The three-and-a-half-hour running time doesn’t change the way fauvism Cinematographer Lol Crawley works. The budget was low (under $10 million) and the fact that he had previously worked with director Brady Corbet (2015 film) leader’s childhood and 2018 sound of lux) and Corbett’s directing style both contribute to the film’s concise shooting style.
“I think filmmakers are going to say, ‘I don’t know what else you can do: shoot in 35mm and make this epic thematic movie and have a scale and a running time and an intermission that’s less than $10 million,” Crowley said. hollywood reporter A24 version. “It’s no different than how I’ve worked with Brady in the past, and running time was never discussed.”
fauvism — about Hungarian Jewish architect Laszlo Todt (played by Adrian Brody) who escapes the Holocaust and emigrates to the United States, where he meets a wealthy industrialist who changes his life — in VistaVision format Shooting, this format is rarely used today. The higher resolution due to rotating the image allowed 70mm prints to be produced for film festivals and screenings, although Crowley never shot in a format larger than 35mm.
The film was shot in 34 days. “I’m very time-conscious, and Brady is a very pragmatic director. He doesn’t shoot too many stories and doesn’t give himself too many options,” Crowley explained. “Basically, what you see in the movie is what we shot. He really knew what he wanted, and some of the most crucial scenes in the movie were shot in one take.
One of the scenes (spoilers ahead) involves Felicity Jones’ character Ozbert accusing Guy Pearce’s Harrison Lee Van Buren of being a rapist at a dinner party at the Van Buren household. The scene starts off peacefully but eventually descends into chaos as she is violently attacked by Van Buren’s son (played by Joe Alwyn) and kicked out of the home. Hungarian Steadicam operator Attila Pfeffer shot the sequence, and Corbett wanted it to feel like a Steadicam-to-Handheld-to-Steadicam shot. The scene is also a 360-degree shot, usually shot with a single shot.
“Attila took the Steadicam and operated it like a handheld camera with the Steadicam hanging on it,” Crowley explained, adding that in terms of blocking that scene, “It was very challenging. , but we managed to hide something as best we could”, using lighting as a resource.
Crowley on the set of Brady Corbet fauvismshot in 35mm VistaVision format.
Provided by A24
To help Crowley prepare to shoot some of the Brutalist architecture in the film, Corbett gave him a book on specific architectural styles, and Crowley studied the images before going out to shoot. He also studied the work of modernist painters such as Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper for inspiration.
The most challenging scenes for Crowley were the ones where he didn’t light at all and relied on nature to do the job. In the scene, Van Buren leads his guests up a hillside where he plans to build his so-called institute.
“It was like a six-page scene, but because of the lighting, the whole shoot took about 40 minutes,” Crowley said. “It felt like twilight was turning into night, so we couldn’t have any strong sunlight. We had to pull this off in the time frame after the sun went down, and it’s definitely a testament to the cast and Brady that we managed to pull it off. .if they failed we would have to go back and there would be a light or weather outage.
Weather also caused problems in another scene. There was no fog when they were on location in Tuscany’s Carrara marble quarry, but when they returned to film the day Laszlo and Van Buren searched for marble fragments to complete “The Institute,” the entire quarry was shrouded In thick fog.
Guy Pearce’s Van Buren character wanted to build a research institute on a hillside, and Crowley shot the institute 40 minutes before sunset using only natural light, which was a surprise to everyone on the set. It’s a challenge personally.
Provided by A24
“There was a lot of available light, and we really loved everything there,” he said, “but we had different ideas about what that place felt like. When we showed up, we couldn’t see anything. But now this is a movie The whole sequence takes on a very strange, dreamlike quality.
He added: “This is probably my favorite scene in the movie, and it starts with these VistaVision images, almost like a picture of Sebastião Salgado, where you can see hundreds of people working in a South American mine. It’s interesting because The film’s most brutal acts take place in this setting—Laszlo is attacked by Van Buren—but the landscape itself is also subject to brutal human assault.
Visit THR.com/behindthescreen for other stories that shed light on the making of the film.
This story first appeared in the December Independence issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
