Three-time Oscar nominee David O. Russell (Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Silver Linings Playbook; Best Director for The Fighter) came up a three-time winner this month as The New York Film Critics Circle named his American Hustle Best Picture of 2013 in addition to honoring it for Best Screenplay (script by Russell and Eric Warren Singer) and Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Lawrence).
Director/writer Russell said that the NY organization of film critics is “not an easy audience to win over so these honors mean a lot to the film. It’s a milestone which also means an enormous amount to me. It’s the first time my work has been recognized by them.”
American Hustle is a fictional film based on the 1970s’ Abscam scandal. Brilliant con man Irving Rosenfeld (portrayed by Christian Bale) and his cunning, seductive partner Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) are forced to work for erratic FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Cooper) who pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia that is dangerous yet alluring. Caught between the con artists and Feds is New Jersey political operator Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner). And threatening to cause the whole scenario to crash and burn is Irving’s unpredictable wife (Lawrence). Comedic and dramatic, this political caper brings together a mix of characters who are all struggling with their identities.
“That’s what attracted me,” recalled Russell. “When we started to make the film, larger questions came up that are timeless. How does anybody own an identity or a narrative in their life? And they–like all of us–have to change and redefine themselves. We all end up selling change to ourselves in order to survive, to believe in what we’re doing. The con storyline itself didn’t interest me. What interested me was how people find passion in their lives and believe in what they’re doing. It’s a process that never ends.”
While “timeless.” American Hustle is set in a distinct era, one for which Russell said he has “a great personal feeling. I had written another movie in that time period that was never made. This time around, I got the chance to delve into that era in an area I’m from. I know people who are like these characters–neighbors or family members. My dad was a salesman and a businessman at that time. He had his own struggles and knew people who were struggling with their identities. He dealt with people who weren’t who they thought they were–and not what they wanted to be. That’s recognizable in any era. But this [the ‘70s] was a colorful era–men with spectacular comb overs [like Bale’s character Rosenfeld] and women wearing Halston dresses.”
Helping capture that era and the characters’ struggles was cinematographer Linus Sandgren who collaborated with Russell for the first time. Russell credited two people with turning him onto Sandgren: cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, FSF, NSC, (profiled later in this story) who shot The Fighter for Russell; and Gina Zapata, executive producer of Wondros, the production company that handles Russell for commercials. “I found that I really loved Linus’ work, particularly in Gus Van Sant’s Promised Land. He brought sort of a lushness to that picture. He lights naturally and softly.”
Many other contributors to American Hustle have a track record with Russell, including editors Jay Cassidy (Oscar nominated for Silver Linings Playbook and the Sean Penn-directed Into The Wild) and Crispin Struthers (also an Oscar nominee for Silver Linings Playbook), production designer Judy Becker (nominated for the Art Directors Guild’s Excellence in Production Design Award on the basis of The Fighter) and music supervisor Sue Jacobs (whose credits include Silver Linings Playbook and Little Miss Sunshine). “Crispin was an assistant on The Fighter and became one of our team members, moving on to Silver Linings Playbook,” recalled Russell. “Jay was recommended by Sean Penn for Silver Linings Playback after [editor] Pam Martin was unavailable. Jay is very dedicated and passionate. He’s sort of the captain of the editing room. We had such a short post schedule on American Hustle, that we also welcomed [editor] Alan Bumgarten aboard who I hadn’t worked with before. Alan was great. We will all work together again.”
Peter Berg
For director/writer Peter Berg, Lone Survivor was some four-and-a-half years in the making. But rather than bemoan the wait, Berg embraced it because he earned a valuable education from his research which entailed becoming close to the Navy SEALs community, including widows, parents, siblings and other loved ones of those servicemen who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
It also took a prolonged stretch of time for Berg to develop what evolved into a friendship with Marcus Luttrell who authored (with Patrick Robinson) The New York Times bestselling nonfiction book, Lone Survivor, which tells the story of four Navy SEALs who–while on a covert mission to terminate a high-level al-Qaeda operative–are surrounded by a much larger Taliban force. As they confront insurmountable odds, the four SEALs show their strength, bravery and resilience as they stay in the fight to the finish.
Mark Wahlberg stars as Luttrell who penned the first-person memoir, a book which has become a motivational resource for its lessons on how the power of the human spirit is tested when people are pushed beyond their mental and physical limits. The other three members of the SEAL team are portrayed by Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch and Ben Foster.
Berg recalled that when he first met Luttrell, it was clear that he was still “hurt and traumatized, quite haunted because the experience was still quite fresh. Getting to know Marcus was a process that really took years. Over the past five years, we have become quite close.”
