Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.Ĭopyright © 2019 NPR. And he came back the next day and was back on set as if he had just been down the road to buy some milk from the store.ĭEL BARCO: Legendary yet unassuming, cinematographer Roger Deakins says he'd rather be with his trusty film crew working out the best camera angles and lighting to tell each new story.
We had to stop shooting for it, and he hates to stop shooting. He actually almost had to be sent to the Oscars last year. It's fun, you know?ĭEL BARCO: Despite his success, Deakins remains low-key and humble, says director Crowley.ĬROWLEY: You know, there is an irony that this sort of master of light is deeply uncomfortable when there's ever a bit of light shown on him. And that's what's so great for me is going from - well, from "Blade Runner" to "Goldfinch" to "1917." It's like the three of the most different movies I've ever done, really. But I think it's choosing the right style and the feel for each individual project. It's coming from somewhere real.ĭEL BARCO: Deakins tailors his shooting style to each film, from the formal compositions of "The Goldfinch" to the handheld camera of "1917," his upcoming World War I picture.ĭEAKINS: Photographically, they're as far apart as here and the moon. In each location, Deakins filmed with as much natural light as possible.ĭEAKINS: I want people to feel that yeah, that's real. I have beer at my house.ĭEL BARCO: The film follows Theo around New York and eventually to Amsterdam. OAKES FEGLEY: (As Young Theo Decker) What? In our film, which was more naturalistic, I would say he's obviously still a sculptor, but the light presence is there, like a emotional character.ĭEL BARCO: For "The Goldfinch," that included shooting at dusk or under harsh street lights at a location meant to be the bleak outskirts of Las Vegas, as Theo and as Ukrainian-expat friend Boris wander around getting drunk and high.įINN WOLFHARD: (As Young Boris) You want to get drink? Barrett says Deakins' artistic eye still shines through each project.īARRETT: In "Blade Runner," he's a sculptor. His work is very effective and yet somewhat invisible.ĭEL BARCO: Production designer K.K. K K BARRETT: I think Roger's a bit of a minimalist. Deakins says he loves to collaborate with everyone on the set as he maps out each camera angle.ĭEAKINS: It's one of the most enjoyable parts of working on a film, really. As a filmmaker, he soon was in demand from top directors the Coen brothers, Sam Mendes and Denis Villeneuve. He began as a still photographer, then shot music videos and documentaries around the world. But it's always saying look at this, rather than look at me.ĭEL BARCO: Deakins says he wanted to be a painter when he was growing up in a seaside resort town in England. And that's what I love about his work is that, you know, every frame does have the feeling of it - that it could be a painting or it could be a proper photograph, beautifully captured image. JOHN CROWLEY: He doesn't favor fancy effects, and he doesn't favor frames or shots that ever say look at me. Director John Crowley praises Deakins for having composed the film's artistic yet unpretentious images.
He rigs his own lighting, goes location scouting, and helps stage the actors. ROGER DEAKINS: The idea of this little kid getting up and just being this great, big landscape is there were some Andrei Tarkovsky Russian movie, you know what I mean? (Laughter) He's - great nowhere, because it much more about what was in his head.ĭEL BARCO: Deakins operates the camera himself. All my fault.ĭEL BARCO: Cinematographer Roger Deakins uses light and camera movements to interpret what in the book were Theo's fragmented memories - his mother's hand on his shoulder, the moment she walks away fading into white, Theo staggering in shock through the smoky remains of the bombed-out museum. For years, Theo is haunted by the tragedy, and he holds onto a Dutch painting he plucked from the wreckage, the Goldfinch.ĪNSEL ELGORT: (As Adult Theo Decker) The painting. It follows 13-year-old Theo Decker, who loses his mother in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: The film is adapted from Donna Tartt's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. NPR's Mandalit del Barco reports that Deakins has two films out this year, starting with "The Goldfinch." The cinematographer Roger Deakins has shot some of the most evocative films of the past three decades, from "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" to "The Big Lebowski" to "Blade Runner 2049," for which he won an Oscar.
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