I saw Birdman at Telluride Film Festival and was blown away. Emmanuel Lubezki is amazing not because he made it all look like one shot, but because the execution was so spot on for the story.

When Chivo shoots, his own style is always woven underneath a much grander, much more specific style that he has created for the film. The acting, production design, editing, and all the other elements work so seamlessly because he tailors to the film and not to a stupid desire to break cinematic camera/lighting boundaries. Which is WHY he ends up breaking so many of these boundaries anyway. Birdman was just begging for a constantly moving, following, omnipresent camera.

When Deakins brought in Digital Intermediate for Oh Brother Where Art Thou he wasn’t thinking “I’m going to change cinematography forever” (which he did). He was thinking “I’ll give this movie tone, one that supports a bizarre odyssey, runaway themes, folk songs, desperation, family, betrayal, loyalty.” He wanted a look that connected directly to the film, that backed the somewhat loose (in my opinion a bit strangled) narrative of the Coens and cemented it. The yellowed skies and the perfectly tinted grit of the look was beautiful to watch, but not distracting. Bad cinematography is distracting.

Chivo did a ton of extremely long shots for Children of Men, done in a different respect altogether. The shots in Birdman, drag you along, they actually pull your emotions into the scene, throw you on the floor, and make it so you can’t look away; you’re in that damn theater with them. Children of Men sneaks along, always anticipating, always bated breath, always watching, always wondering what’s next. Such different movies, such different tones, same cinematographer. Chivo shows that there is no limit to what movies can accomplish and that cameras are just tools to get there. There are no rules, film is such a young art and none of us know quite where it’s headed. We’re moving on from the classic Spielberg format (not that that format is bad) and discovering new possibilities

Lubezki’s body of work is unbelievable and I cannot wait to see what else he does.

I acknowledge that I mentioned Deakins in a post titled “Chivo the Great.”  Whoops.