American Cinematographer - February 1995 - 68

When he

11 years old, Carlo Di
presented with a still
camera
by the great Italian director
Palma

was

was

Vittoria De Sica. Within four years,

the

teenager was working in fea¬

tures

as a camera

assistant. Susan

(Sandy) Morse was raised in New
Jersey and studied history at Yale
before gravitating to film editing.
Future production designer Santo

'Team

Bullets

on Annie Hall and Interi¬
That's 20 films in a 19-year pe¬
riod. Between extensive pre- and

assistant
ors.

postproduction duties, she works
pretty much the entire year for the
elusive writer/director.
The latest film to bear the

group's signature is Bullets Over
Broadway, a backstage comedy set
in the 1920s and populated by

Woody" Fires
Over Broadway

Cinematographer Carlo Di Palma,
production designer Santo Loquasto
and editor Sandy Morse discuss their
ongoing collaboration with the king of
urban comedy.

kicked out of school
kindergarten. His
crime: "being contrary." Depend¬
ing upon one's point of view, his
expulsion qualifies as either the
least or the most auspicious begin¬
ning of them all.
Along with costume de¬
signer Jeffrey Kurland, this trio
comprises one of the longest-run¬
ning and most successful filmmak¬
ing teams working today. The di¬
rector who binds them together is
Woody Allen.
"I pencil in the Woody
schedule from August to Decem¬
ber as a time that I am in theory
working for him," says Loquasto,
was

while still in

who has worked
tures. Di

on

14 Allen

in front of the

camera

developed differently during
printing. Before shooting, Woody
and I talk about the general style
of the movie, then I decide which

gel to put in front of the lights. In
general I like warm light, espe¬
cially with period movies. So does
Woody."
Di Palma also favors

long takes and
is

a

that all of Allen's

viewers' minds is whether Bullets

flect

Over

Damon

a

Runyan style about Bul¬
certain

period films re¬
literary vision of

very

Broadivay continues the wild,
handheld
„

|
«

e

y

66

me

it is

especially

£

■g
>.

o

Husbands and

bands and Wives,
camera

is

a

participant; it
sees through the
eyes of one actor,
then

another,

| conveying an al¬
New York.

John Cusack, in the tra¬

ditional

Woody Allen role, appears
bespectacled playwright, stag¬
ing his first Broadway production
with the financial backing of a
gangster - in return for casting the
gangster's talentless girlfriend in a

important to have the same team;
everybody understands my En¬
glish," jokes Di Palma.
Morse is in perhaps the
best position to talk about working
with Allen: she has cut every film
of his since Manhattan, and prior to
that served as Ralph Rosenblum's

as a

American

February 1995

Cinematographer

style used in
Allen's last few
films, especially

1 the

arriving in
September for what

start date. "For

cam-

era

H Wives. Di Palma
explains why it
f doesn't: "In Hus-

pic¬

traditional October

Movement, he

lets," says Loquasto, who observes

gangsters, their molls, and preten¬
tious theater types. "There's a real

says,

does much the same,
has become

camera move¬

ment within shots.

Palma, who has shot nine,

New York in

and the film

is not

important in an Allen
film; from a strictly aesthetic point
of view, it also proves far more in¬
teresting. "I don't like a master,
then a close-up and another closeup," says Di Palma. "I prefer the
long takes. They're much more dif¬
ficult to light, but I still prefer them;
they are much more creative."
The first question on many

by Jean Oppenheimer

Loquasto

period pictures, it is bathed in a
golden glow. "It's more than just
sepia tones," muses Loquasto. "It's
riper and lustier than nostalgia.
The light really grows out of the
environment; it's part of the color
composition, allowing for a real
oil-painted luminosity."
Di Palma, who says he
had painters Reginald Marsh and
Edward Hopper in mind while de¬
signing the look, explains that he
employed few enhancements in
the photography. "There is no gel

most psycho¬
logical point of view. Bullets calls
for a more objective viewpoint; the
camera acts as a
painter's eye."

Di Palma works exclu¬

sively with zoom lenses, alternat¬
ing between a Primo 16-70mm, a
20-100 and

lead role.
The film's color scheme is

static

red and

zoom.

yellow; like most of Allen's

to

a

25-250. "I don't like

a

camera," he explains. "I like

use

a

little

I want

dolly and a little
just a little movement
American Cinematographer - February 1995

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