2000
(NB I couldn't find an appropriate picture from the winner which would do it justice, so I thought it best not to include one).
Thought I'd start a new thread with a new award - for the best cinematography of the year, starting back in the year 2000 and moving on. And what a year to start with! No easy award this.
First a word on cinemtography in general. I am of the view, and I think my colleague probably is as well, that great cinematography can really make a film. A case in point - last year's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Roger Deakins' memorable photography added an extra layer of beauty and brilliance to what was already an incredibly beautiful and brilliant film and the light and backdrops reflected the film's enclosing claustrophobia and taught mood. Not that good cinematography can make a rubbish film good (last year's appauling, but somehow critically lauded, Stellet Licht (Silent Light) is an excellent case in point) but the fact that it looks great, and that the light, shadow, filtration and backdrop reflect the film's mood and tone, can tip an already very good film over into greatness. For instance, it was partly (though not totally) Deakins' brilliance that - for me - meant that Jesse James won the battle of the J's over Jindabyne and Juno. How a picture looks is arguably as vital a part of its meaning, plot, pace and drive as anything else, including the performances and direction. Controversial perhaps, but, that, for me, is just how important the look of a film can be.
The year 2000 presents a hard choice indeed. Looking over my top 5 for the year, and the other films I've seen from 2000, I struggled to separate some stunning efforts. A good year for films and certainly a good year for cinematography. So who to single out? Peter Pau's oscar-winning, sometimes mindblowing, effort in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon? Edward Lachman for his dreamy, hazy, ethereal wonderland in the underrated Virgin Suicides? Yu Wang's clangy, industrial, mechanic backdrop to the excellent Chinese Noir, Suzhou River? Tim Orr's Americana, pastel-tinged, otherworld in David Gordon Green's beautiful indie debut, George Washington? And there are others - Cast Away looks great, my colleague would not forgive me, I think, for failing to mention Gladiator and I should also give a mention in despatches to Matthew Libatique's dark, distressed and claustrophobic world in Reqiuem for a Dream which perfectly matches the film's mood.
So, after some agonising, I have settled on Steven Soderberg who self-photographed Traffic. Traffic stands as a true testament to the 'auteur' vision (a director having total creative control over a picture) made famous and championed by the likes of Francis Ford Coppola and Terrence Malick in the 1970's. Sure, Soderberg has help - particularly from Steven Mirrione's snappy editing - but Traffic just has that majestic, everyday, look which adds a great tone and shade of reality to its epic, panoramic, scope. From the streets of LA to the Mexican deserts and streets of Tijuana, Traffic just looks great and, as I say, bridges that often impassible gap which means that the audience can sense, touch and breath the reality of the dusty streets and sun-bleached deserts. Stephen Gaghan, who wrote the screenplay, gave a similar lightness to Syriana, which will surely come into contention for similar reasons when I get to 2005. It's a real achievement to Soderberg that Traffic should be singled out in such a strong year. Kudos to him and to all those cinematographers who made 2000 such a vintage year for their incredibly difficult, but vital, artform.
Showing posts with label Traffic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Traffic. Show all posts
Friday, 26 September 2008
Thursday, 11 September 2008
Top 25 Scenes of All Time
# 23: The Swimming Pool Scene (Traffic) (2000)
A very understated scene that lives long in the memory. From its very beginning, with the superbly limned awkward faces on the American cops' faces as they stand uncomfortably in the light-blue water chosen by the magnificent Benicio Del Toro's Javier as a safe haven to chat, this scene eats the screen alive and is for me the film's pivotal moment.
I suspect many readers would find this a surprising choice, at first glance, perhaps a scene many people have not thought twice about. However, much is at stake here. Javier is putting his life at risk and, importantly, the prejudiced Americans naturally assume that this is for money or some other personal gain. The looks on their faces are classic and priceless when he starts going on about baseball.
