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Roger Deakins must be getting rather fed up with the Academy Awards as this weekend marked the ninth time that his nomination for Best Cinematography has failed to deliver the goods. It’s something that for a man who has organised brilliant visual palettes for films like, The Shawshank Redemption, The Assassination of Jesse James, worked with Scorsese and most frequently with the Coen brothers, must be getting rather frustrating.
Arguably, Deakins’ greatest skill is his ability to create fascinating and rich environments, something that is consistently apparent in his work. Indeed, his first feature film (after working on numerous documentaries) was Michael Radford’s version of 1984, a film in which the atmosphere of despair and nightmare is brilliantly displayed through the camerawork. In recent times, he has created other rich and believable worlds - most notably in the sublime Assassination of Jesse James, a film in which Deakins’ work perfectly conjures up a strange and beautiful image of the old west with brilliant and haunting results. Throughout, scenes are captured with a precision and eloquence that one might expect if Terrence Malick had directed it. It has truly wonderful imagery throughout, most notably in the train robbery early on in which James and his gang are perfectly silhouetted against the fog and steam to create a strange form of substance to the legend.
Deakins is probably best known for his extensive work with the Coen brothers, who seem intent on using his skills at every possible opportunity (with Deakins having shot eleven of their last twelve films). In each one, he has created a memorable environment, from the bizarre awkwardness of Barton Fink with its dark, bleak and claustrophobic apartments to the wide bright open plains of America in O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Perhaps it is in the Coen’s more dramatic and less quirky work that this shows best, most notably in the strange icy surroundings of Fargo, a film largely dependent on its sense of place, or alternatively on the vast plains of the American west with astonishing work providing the eerie bleakness of No Country for Old Men and, most recently, True Grit. Deakins’ other notable collaboration is with Sam Mendes, having shot for him both Jarhead and Revolutionary Road. Those films are both good but admittedly flawed pieces of work, that do still have staggering photography throughout, most noticeably during the scene in Jarhead in which the marines move across a landscape ravaged by burning oil wells.
Deakins is currently putting the finishing touches to Andrew Niccol’s science-fiction dystopia Now, a film about a society that does not age and in which (as a result of growing population) longevity may be purchased at a price. It seems to be an interesting concept - hopefully the world will be fleshed out with Deakins’ usual skill and determination to create a stunning vision.
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