American Cinematographer Magazine’s List of the 50 Films with the Best Cinematography, 1998-2008

This is an exhaustive list. They’ve covered more-or-less every brilliantly shot film from the last decade that’s worth a damn. Personal favourites: The Fall, The Man Who Wasn’t There and There Will Be Blood.

1. Amélie: Bruno Delbonnel, ASC, AFC (2001)
2. Children of Men: Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, AMC (2006)
3. Saving Private Ryan: Janusz Kaminski (1998)
4. There Will Be Blood: Robert Elswit, ASC (2007)
5. No Country for Old Men: Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC (2007)
6. Fight Club: Jeff Cronenweth, ASC (1999)
7. The Dark Knight: Wally Pfister, ASC (2008)
8. Road to Perdition: Conrad L. Hall, ASC (2002)
9. Cidade de Deus (City of God): César Charlone, ABC (2002)
10. American Beauty: Conrad L. Hall, ASC (1999)
11. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Deakins)
12. Tie: In the Mood for Love (Christopher Doyle, HKSC, and Mark Li Ping-bin) and Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo Navarro, ASC)
13. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Andrew Lesnie, ASC, ACS)
14. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Ellen Kuras, ASC)
15. Gladiator (John Mathieson, BSC)
16. The Matrix (Bill Pope, ASC)
17. The Thin Red Line (John Toll, ASC)
18. The Diving Bell and The Butterfly (Kaminski)
19. Slumdog Millionaire (Anthony Dod Mantle, BSC, DFF)
20. Tie: Eyes Wide Shut (Larry Smith, BSC) and Requiem for a Dream (Matthew Libatique, ASC)
21. Kill Bill (Robert Richardson, ASC)
22. Moulin Rouge (Donald M. McAlpine, ASC, ACS)
23. The Pianist (Pawel Edelman, PSC)
24. Hero (Doyle)
25. Black Hawk Down (Slawomir Idziak, PSC)
26. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Deakins)
27. Babel (Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC)
28. Lost In Translation (Lance Acord, ASC)
29. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Peter Pau, HKSC)
30. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Claudio Miranda, ASC)
31. The Man Who Wasn’t There (Deakins)
32. The New World (Lubezki)
33. Sin City (Robert Rodriguez)
34. Atonement (Seamus McGarvey, ASC, BSC)
35. Munich (Kaminski)
36. The Prestige (Pfister)
37. Memoirs of a Geisha (Dion Beebe, ASC, ACS)
38. The Aviator (Richardson)
39. Zodiac (Harris Savides, ASC)
40. The Insider (Dante Spinotti, ASC, AIC)
41. Gangs of New York (Michael Ballhaus, ASC)
42. Tie: Brokeback Mountain (Prieto) and The Fountain (Libatique)
43. The Fall (Colin Watkinson)
44. The Passion of the Christ (Caleb Deschanel, ASC)
45. Snow Falling on Cedars (Richardson)
46. House of Flying Daggers (Xiaoding Zhao)
47. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Eric Adkins)

Inception - For Your Consideration

Well, obviously a Best Picture nod seems to be in order, but what else? In my opinion, these could be some likely possibilities:

• Best Actor in a Leading Role - Leonardo DiCaprio

I think there is a good chance of this ringing true and I hope it does. Well, it’s certainly more likely he’d receive a nod for this over Shutter Island. I’ll go on record here saying that it’s Leo’s performance that I took the most for granted the first time I saw this film. Upon my second viewing, it was hard not to take notice of Leo, an actor truly at the top of his game in a film that makes its audience invest so much of their attention in everything but the actors (i.e. the complicated storyline and multiple streams of action), that it’s easy to lose sight of how bloody fantastic he really is.

• Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Marion Cotillard

I’m probably the only person who thinks that while she was excellent and that she’ll almost definitely get nominated, her performance wasn’t really that great watching it again compared to the way I recalled it the first time, if you can understand what I mean.

• Best Art Direction - Luke Freeborn (Art Direction); Larry Dias (Set Direction)

The sets in Inception, for want of a better way to put it, are like something from a dream. If production footage and the process by which this movie was shot are taken into account (Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s hallway fight sequence first and foremost) there’s no way this film won’t land a nomination.