Although I'm obviously going to say that this is Del Toro's scene as much as it is his film, the two bit-part, lesser known actors, who play the American cops, are brilliant and bring the scene to life with the looks on their faces. So much acting is credited for dialogue delivery, but this just serves to remind you (like some other forthcoming scenes in my list) that non verbal communication and expression is just as important. Kudos too, for Steven Soderbergh and his intelligent and measured direction, which is spot on and brilliantly done.
So, baseball, then. I have written previously about cinema's relationship to morality and ethical thinking and will write about this again. Traffic is, to me, one of the most important ethical and political statements to have been made by Hollywood in the past decade or so, rivalling, perhaps even surpassing, the end of The Dark Knight. Traffic reminds you of the power images and stories have in terms of delivering a moral message, surely, at least in my view, surpassing that of academic philosophers (controversial!), not least because a successful firm can only be successful if it shares the same intersubjective mental environment and therefore typically has far greater potential for speaking to (and, of course, with) the masses than academic moral philosophy. The swimming pool scene is key to this, not fully hitting home until the final scene as Javier sits, quietly and unsassumingly, in the stands, watching a baseball match he was responsible for bringing about. It's a strong point. Poverty can bring people down, even into the hard crime depicted in Traffic, especially when they don't have opportunities, even simple leisure opportunities, something different to do in the evening. Javier knows this and his sacrifice is all the more compelling in that stunningly beautiful final scene, which I've only not included in my list because I think the one I have included is the scene that really, in the final analysis, makes that one so special. Stunning, emotional and thoughtful, a scene that lives as long in the memory as the flash of a snowflake caught falling in a moonbeam formed by the first echoes of winter.
A very understated scene that lives long in the memory. From its very beginning, with the superbly limned awkward faces on the American cops' faces as they stand uncomfortably in the light-blue water chosen by the magnificent Benicio Del Toro's Javier as a safe haven to chat, this scene eats the screen alive and is for me the film's pivotal moment.I suspect many readers would find this a surprising choice, at first glance, perhaps a scene many people have not thought twice about. However, much is at stake here. Javier is putting his life at risk and, importantly, the prejudiced Americans naturally assume that this is for money or some other personal gain. The looks on their faces are classic and priceless when he starts going on about baseball.
Although I'm obviously going to say that this is Del Toro's scene as much as it is his film, the two bit-part, lesser known actors, who play the American cops, are brilliant and bring the scene to life with the looks on their faces. So much acting is credited for dialogue delivery, but this just serves to remind you (like some other forthcoming scenes in my list) that non verbal communication and expression is just as important. Kudos too, for Steven Soderbergh and his intelligent and measured direction, which is spot on and brilliantly done.
So, baseball, then. I have written previously about cinema's relationship to morality and ethical thinking and will write about this again. Traffic is, to me, one of the most important ethical and political statements to have been made by Hollywood in the past decade or so, rivalling, perhaps even surpassing, the end of The Dark Knight. Traffic reminds you of the power images and stories have in terms of delivering a moral message, surely, at least in my view, surpassing that of academic philosophers (controversial!), not least because a successful firm can only be successful if it shares the same intersubjective mental environment and therefore typically has far greater potential for speaking to (and, of course, with) the masses than academic moral philosophy. The swimming pool scene is key to this, not fully hitting home until the final scene as Javier sits, quietly and unsassumingly, in the stands, watching a baseball match he was responsible for bringing about. It's a strong point. Poverty can bring people down, even into the hard crime depicted in Traffic, especially when they don't have opportunities, even simple leisure opportunities, something different to do in the evening. Javier knows this and his sacrifice is all the more compelling in that stunningly beautiful final scene, which I've only not included in my list because I think the one I have included is the scene that really, in the final analysis, makes that one so special. Stunning, emotional and thoughtful, a scene that lives as long in the memory as the flash of a snowflake caught falling in a moonbeam formed by the first echoes of winter.
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