Re: Best Cinematography 1995
Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2018 4:35 pm
We're now getting into years where my childhood self had very strong opinions on some of the nominated films.
I'm agreement that the list overall is lackluster, not only because some of the nominees are obviously unworthy, but also because so many strong efforts were overlooked. Many have mentioned the praise-worthy cinematography in films like Se7en, Nixon, Heat, Leaving Las Vegas, and The Bridges of Madison County, all of which seem like they could have been well within typical Oscar range. And I'd also offer up Safe and Devil in a Blue Dress as fringier candidates that are clearly better than some nominees.
I LOVED Batman Forever... when I was eight years old. (Believe it or not, there was a time when even I was obsessed with superheroes!) I watched it again after two decades, and found it quite terrible -- the recent run of Marvel movies are WAY better than this. And I think the movie's look is flat ugly -- all that garish lighting and cheap-looking neon make for a truly lousy nominee in this category.
Braveheart likely won this prize with ease, but I rate it well below a lot of recent "pretty vista"-type winners in this category. Sure, it has an epic sweep, but I think much of the film's look comes off as chintzy -- I can remember one misty-looking sequence that looked so silly it felt like a fog machine was sitting just out of frame. And the movie's focus on extreme violence doesn't leave much room for many actually beautiful images. I'd say this is the weakest winner of the '90s, and probably since then as well.
Sense and Sensibility has an amiable glow to its images, and I think it's a good-looking movie. But I also would chalk a lot of that up to the sets and costumes -- even more so than with some of the recent Merchant-Ivory efforts. Given the paucity of the field, I can see why some of you have voted for it, but for me its visuals just aren't enough of a knockout to nab my vote.
A Little Princess was one of the more formative movies of my childhood. I can still vividly remember my dad taking me and my sisters to the theater, and watching enraptured as this magical story unfolded on-screen. Looking back, I think that this movie -- and The Secret Garden a few years prior -- were my first real exposures to film DRAMA. Which is to say, even though the movies were geared toward family audiences, they were of a completely different stripe than the silliness I was accustomed to watching in the usual comedy/fantasy/animated films geared toward kids, and that maturity connected with me in a special way at that age. I revisited the film a few years back, and found it a thoroughly enchanting trip down memory lane, with moments of genuine emotional impact. (A starving Sara giving away her food to the homeless girl just destroyed me.) I think the cinematography nomination is mostly for the strikingly-lit fantasy sequences, but there are strong moments in the contemporary sections as well, especially the entire third act storm sequence. But, like many of you, I see the bountiful opportunities to honor Lubezki for quite a bit stronger work up ahead, so I'll take my time in getting around to rewarding him.
Shanghai Triad is not, to put it mildly, the strongest of the Zhang Yimou/Gong Li collaborations. It suffers significantly from a central character -- the little boy -- who is almost entirely an observer of action, rather than a player in it. But, as with most of the director's films, it looked beautiful, from the bold theatricality of the first half's nightclub scenes, to the even more impressive photography of the island sequences in the second half. This is a case where I wish the cinematography was in service of a better movie, but it's the kind of artful foreign nominee I'm generally pleased to see included on an Oscar slate, and my vote in this lineup.
I'm agreement that the list overall is lackluster, not only because some of the nominees are obviously unworthy, but also because so many strong efforts were overlooked. Many have mentioned the praise-worthy cinematography in films like Se7en, Nixon, Heat, Leaving Las Vegas, and The Bridges of Madison County, all of which seem like they could have been well within typical Oscar range. And I'd also offer up Safe and Devil in a Blue Dress as fringier candidates that are clearly better than some nominees.
I LOVED Batman Forever... when I was eight years old. (Believe it or not, there was a time when even I was obsessed with superheroes!) I watched it again after two decades, and found it quite terrible -- the recent run of Marvel movies are WAY better than this. And I think the movie's look is flat ugly -- all that garish lighting and cheap-looking neon make for a truly lousy nominee in this category.
Braveheart likely won this prize with ease, but I rate it well below a lot of recent "pretty vista"-type winners in this category. Sure, it has an epic sweep, but I think much of the film's look comes off as chintzy -- I can remember one misty-looking sequence that looked so silly it felt like a fog machine was sitting just out of frame. And the movie's focus on extreme violence doesn't leave much room for many actually beautiful images. I'd say this is the weakest winner of the '90s, and probably since then as well.
Sense and Sensibility has an amiable glow to its images, and I think it's a good-looking movie. But I also would chalk a lot of that up to the sets and costumes -- even more so than with some of the recent Merchant-Ivory efforts. Given the paucity of the field, I can see why some of you have voted for it, but for me its visuals just aren't enough of a knockout to nab my vote.
A Little Princess was one of the more formative movies of my childhood. I can still vividly remember my dad taking me and my sisters to the theater, and watching enraptured as this magical story unfolded on-screen. Looking back, I think that this movie -- and The Secret Garden a few years prior -- were my first real exposures to film DRAMA. Which is to say, even though the movies were geared toward family audiences, they were of a completely different stripe than the silliness I was accustomed to watching in the usual comedy/fantasy/animated films geared toward kids, and that maturity connected with me in a special way at that age. I revisited the film a few years back, and found it a thoroughly enchanting trip down memory lane, with moments of genuine emotional impact. (A starving Sara giving away her food to the homeless girl just destroyed me.) I think the cinematography nomination is mostly for the strikingly-lit fantasy sequences, but there are strong moments in the contemporary sections as well, especially the entire third act storm sequence. But, like many of you, I see the bountiful opportunities to honor Lubezki for quite a bit stronger work up ahead, so I'll take my time in getting around to rewarding him.
Shanghai Triad is not, to put it mildly, the strongest of the Zhang Yimou/Gong Li collaborations. It suffers significantly from a central character -- the little boy -- who is almost entirely an observer of action, rather than a player in it. But, as with most of the director's films, it looked beautiful, from the bold theatricality of the first half's nightclub scenes, to the even more impressive photography of the island sequences in the second half. This is a case where I wish the cinematography was in service of a better movie, but it's the kind of artful foreign nominee I'm generally pleased to see included on an Oscar slate, and my vote in this lineup.