American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 10

This month's featured productions concern characters
confronting irresistible forces, immovable objects, and
other impediments that test the human spirit. Sicario,
which reteams Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC with director
Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners), follows an idealistic FBI
agent who joins a group of covert operatives tasked
with taking down a Mexican drug lord, only to discover
that her cohorts don't always hew to the legal rules of
engagement. Although the movie offers plenty of
action and intrigue, Deakins tells senior European
correspondent Benjamin B, "in the end it basically
comes down to a conversation in the kitchen, which is
played in two close-ups. That, to me, is the essence of
a great movie, when you get to that moment when it's
all about the characters and their relationships with
each other." Our coverage ("Over the Line," page 34) also includes a detailed breakdown
of the lighting strategy Deakins employed for the movie's impactful opening sequence, as
well as a sidebar Q&A with Villeneuve.
Everest, which dramatizes the sudden freak storm that killed eight climbers in
May 1996, posed a series of logistical challenges for Salvatore Totino, ASC, AIC. Director
Baltasar Kormákur sought an approach that would make the story as "authentic and real
as possible." While the movie could not be shot entirely in-camera on Everest itself,
Kormákur's mandate had the crew working at high altitudes in the Dolomites mountain
range in northern Italy and on locations in Nepal. "We shot five weeks on location and
another five weeks on stage, and none of it was easy," Totino tells Jay Holben ("A Pitiless
Peak," page 48). "They say Everest is the highest and most popular climb for experienced
climbers, but it's sobering how many people die up there - not as often from accidents as
just not taking care of their bodies and not realizing their limitations in the environment."
As a Massachusetts native raised just north of Boston - and a minor scholar on
mobsters - I'm well versed in the criminal exploits of James "Whitey" Bulger. My brother,
Chris, and I have consumed every available book on the notorious gangland figure, including Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob,
which paints a vivid portrait of a psychotic, conscience-free killer whose Machiavellian
misdeeds almost defy belief. We've long anticipated the movie Black Mass, which paired
cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi with director Scott Cooper. "Our credo was to
approach the film as though we were making it as a contemporary film in 1975," Cooper
tells Mark Dillon ("Unholy Alliance," page 60). "The Seventies are difficult to get right.
Often the camerawork is flashy, the costumes are kitschy, and the hair and makeup are
over-the-top. We wanted to strip all that away but still feel we were making a movie in the
Seventies, because Masa and I are so influenced by that era."
This issue also covers both of cinematographer Bobby Bukowski's latest features:
Time Out of Mind, his third collaboration with director Oren Moverman, and 99 Homes, his
first with Ramin Bahrani. "I was fortunate to shoot both of these films in one year,"
Bukowski enthuses to Patricia Thomson ("Desperate Times," page 72). "These are two very
dedicated, hard-working, detail-oriented directors. So for me, it was a joy."

10

Stephen Pizzello
Editor-in-Chief and Publisher

Photo by Owen Roizman, ASC.

Editor's Note
American Cinematographer - October 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - October 2015
