworth,
BSC, with additional photography
by John Alcott, BSC (Dir. Stanley
Kubrick)
Sigel: I saw 2001: A Space
Odyssey as a youngster and had no
idea what it was about. But I did
know I had been transported to a
place only cinema could take me. It
was the first time I realized there
was an outlet for my compulsion to
create.
Steven Fierberg, ASC: I'm so
in awe of it, I don't even know how
to discuss it. It's transcendent. It's
visual poetry on an infinite scale.
You have to see it in a theater, either
in 70mm or with a really big screen,
to see how truly great it is.

➔

American Cinematographer - August 2019

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