• Best Cinematography - Wally Pfister

Pfister’s work on this film in my opinion trumps all of his previous work with Nolan. I think that for the most part, thrillers have to sacrifice certain visual qualities for the sake of driving the plot ever-onwards. Nolan and Pfister however manage to take cinematography and plot progression hand in hand and not blunder one for the sake of the other. There’s not a single frame of this film that hesitates or falters.

• Best Costume Design - Jeffrey Kurland

Inception’s costumes, it must be said, are thread-for-thread perfect. Never before have I seen men so well dressed onscreen than in this movie. Costume Design is a branch of the Academy that’s almost entirely devoted to period pieces. If there’s ever a film that doesn’t fall into the category of being a period or fantasy that has any hope of being the first contemporary film since of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert to win this accolade, let it be Inception.

• Best Director - Christopher Nolan

Without a doubt, the degree of directorial control in this film is simply astonishing. For an effort like Inception, Nolan, I believe, has reinvented the modern thriller, a genre of late that hasn’t been all that original (or entertaining). Clearly Nolan is a filmmaker unafraid to make the film he wants to make: a film for himself, a film that endlessly tests its audience and still manages to retain a high degree of artistic integrity while having a major box office appeal (a rarity these days), and I think that’s something worth getting excited about.

• Best Film Editing - Lee Smith

Editing is a subtle art, and Lee Smith, John Lee and the entire editing team had their work cut out for them on this film. Having read several articles and interviews with Smith and Lee, I’ve learnt about the mammoth process of editing this pic. The editing for this film is sleek and stylish, and the way Inception’s multiple dream worlds play out certainly makes this film a no-brainer for receiving an editing nomination. Also, it doesn’t hurt that Smith was nominated for his last outing with Nolan for The Dark Knight either.

• Best Original Score - Hans Zimmer

The score of Inception, like Marion Cotillard’s performance too I think, is something that I find myself recalling in my mind to be a lot better than what it actually was. Yes, listening to it used in the film it manages to accomplish quite a lot, but it’s not all that original, although I find myself not having a problem with that. Bottom line: I love it, I just don’t think the Academy will.

• Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing

I hate to lump these two awards together but I’ll be honest now and say that sound isn’t really the strong suit of my career in film appreciation. Sound plays an intrinsic and invaluable role to filmmakers and moviegoers alike; it’s an element that ultimately has to play second fiddle to whatever’s going on onscreen, despite the fact that cinematography is just one half of the overall experience of watching a film. Given the good fortune of The Dark Knight’s nominations in both categories two years ago (with a win for Mixing), it’s a safe bet that Inception will secure noms in one or both of these fields as well.

• Best Visual Effects

In my opinion, the visual effects of Inception  are so well done that you can’t help but take them for granted sometimes. Unlike a film like Avatar, these effects are subtle and hard to notice at first; they don’t slap you in the face. They aren’t all sensation and no substance. Because the majority of Inception takes place within the world of dreams, I think there could have been numerous opportunities for going over the top effects-wise. However, subtlety wins out over excess and what you see that’s been added in is always there to complement what’s onscreen and not make up for it.

• Best Original Screenplay - Christopher Nolan

Nolan began writing the screenplay for Inception shortly after wrapping on The Dark Knight, although he’d been given the green light from Warner Bros. already, after delivering an 80 page treatment of it shortly after finishing up on Insomnia in 2002, however the ideas behind Inception had been knocking about in his head since his teen years. I think there’s really never been anything quite like Inception, from the basic concept of its premise to the very distinctive look and feel it tries to evoke. I haven’t read the screenplay myself, but from what I’ve gathered reading other peoples’ predictions for this category, the script for this pic is one that should always be considered to be in contention.

Well, that’s about it if you ask me. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think Inception will be nominated for Best Animated Short Film or Best Original Song, do you?

Day 19 - A talent of yours

Seriously considering abandoning this 30 day challenge now. I honestly can’t think of any exceptional talents in my possession. Perhaps an eagerness to learn? To see the world?

I could say I have an eye for editing and cinematography. But my one, and so far my only, filmic effort doesn’t do me many favours I don’t think.

God, this is really annoying actually. And I’m the one who wants to be working in film so badly.

Right, I think it’s time to regroup now and get my thoughts together. Going to run off and see if I can get a little more writing done for this short film project I’ve been outlining (in my head) for a while now.

Time to start putting my money where my mouth is.