Completed Category: Cinematography

 This is my first post about a category completed AFTER the nominations were announced -- on Oscar noms night, in fact, at the theatre down the street, seeing Nosferatu. As of the announcement that morning, I had already completed three: Directing, Editing, and Supporting Actress. That night, the weirdo vampire helped me complete two more! 

Cinematography

The Brutalist
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Perez
Maria
Nosferatu

First of all, I always hasten to point out that this is the category that, without it, you couldn't have a film. All the others, it's theoretically possible to make a movie without it - you could have a movie with no Supporting Actor, or no Original Song, or no Sound, or no Visual Effects.  You could even do something totally weird and indie and avant garde and, like, make a movie fully improvised on the street with no Screenplay and no Production Design, or even no Directing. But Cinematography IS the filming. We wouldn't be here without it!

Second of all, when you look at these five nominees, you just might go... Huh?!

On nominations morning, I sat there hoping against hope that Angelina Jolie, she of the declining buzz, would swoop back in to the conversation, get a Lead Actress nomination, and take the place of the man (Gascon) who got nominated instead. When Cinematography was announced and Maria was included, I thought, Wow! That bodes well for Angelina! Alas, it did not. It boded unwell. 

The movie Maria was bizarre, unsettling, fascinating (if, like me, you didn't know how messed up Maria Callas was nor how much of a jackwad Ari Onassis was), and a real dig-deep endeavor for Angelina.  While she was overlooked (which I would accept, if not for the whole man thing), the movie did manage to snag this nomination. Cinematographer Ed Lachman has been here (nominated) before, for Far From Heaven (ugh), Carol (ugh), and last year's weirdo El Conde (manic pixie exorcist movie). He explained the following to the Los Angeles Times about shooting the film: "We have the 35mm black-and-white for her memory of the past, Super 8 to show the intimacy with the people closest to her, 16mm is of this documentary crew filming her and then 35mm color is the master point of view."  Wow, right! Did I notice all that as I watched it?  I surely did not. But, I did notice, as an amateur viewer, that it was really cool and interesting how they went into the flashbacks, and how we were carried through the different parts of this movie. It is truly an interesting and compelling cinematography accomplishment. 

But, you know we are going to hear a lot about a few other flicks here, so let's take a quick look. The ugh of ughs, Emilia Perez, is here. Blah blah blah it transcends narrative filmmaking blah blah.  Too bad its end result is a big ol' mess. Cinematographer Paul Guilhaume has a lot of jabber to say about how the camera depicted the movement and vision and characters' thoughts and all sorts of other mumbo jumbo and who cares. If this wins here on Oscar night, it's time to start worrying about this dumb flick collecting way too many awards. 

Luckily it has some very stiff competition in Dune: Part Two and The Brutalist.  Greig Fraser was not only nominated for first Dune, he won! Can he repeat?  I'd like that. Dune is so pretty! And Dune: Part Two was better than the first. But #TIL that our man Greig did not read the book Dune - he purposefully, specifically did not read it, nor watch any other interpretations or anything else anyone had done with Dune, so that he was only reckoning with the script and then working with Denis Villenueve and company. I find that fascinating!  

As for The Brutal-est, the cinematographer is named Lol! That's a fun name. Lol Crawley certainly contributed to the intense pummeling that the film gives the viewer, and he seriously might win just on the strength of that looking up askew at the Statue of Liberty, alone! I won't be that mad if he does win. 

Lastly, after seeing those four films above and after the nominations announcement, I headed to my local cool old theatre down the road on nominations night and watched Nosferatu.   Let me be the first to say that I did NOT love this film but that I found it incredibly lush and visual and very cool to look at.  And cinematographer Jarin Blaschke talked about what a challenge it was to shoot so many scenes in darkness, and how he really played with moonlight and shooting people for "page after page of dialogue" in no lights. This is all quite an accomplishment.  However, he was previously nominated for The Lighthouse, which is an Oscar nominee that I have not seen and am actually terrified of seeing. So should I hold this against him?  (ha) 

Well, there is a lot of great work going on here, so, once again, it's totally OK for four of these flicks to win, but one will cause me to throw things at the TV. 

What's your Cinematography nominee of choice? 

Order I want them to win:  Nosferatu or Maria, Dune: Part Two or The Brutalist, then E.P.

Order I think they will win:  The Brutalist, Dune: Part Two, Nosferatu, Emilia Perez, Maria