2015 Muriel Awards: Best Cinematography

Over the last ten years, I have thought of the Muriel Awards as a kind of corrective to the Oscars, in which the voters honor their favorite achievements of the year, removed from the echo chamber of Oscar-season hype. That said, sometimes there are occasions in which our collective taste has dovetailed with the Academy’s. This year’s cinematography is one of those occasions, with our top four finishers all being Oscar nominees as well. I don’t think that’s a case of us buying into the buzz – after all, there are plenty of more eccentric choices bubbling just under these – but a strange and wonderful instance in which the Academy actually manages to get it right. Sort of like how it would be if Don Hertzfeldt won tomorrow night, come to think of it.

Anyway…

Third place:

The Revenant (director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki) [120 points / 20 votes]

Second place:

Mad Max: Fury Road (director of photography John Seale) [195 points / 30 votes]

And the Muriel goes to…

Carol (director of photography Edward Lachman) [199 points / 30 votes]

 

“Edward Lachman has lensed his fair share of notable pictures from Desperately Seeking Susan to The Limey to A Prairie Home Companion, but he's reached his peak by becoming Todd Haynes' director of photography of choice, and Lachman and Haynes have reached the pinnacle of their collaboration with Carol.


“Far From Heaven, I'm Not There, and Mildred Pierce all look fantastic in their own ways, but with Carol, Lachman crafts his most integrated, coherent look. With Far From Heaven, he already recaptured the colorfully lush Russell Metty look in Douglas Sirk films like All That Heaven Allows and Imitation of Life. Carol recalls that but also adds a more modernist sheen. It's less expressionistic and more austere and controlled. Like the story itself, the look is cool and unsoiled on the surface but just underneath, it's roiling with emotion. Many shots frame the characters in windows or behind glass or boxed in by their surroundings or find their images in reflections. The story is about them gradually finding freedom, shaking off societal constraints to be their real selves. A lot of the film is shot in ambient pastels, especially cool greens and light beige, but in the more emotional moments, Lachman indulges in more shadow and higher contrast. Lachman's delicate light moving between muted and rich colors perfectly captures Carol's slow, smoldering romance and it makes his work here the year's best cinematography. ~ George Wu

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