Visions of Light

The person most responsible for what you see up on the silver screen in a darkened theater is not the writer, nor the director, nor the set designer, nor the producer. That person is the cinematographer. Film is a visual medium first, a story-telling medium second. Plot is not strictly necessary, but light is, and the structuring and shaping of that light is the most important job in movie-making. Just ask Marlene Dietrich or Greta Garbo (if you have a good psychic at hand); those ladies knew that the light on their faces had to come from the proper angle, and be at least 10% brighter than the light on anyone else. Choice of cameraman was always their first consideration in a movie. Some old black & white actresses went so far as to marry their cameramen.

Some directors were also cameramen (or started out that way), like Stanley Kubrick, but most are not, and the wise ones know that the choice of the right person to run the camera is the difference between an ordinary film and a masterpiece. The look of The Godfather was achieved by Gordon Willis, not Francis Ford Coppola, and while it would have been a cracking good story no matter who was running the camera, I firmly believe it would not be the memorable classic it is without that look, without that light that Willis captured. This movie is the best I’ve ever seen at making you look at the light.