Best Cinematography, 2001
(Click on the linked film titles for reviews of the corresponding films.)
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Nominee Bruno Delbonnel Amélie 16:1 |
The Starburst colors, impish point-of-view shots, and distorted lenses of Amélie provide such delicious eye candy that it's a joy to vote for. Against four heavy hitters, this French valentine is a tempting underdog. |
"Starburst." "Impish." "Underdog." Even if voters can't make up their minds amongst a military debacle, a fantasy epic, an absurdist noir, and a rococo musical, it's unlikely they'll abandon all four in favor of an import. Besides, when you get down to brass tacks, Amélie's real joys are in its art direction more than its camerawork. |
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Slawomir Idziak Black Hawk Down 9:1 |
Ridley Scott's movies always look great, but Black Hawk Down's syntheses of countless points of view, all within a chaotic torrent of literal shots and countershots, made the story events potent and followable even when frantic editing threatened to lose us. Overheads, vehicle perspectives, night-vision shots, crowd scenes, oblique angles: Idziak got 'em all.
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Unfairly or not (I think unfairly), most of Scott's and Idziak's technical work on Black Hawk Down has been treated by detractors as a sort of Saving Private Ryan Redux. The political hits against the movie make it too vulnerable in the wake of mass-appeal project like Rings and Moulin Rouge.
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Andrew Lesnie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 5:2 |
The Lord of the Rings showcased every penny of its $100 million budget on the screen, already no small statement. Much of the film's tension and energy are rooted in the restless movements of Lesnie's camera, swooping around racing horses, swan-diving into massive battles, getting those greens green and those yellows yellow in the tranquil Shire sequences. That the film's sumptuous textures feel so palpable throughout the picture is as much Lesnie's achievement as anyone's.
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Rings will be squaring off with Moulin Rouge in all of the visual categories, which already hurts its chances. Plus, in this particular race, The Man Who Wasn't There offers a distinctive third option that may squeak past the two eye-poppers. Voters may be uncertain how much Lesnie's lensing was abetted by editing effects and digital derring-do.
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Roger Deakins The Man Who Wasn't There 2:1 |
An absolute standout since the film's debut at Cannes, Deakins' black & white compositions returned to that stock its exquisite sheens and its majestic array of contrasts—redeeming monochrome from the bad rep of crap like Clerks. Deakins is hugely popular within the industry, even if TV watchers don't know him, and he's been nominated five times in eight years without winning—as all sorts of recent LA Times and Variety editorials have been reminding us. Also shot A Beautiful Mind, and may get some residual support from that camp.
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The Man Who Wasn't There was by far the lowest grosser of this lot; even Amélie, a foreign film, grossed more than ten times what Man did. Voters don't endorse films they haven't seen, and even the ones who caught it on video may not think the images look as cool as they did in the theater. The fact that Ed Wood didn't even get a nod in 1994 confirms that not everyone's a black & white enthusiast.
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Donald McAlpine Moulin Rouge 3:1 |
Has all the parti-colored appeal of Amélie but feels more homegrown, despite its Aussie crew. Moulin Rouge reigned as the year's biggest visual extravaganza for months and months until The Lord of the Rings, and its fans seem all the more eager to throw it some statues in the wake of Luhrmann's non-nomination. Lack of location shots means that the beautiful scenery is all McAlpine's work, not mother Nature's. |
Again, as with Amélie, it's hard to tell what's cinematography and what's art direction; some voters are indifferent to these distinctions but many aren't. Plus, the film's detractors think the non-stop cuts and whip pans excuse McAlpine from ever having to assemble a real frame. And even if the lack of location shooting strikes some as a sign of harder work, all those chaps who gave Oscars to Braveheart, The English Patient, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon had no such reservations.
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