Berg was drawn to the book, crediting Luttrell with “a great job of taking us into the experience of the soldier.” Berg wanted his film “ to explore what these guys went through…The movie pays respect to those willing to stand between us and real evil. The film is an unapologetic tribute to this brotherhood of men. ”
Berg meanwhile has his own filmmaking brotherhood of sorts, bringing in long-time collaborators, DP Tobias Schliessler and editor Colby Parker Jr. to work on Lone Survivor. “They’ve been on pretty much every film I’ve done,” related Berg. “We’ve developed a shorthand with each other. They understand me. When you only have 44 days of filming, you need to be with people whom you can trust to get it done. You don’t have to worry about getting up to speed. You can hit the ground running.”
Schliessler and Parker have worked on a diverse range of Berg-directed projects spanning long-form (including Friday Night Lights and Battleship) and short-form fare (commercials, videos). Berg directs spots via Pony Show Entertainment.
Clearly for Berg, Lone Survivor is a project close to his heart as reflected in what he deemed a key lesson the film taught him. “This experience of getting to know the Navy SEAL community, the families of dead SEALs,” affirmed Berg, “brings home for me the fact that the importance of a filmmaker being personally connected to material cannot be overstated.”
Bruno Delbonnel, ASC, AFC
A three-time Oscar nominee for Best Cinematography (Le fabuleux destin d’Amelie Poulain in 2001; Un long dimanche de fiancailles in 2005; Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in 2010), Bruno Delbonnel, ASC, AFC, reflected on Inside Llewyn Davis, his first feature-length collaboration with filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen. Delbonnel isn’t a stranger to the Coens, having lensed their segment (titled Tulleries) of the anthology film Paris, je t’aime, a 2006 release.
Circumstance helped create a window of opportunity for Delbonnel to take on a full blown feature for the Coens. Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, has been the perennial cinematographer of choice for Joel and Ethan Coen. However, Deakins was committed to the James Bond film Skyfall as the Coens were about to embark on Inside Llewyn Davis. Delbonnel said he felt fortunate that the directing team gravitated towards him based on their collaboration on that short for Paris je t’aime.
Delbonnel was also grateful for how Joel and Ethan Coen embraced him on Inside Llewyn Davis. “They expressed confidence in me. They trusted me. They never mentioned Deakins’ name. They gave me a chance to be part of their team.”
Inside Llewyn Davis–which this month was named Best Picture by the Gotham Independent Film Awards–follows a week in the life of the title character, a young folk singer, as he navigates the early 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene. Portrayed by Oscar Isaac, Davis struggles to make it as an artist against all odds–including obstacles of his own making. While the setting hearkens back to a distinct time, Delbonnel said that his approach “was not about recreating a look or a period. It was much more about finding the right mood and vibe. The mood was sad. The story Joel and Ethan wanted to tell defined my approach.”
Delbonnel described working with the Coens as “a fantastic experience. They write and tell a story in a simple way, somehow finding the perfect language. They don’t try to show off. They don’t try to impress anyone. They do it the way they think is right, in an efficient, simple manner to do full justice to the story.”
Being simple and efficient can apply to cinematography as well. “You don’t have to always move the camera all about to make a beautiful shot,” related Delbonnel. “A single beautiful close-up or wide shot, very simply done, can be all that’s needed to make the story real.”
The New York Film Critics Circle certainly found Delbonnel’s work to be real, awarding him the best cinematography honor for Inside Llewyn Davis.
All of Delbonnel’s features up to and including Inside Llewyn Davis have been shot on film. He deployed the ARRICAM on Inside Llewyn Davis. Yet he has since finally made the leap, diversifying into digital cinematography with the ARRI Alexa on his subsequent gig, the Tim Burton-directed Big Eyes.
While he had a favorable digital experience, Delbonnel finds the phasing out of film disconcerting. “I would love for cinematographers to retain the choice of going film or digital–with the decision based on what’s best for the project, I’d love for Kodak to keep going so that we can keep that creative option open–so that we could tap into both digital and film to tell stories.”
Jess Gonchor
Working with the Coen brothers on True Grit earned production designer Jess Gonchor an Oscar nomination in 2011 for Best Achievement in Art Direction.
Gonchor has five career Excellence in Production Design nominations from the Art Directors Guild. Four of those came for his work with the Coens: No Country for Old Men in 2008, Burn After Reading in 2009, A Serious Man in 2010, and True Grit in 2011. He won the Art Directors Guild Award on the strength of No Country for Old Men. (Gonchor’s first nomination came in 2004 for The Last Samurai directed by Edward Zwick.)
