Third place:
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (director of photography: Gokhan Tiryaki) [103 points / 15 votes]
Second place:
Skyfall (director of photography: Roger Deakins) [126 points / 21 votes]
And your winner...
The Master (director of photography: Mihai Malamaire Jr.) [201 points / 31 votes]
"When The Master was released last September, it often seemed as though cinephiles were less excited about the movie itself than the now-rare format in which it was shot. The question was never just, “When and where can I see The Master?” -- it was, “When and where can I see The Master in 70mm?”
While it’s hard to fault any kind of positive publicity for traditional celluloid in these increasingly digitized times -- in fact, I suspect director Paul Thomas Anderson and cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Jr.’s decision to shoot on 65mm stock was born from a desire to make a statement about film’s continued vitality as much as it was from artistic necessity -- I can’t help but think that all the hubbub about format distracted from the breadth of the film’s cinematographic accomplishments. Variations of the comment, “Just saw The Master; 70mm looks so beautiful,” popped up constantly on Twitter, which is a shame in that these viewers were undoubtedly responding more to the way Malaimare Jr. used the format than the format itself.
In fact, what struck me very early on in the film was, increased resolution aside, how different from the typical 70mm epic -- and Anderson’s previous work, for that matter -- Malaimare Jr.’s vision looked. Cropped to a confining 1.85:1 aspect ratio and told mostly in close-ups and medium shots (especially after protagonist Freddie Quell meets the eponymous Master, Lancaster Dodd), the film is usually downright claustrophobic. Even the grandest exteriors are more imposing than liberating; for instance, a long tracking shot in which Freddie runs across farmland sees the frame standing in for his tortured psyche, a prison that he cannot escape no matter how fast he sprints. Reoccurring shots of the ocean, so vividly and wondrously blue, may be breathtaking eye-candy, but they’re also ominous in that disturbed Freddie lies on the ship above.
Much of the film’s aesthetic serves as a nod to the melodramas of the ‘50s, roughly the period in which it is set. Those movies likewise explored characters’ internal struggles through lavish, outwardly gorgeous visuals (Technicolor), which seems like something of an oxymoron today but, as Malaimare Jr.’s work on The Master proves, the technique still works.
But that’s not to say that The Master is aesthetically traditionalist; in spite of its clear vintage influences, the visuals reflect Anderson’s deeply postmodern thematic undercurrent. Particularly of note in this regard are the close-ups of Freddie and Lancaster’s faces, which at times are so tight, it feels as though the camera is trying to drill into the cryptic men’s brains in a hopeless attempt to understand what they are thinking. We never really do understand, but the intimacy of these shots and the increased ability to focus on the actors’ ultra-nuanced performances allow us our best stab at theorizing.
The “small” stuff’s important, too: Malaimare Jr.’s attention to textures, subtle camera movements, telling transpositions between Freddie and Lancaster. Indeed, there’s a lot more to the appearance of The Master than the type of film it was shot on. But after giving said lot due credit, I must concede: you guys were right, 70mm is pretty fucking special, too." - Danny Baldwin
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