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Also Known As: Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography. |
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| Year of first release: 1992 | |
| Director: Arnold Glassman, Todd McCarthy, Stuart Samuels | |
| Actors: Conrad L. Hall, John Bailey, Vilmos Zsigmond | |
| Country: USA, J | |
| Genre: Documentary | |
| Conditions of visioning: 03.03.2013, DVD, Home cinema | |
| Synopsis: Discovering the role of the cinematographer in movie making. | |
| Review: I came upon this documentary after noticing the work of cinematography in the movies Citizen Kane and All the President's Men, photographed by respectively Gregg Toland and Gordon Willis. Both their names appeared in the review of the documentary on some website, which motivated me to get it. It is a very interesting review of cinema since its origin to the 1990's, from the point of view of cinematography. The Cinematographer (or Director of Photography, DoP) is like a photographer but for moving pictures. He is in charge of composing the images (frame, lighting, filters...) and telling a story through them, while since very early in the history of Cinema, the director was more in charge of telling a story via the actors. During this journey through the 20th Century, we witness the revolutions that have changed radically the work of the DoP: first the arrival of sound that was handicapping since it required heavy soundproof cameras that couldn't be moved anymore, and then the one of color that made useless years of training in previewing in Black & White, format in which drama is more easily told. Tens of (usually unknown) names are given in the Documentary, that you can then identify from several of their movies, and collaborations with some directors or studios. The video quality of the movie extracts is uneven, but good enough to illustrate the work of the DoP with many examples. You learn about the importance of shadows and darkness, and what are the basic cinematography rules that the most gifted DoPs started to break. This documentary definitely makes me want to see more movies. |
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Rating: 8 /10
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More than entertainment, an Art.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Visions of Light (1992)
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The documentary does not give many explaination on the history of using light. It mentions many people so that it looks like a self-gratulation. The interviewed people tell a lot how amazing are the people with whom they have been working with, without saying in what they were revolutionary. Well, no student of Murnau nor Eisenstein has been interviewed. It does not insist enough, from my point of view, on the different steps in the history of movie lights. Darks, contrasts, shadows. The focus is really given to the technical improvements. It still is motivating for movies, but it is not what I expected.
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