Gonchor’s latest collaboration with Joel and Ethan Cohen is Inside Llewyn Davis, which presented its share of challenges for the production designer who, for example, added brick textures, placed arches and columns in a rundown, empty warehouse in Brooklyn to help recreate the Gaslight Cafe circa 1961 in which Davis performs. But production design does more than bring settings and environments to life–it also promotes feelings, sometimes sensations. “After the AFI Film Festival screening of the movie, three people texted me whom I hadn’t seen in years. They said the movie felt ‘cold,’ literally. They could feel the winter, Llewyn having no jacket. In that regard, there’s never one comfortable moment in the movie. We had the responsibility of conveying that visually with touches like little patches of snow in an alleyway.”
Gonchor, who has done a mix of period and contemporary films for the Coens, said that the common denominator in that body of work is “the freedom they as filmmakers give the people they work with. They trust me and let the audience trust my work. You don’t have to have a 1957 Chevy in a movie to tell the audience it’s 1957. I trust the audience to know. It’s such a pleasure to respect your audience’s intelligence. I relish the freedom and collaboration I have with the Coens.”
Gonchor started his career in the theater and then expanded into film, mainly in the art department. He art directed several movies and then found a niche in commercials, extending his reach into production design. His spotmaking endeavors brought him together with director Bennett Miller (who’s currently on the Smuggler roster). And then Miller took on his first feature, the acclaimed Capote, for which Gonchor served as production designer. “Spots were instrumental in my forming a relationship with Miller and then going from art director to a production designer on movies,” said Gonchor.
In turn it was Capote that caught the eye of the Coens and they called Gonchor in for an interview. “We hit it off, saw we were sort of cut from the same cloth and I got the chance to start working with them [on No Country for Old Men],” said Gonchor. “Once you’re part of the team, they are extremely loyal to their collaborators.”
Similarly Miller has been loyal to Gonchor who has been production designer on all three of the director’s films: Capote, Moneyball and the latest, Foxcatcher, which is slated for release next year.
At the same time, Gonchor has dipped his toe in the directorial waters. Via Hungry Man, he has directed some select commercials, including work for the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. “I’m expanding my horizons a bit though I don’t know that I will ever give up production design,” said Gonchor. “I’ve learned a great deal as a director about how the other parts work. Directing has helped me be a better production designer.
K.K. Barrett
Speaking right after Her was screened at last month’s AFI Film Festival in Hollywood, director Spike Jonze explained that while the story is set in Los Angeles in the not-all-that-distant future, he did not want to get caught up in predicting what L.A. would look like down the road. That, he observed, would take away from the story. Instead he had the setting add a dimension to the story, capturing a city with a utopian-like feel. Yet even in an almost idyllic urban setting, with wonderful technology at everyone’s fingertips, the human condition persists–including feelings of loneliness as people still struggle with relationships and remain ever in the pursuit of some measure of happiness.
Joaquin Phoenix stars in Her as a Los Angeles resident who gets an operational system (OS) that connects with him via a voice (Scarlett Johansson). The woman’s voice starts to grow on him, taking on a human-like presence and influence. He finds himself falling in love with “her.”
This month, Her won National Board of Review honors for Best Picture and Best Director. At the AFI session, Jonze credited his collaborators for their contributions to Her, including editors Eric Zumbrunnen and Jeff Buchanan (both profiled in our The Road To Oscar, Part 2, SHOOT, 11/15), DP Hoyte van Hoytema, FSF, NSC, costume designer Casey Storm, and production designer K.K. Barrett.
The latter has worked with Jonze on commercials as well as all the director’s features, from Being John Malkovich to Adaptation and Where the Wild Things Are. (Jonze is handled for spots by MJZ.) Regarding Her, Barrett observed, “The challenge was the same as all films, hopefully making it [the production design] visually unique to a singular story. The real challenge, given that it was a world not now but just around the corner, was making sure you didn’t dwell on visions of the future that didn’t effect the simplicity of the story. From early on I didn’t want to follow a tech or ‘surprising innovation’ path. I didn’t even research what someone else’s predictions of the future would be. I just used logic and focused on a few simple things I wish would change rather than what everyone said would change. An example is billboard advertising without text, no screaming graphics. I thought how intriguing it would be to watch visual stories play out on billboards and create a dialogue amongst all the viewers of what the product was. Then we took it a step further and made them in slow-mo. Another was seeing no cars. Cars seem to lock films into a time.”
