Re: Best Cinematography 1987
Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2017 1:32 pm
I've been slow to post here because I don't have much to say beyond what everyone else has been saying. Like most of you, I think The Untouchables is the most obvious omission, but even it doesn't demand inclusion in a slate that's quite strong, and totally free of the clunkers we've had to deal with of late.
Not to say they're all visual knockouts. Broadcast News is, as BJ notes, generally perfunctory work -- solidly shot, looking like a movie and not a glorified TV show, but not to be grouped with the rest for visual spark.
I like Hope and Glory maybe best of the rest of the films, and it's perfectly well shot as well. But I don't find it most memorable for its images.
Matewan was a good-looking, atmospheric film that probably wouldn't have been nominated without Haskell Wexler's name attached. The cinematographers' branch was just as clannish in these years as it had been in the William A. Fraker era, giving out some nominations more by reputation than singular achievement, but at least their choice of favored sons -- Wexler and Conrad Hall among them -- displayed more ambition, and came up with more interesting work even in their more obscure films. This is a solid nomination.
Since it wasn't cited in the major categories, I guess I've not commented on Empire of the Sun prior to this. I think the film's opening sections are quite impressive, and even once young Bale gets to the internment camp, the relationship between him and the Malkovich character is intriguing. But I feel like the film's last half hour goes splat. Spielberg in that era seemed addicted to big climaxes (the whole last half-hours of Jaws, Close Encounters or E.T.); this story didn't really build to that sort of crescendo, in a narrative sense, but it seemed like Spielberg was trying to impose one by staging big set pieces. Some of this was impressive visually, and I don't question the film's inclusion here. But it felt to me like this big-ness worked against the material, and made the film less than the success it might have been. (I'll add that all this is based on 30-year-old recollection, and I'd be interested in looking at the film again sometime.)
The Last Emperor's sweep through this night's Oscars -- 9 awards, the most to that date I'd personally witnessed -- seemed phenomenal overkill to me. However, a few of its prizes were incontestable, this maybe above all. It gave the film a leg up to be shot in surroundings both gorgeous and exotic (especially exotic for never having been seen in a color movie before), but it's hard to question Storaro's ability to capture all that beauty and enhance it. This is a great-looking film, the work of an artist, and I'll not do anything to take its Oscar away.
Not to say they're all visual knockouts. Broadcast News is, as BJ notes, generally perfunctory work -- solidly shot, looking like a movie and not a glorified TV show, but not to be grouped with the rest for visual spark.
I like Hope and Glory maybe best of the rest of the films, and it's perfectly well shot as well. But I don't find it most memorable for its images.
Matewan was a good-looking, atmospheric film that probably wouldn't have been nominated without Haskell Wexler's name attached. The cinematographers' branch was just as clannish in these years as it had been in the William A. Fraker era, giving out some nominations more by reputation than singular achievement, but at least their choice of favored sons -- Wexler and Conrad Hall among them -- displayed more ambition, and came up with more interesting work even in their more obscure films. This is a solid nomination.
Since it wasn't cited in the major categories, I guess I've not commented on Empire of the Sun prior to this. I think the film's opening sections are quite impressive, and even once young Bale gets to the internment camp, the relationship between him and the Malkovich character is intriguing. But I feel like the film's last half hour goes splat. Spielberg in that era seemed addicted to big climaxes (the whole last half-hours of Jaws, Close Encounters or E.T.); this story didn't really build to that sort of crescendo, in a narrative sense, but it seemed like Spielberg was trying to impose one by staging big set pieces. Some of this was impressive visually, and I don't question the film's inclusion here. But it felt to me like this big-ness worked against the material, and made the film less than the success it might have been. (I'll add that all this is based on 30-year-old recollection, and I'd be interested in looking at the film again sometime.)
The Last Emperor's sweep through this night's Oscars -- 9 awards, the most to that date I'd personally witnessed -- seemed phenomenal overkill to me. However, a few of its prizes were incontestable, this maybe above all. It gave the film a leg up to be shot in surroundings both gorgeous and exotic (especially exotic for never having been seen in a color movie before), but it's hard to question Storaro's ability to capture all that beauty and enhance it. This is a great-looking film, the work of an artist, and I'll not do anything to take its Oscar away.