Cinematography of the Year 2001

I'm loving this award. It's a very difficult one to call most years, and 2001 is no exception. Once again, there are a number of noteworthy candidates.

Janusz Kaminski was my frontronner. He bequeathed AI a beautiful, haunting and distant look which adds to the sublime sadness of this divisive film. Regardless of whether or not you loved (like me) or hated (like everyone else) this film, credit must go to Kaminski for photographing such a lasting and memorable vision of the future, the likes of which have not been seen since Ridley Scott's magnificent Blade Runner.

There are others well worthy of a mention in dispatches. I loved the pastel-shaded, gentle and beautiful Americana of Antonio Calvache's work in In The Bedroom and some of the vistas in the Fellowship of the Ring (the opening montage, coupled with Cate Blanchett's haunting and rapid dialogue, is stunning) are unforgettable, if slightly derivative (in places). Andrew Lesnie deserves credit for that, it was some undertaking after all.

Black Hawk Down (Slawomir Idziak) looked great, with great use of filters, as did Donnie Darko (Stephen Poster) (again, witness the opening bike-ride scene accompanied by Echo and the Bunnyman's sublime 'The Killing Moon'). And, even though I hated the thing from start to finish, Hannibal (John Mathieson) looks great too. I particularly remember one image of police sirens crossing a bridge in a beautiful, pensive, and smoky light.

However, I've gone for Declan Quinn's work for Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding. Once again, this is a film of light and look which reflect its mood. Monsoon Wedding feels and plays like a leaf slowly turning to its natural colour by the unfailing passing of the year. It's deep, sensuous, mystical, exotic, romantic and beautiful. The use of colour is striking and perfectly framed. The whole film, particularly perhaps its pivotal moments, is simply washed in a radiant, sensuous, tropical blend of heady passion, feeling and meaning, a movie of transcendental and atavistic luminescence and spectral conjuring. A great, if underrated film, and a worthy winner.