For those interested in how movies look, the cinematographer, or director of photography, is an integral crew member in helping the director achieve his vision. One of the most notable people to hold that position is Roger Deakins, whose first feature-film job in that role was Chris Boger’s Cruel Passion (1977), which Deakins described as “soft porn” and, at the time of this writing, his last was Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light (2022). In between, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from both the American Society of Cinematographers in 2011 and the British Society of Cinematographers in 2015. He shot three films won the Academy Awards Best Picture: the Coen brothers’ Fargo, Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind, and again with the Coens, No Country for Old Men. Individually, he won Oscars for Best Cinematography for Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 and Mendes’ 1917.
Buy Reflections on CinematographyIn Reflections on Cinematography, Deakins has written a captivating memoir that focuses on milestones of his career and life. In the Prologue, he reveals his mission statement on films: “Many people equate the craft of cinematography with creating beautiful images. In contrast, I believe the cinematographer’s role is to support the story, to immerse the viewer rather than create attractive but ultimately uninvolving ‘eye candy.’”
He writes of his parents “meet[ing] during World War II,” and of his mother “develop[ing] multiple sclerosis in 1949, the year [he] was born.” She died nine years later. He then takes readers through his schooling, including the government-sponsored National Film School where he began to learn his craft.
He went into documentaries, covered in the “Around the World” chapter He shot Michael Radford’s Van Morrison in Ireland taken from shows in “Belfast and Dublin in February 1979,” and a few years later shot Radford’s 1984. In between, he shot music videos, most notably Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit,” Eric Clapton’s “Forever Man,” and Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing.”
Focusing on his films and what went into creating them, Deakins moves chronologically through the decades, offering some technical details about the equipment used but he doesn’t overwhelm or bore the reader with too much jargon. Stills and pre-production sketches accompany the text. He writes about the aforementioned Oscar winners, and most of the films in which he worked with a director(s) multiple times. He partnered with the Coen brothers 12 times, starting with Baron Fink, ending with Hail Caesar!. In between was The Man Who Wasn’t There, a black and white film shot in color. For those interested in the technical, it is of interest to read Deakins explain how he shot and printed the film stock to achieve the preferred look. A less successful film like The Ladykillers isn’t given the same attention.
Deakins also covers lesser-known films, such as the trio set and shot in Africa in the late ’80s: Harry Hook’s The Kitchen Toto, Radford’s White Mischief, and Bob Rafelson’s Mountains of the Moon. The work required to accomplish his tasks are just as compelling. Michael Apted’s Thunderheart might be the most significant film he has worked on as that’s where he met his wife James, the film’s script supervisor.
The year 2008 was a busy year. Not only did he shoot John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt, Stephen Daldry’s Revolutionary Road with Chris Menges, and Mendes’ The Reader, he put on a cinematography seminar for Pixar because director “Andrew [Stanton] and the team wanted to approach the look of [Wall-E] (a sci-fi epic as if shot on film in the 1970s) informed by the mechanics and aesthetics of live-action cinematography.” This led to being involved with other animated projects such as “Rango from beginning to end” and for Dreamworks Animation, the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy, The Croods, and Rise of the Guardians.
In Reflections on Cinematography, Deakins steps out from behind the scenes and takes a well-deserved turn in the spotlight as he reflects on his 45-year career. For those intrigued by what it takes to create the images that play across the silver screen, even if one doesn’t know the difference between a grip and a gaffer, this book is highly recommended.