As for how he first connected with Jonze, Barrett recalled, “Spike and I came together in commercials oddly enough. We were both self taught so we were experimenting through videos and commercials to sharpen our sense of play in film. After a year of all kinds of projects, “we rolled into Being John Malkovich and never looked back. On Her it began with him downloading his ideas to me; I get excited and flooded with thoughts of my own and begin to cut him off, we wrestle with the possibilities and hopefully all the best ones win. Spike is great in that he doesn’t want to be film referential, I’m the same, so making a film set in the future meant it couldn’t look like any other future film, but it made us look harder and longer to define what it would be. Where the Wild Things Are was the same process. We pile up buzzwords, abstract visuals and filter them until we have a feeling. Building a world starts with a feeling rather than plans.”
Barrett finds that one discipline informs another, and continues to do commercials. “They offer such a variety of genres to work in,” he explained. “I have done fantasy, period, sci-fi, action, beauty, minimalism, excess, and comedy. The people you get to work with, all the best directors and camera eyes–that experience would take a lifetime in features to experience. I use commercials as a lab to keep in shape. Because their primary mission is to draw the eye in, engage and do it with panache, the short form is like haiku. Only what is effective remains. This is a good exercise. Doing commercials also keeps me from doing suspect films. I can be more selective with scripts.”
Barrett has earned three Excellence in Production Design Award nominations from the Art Directors Guild, the first coming in 2004 for the Sofia Coppola-directed Lost in Translation, then in 2010 for Where the Wild Things Are, and last year for the Stephen Daldry-directed Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.
Hoyte van Hoytema, FSF, NSC
Unlike Barrett, cinematographer van Hoytema had not worked with Jonze prior to Her. “Spike was looking for a new cinematographer since Lance [Acord] wasn’t available,” related van Hoytema. “Our relationship started with a talk. I was in Spain shooting a commercial and we ended up talking via Skype for two-and-a-half hours.”
Van Hoytema said he was drawn to Jonze and Her. “It’s a very intimate story, a futuristic film with soul.” Van Hoytema noted that he feels “blessed and humbled” to have had the opportunity to work with Jonze. “I’m not a cinematographer just interested in pretty pictures. I love making a connection with the director so that I can help provide what he needs to realize the story he wants to tell. For me, it all comes down to understanding the script, the story and the director.”
Assessing Jonze, van Hoytema said, “He is a renaissance person. He can turn anything into an art project. Working with him, I learned to keep my eyes open for anything. Spike can turn anything into something that inspires someone.”
Those sources of inspiration are constantly explored by Jonze, observed Barrett. “We work seriously but there is a lot of goofing around and exploring. We’d look at hundreds of stills that weren’t related to the film. We’d play songs. These were peripheral creative processes that maybe in the end all helped the film. He’s triggering all these nerves in your body during the process of working on a film. He generates creative momentum for everyone. He’s playful and challenging.”
Alexa was the primary camera deployed by van Hoytema on Her. He said the Alexa helped give the movie the texture and warm feeling called for. Her was van Hoytema’s first feature utilizing the Alexa but he had extensive experience with the camera on commercials.
Van Hoytema’s filmography also includes: the David O. Russell-directed The Fighter; and the Tomas Alfredson-helmed Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy, which earned van Hoytema an ASC Award nomination.
At press time, van Hoytema was wrapping sci-fi film Interstellar, directed by Christopher Nolan. Van Hoytema said he was honored to have been selected by Nolan who sought out a DP for Interstellar after his long-time cinematographer Wally Pfister, ASC, diversified into directing.
Phedon Papamichael, ASC
The Alexander Payne-directed Nebraska earned Phedon Papamichael, ASC, a Golden Frog Award nomination at Camerimage last month. Nebraska was shot in black and white.
As for going the black-and-white route for Nebraska, Papamichael shared, “It wasn’t really that much of an intellectual decision. It was more instinctual. Alexander mentioned this film to me 10 years ago as we were prepping Sideways. Back then, Nebraska as a film existed in black and white for him–and it works. All that matters is communicating with the audience. And sometimes whether they can consciously express it or not, black and white somehow feels appropriate for what they’re watching. It supports all the scenes in Nebraska. Black and white allows you to focus on [lead actor] Bruce Dern in a unique way, his white hair that blows in a ghost-like manner, the textures of his face and the subtleties of his little looks without the distraction of the color palette. Black and white just seems right for the landscapes, the graphic qualities, the horizon.”
For more on Papamichael, see this week’s Chat Room Q&A column in which he reflects on his working relationship with Payne–and recollects how they got together in the first place.
To read The Road To Oscar, Part 1, click here.
To read The Road To Oscar, Part 2, click here.
