Cold Souls (2009)
Paul Giamatti stars as an anxiety-ridden actor in Cold Souls who is a fictionalized version of Giamatti himself, who is obsessed with deep freezing, and ultimately aims to recover his soul. Using color grading and blocking dexterously, the video is simply yet beautifully shot. As the fluorescent lights of anxiety-inducing offices and clinics cast light blues and stoic grays, the cold bureaucracy of the soul-freezing business is evident.
The sepia lighting of a few quaint, incandescent lamps is indicative of the warmth and comfort of human relationships.
Similarly, Giamatti often shares frames with the soul doctor, played by David Strathairn, whereas with his wife Claire, played by Emily Watson, whose relationship becomes increasingly strained as the film progresses, they both occupy frames in increased solitude. Additionally, the film uses slow, sweeping shots throughout; the camera gives the audience information in steps. The close-up shots of human and machine movements coupled with the camerawork reinforce the anxious intake of and fixation on cinematic happenings. Giamatti and a small child are the only interruptions to a completely blank landscape in a particularly striking piece of cinematography.
Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?: An Animated Conversation with Noam Chomsky (2013)
Noam Chomsky, a renowned linguist, philosopher, and anarchist, appears in this 2013 animated documentary by Michel Gondry. The animation in the film is awe-inspiring at its most basic level. Gordy uses a type of sketch animation style with neon bright colors and words, often over a black background.
Despite being visually stunning and seamlessly engaging, the film’s beauty isn’t limited to its interaction with the viewer’s eye. The animated frames unfold in real-time with the contents of the interview as if they were in conversation with it. There is a subtle grace to the way the titular conversation dictates the animation’s flow. As many documentaries use interview footage in a formulaic fashion, showing the interviewee on camera as he or she tells their story, Gondry emphasizes Chomsky’s abstract and theoretical nature by incorporating these qualities into his visual representation of it.
Shigatsu no Nagai Yume [Summer Blooms] (2017)
Summer Blooms, a film by Ryûtarô Nakagawa, is the story of a student and a teacher’s relationship after they have stopped teaching and going to school. While dealing with suicide, grief, abuse, and love, the movie makes generous use of slow shots, emphasizing the emotional intensity of character interactions. Intimate close-up shots ensure intimacy, and the use of natural and soft lighting creates a dreamy and melancholy atmosphere in which the characters can contemplate their emotional burdens brought about by life’s trials.
Whether the composition is composed of hands, houses, or people, the deliberate presence of balanced shots creates a sense of interconnectedness and precarity between the characters. Due to the narrative’s focus on people and their struggle to coexist, the camera quite literally places humans in the middle of the frame, whether it is a single person or people together. Each of these is choreographed with care to create an intense narrative. The cinematography and direction in the work bring sadness to the framing and movement which allows the narrative to breathe.
Koyaanisqatsi (1982)
Koyaanisqatsi, also known as Life Out of Balance, is a 1982 experimental film by Godfrey Reggio. The film is a meditation on a collection of images without any narration or dialogue. Together with cinematographer Ron Fricke, Reggio and Fricke allow the landscapes and scenes they shoot to convey their own beauty. The use of time lapses is frequently used to show the progression of the day, the movement of clouds and of people, and the ever-evolving interactions of light and movement in various landscapes.
Philip Glass’ hypnotic score serves more as a visual collage than a narrative piece. With its steady pacing, the footage allows for the viewer to find patterns in unlikely places, whether it is the refracted heat lines emanating from a passenger plane, a skyscraper’s windowpane, or the smoke billowing from an exploding rocket. Koyaanisqatsi, meaning ‘life out of balance’ in Hopi, respectfully gives the stage to images, allowing them to tell their own stories. In the unadulterated scenes of industrialized life, beauty is abundant.
Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001)
Cuaron’s 2001 Y Tu Mama Tambien, a road movie starring Diego Luna, Gael Garca Bernal, and Maribel Verd*, makes exquisite use of its urban setting to create a powerful cinematic experience. Cuarón uses the expansive landscape of Mexico to convey themes of isolation, adolescence, intimacy, economic disparity, and the pressure of maintaining social standing. Unflinching shots of blue skies, meandering roads, and vast oceans give the film a magical wistfulness that reinforces and highlights the underlying tension and sadness in the film. In addition, three-shots and two-shots are used throughout the film to highlight the sometimes uneven nature of the relationships between the three main characters.
In addition to the heavy reliance on improvisation in the script, the film makes extensive use of natural lighting and minimal technological interference. Y Tu Mama Tambien is characterized by its hyper-realistic portrayal of people, landscapes, and relationships. Cuarón lets these elements of the film unfold naturally on camera rather than forcing them through scripted dialogue or artificial lighting.
