Not this again: "The eye behind such films as No Country for Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James, [Roger] Deakins takes Bond into the digital age. Mendes promises his darker tone will bleed directly over to the physical look of the movie. 'I've worked with Roger twice [on Jarhead and Revolutionary Road], so I feel very comfortable in that relationship. There's a shorthand. You look at each other and know what you're thinking. He's a true artist. Right from the start of directing, I realized the most important two relationships were with my leading actors and the director of photography. You'll see in the teaser trailer that it has a very distinct look that does have elements of noir and British '60s. It's very English — a lot is set in England.'" [Hollywood.com]
Yes, yes. The King's Speech will win, and no matter how hard we try to tell ourselves any other film has a chance in hell, its abiding safeness will triumph Sunday night. But I'd like to think the Academy will spread the love around -- a win for The Social Network here, a Natalie Portman winner's guffaw there, and some gold for Hailee Steinfeld. Hope she brings her blingitude for the big night.
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The startling beauty of Joel and Ethan Coen's Oscar-nominated True Grit -- and in most Coen brothers films, for that matter -- owes to frequent collaborator and award-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins, who's lensed all but one of their films since 1991's Barton Fink. But as much as the nostalgic Western serves as a throwback to simpler times, simpler heroes (and heroines), and a yearning to stick to one's principles in the face of obsolescence, True Grit could also mark a wistful point in Deakins career -- his last film shot on film.
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Much of the emotional power of Joel and Ethan Coen's Best Picture contender True Grit comes from the contributions of longtime collaborator and nine-time Oscar nominee Roger Deakins, a cinematographer whose compositions and visual choices lend the Western a subtle, nostalgic quality. It's fitting, then, that when Deakins played My Favorite Scene with Movieline recently, he pointed toward a film that also utilizes the understated to great -- but very different -- effect.
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