Film review. An analysis of the cinematography of Rush, By Ron Howard

Rush is the last feature by Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind, The Da Vinci Code, Cinderella Man...) which tries (succeedingly) to recreate an evocation of the years of glory of Formula 1 competition. Not sure if people who don't follow F1 might like it, though.

The plot. Based on a true story, the film follows the rivalry between  two 1970's  F1 drivers, Niki Lauda and James Hunt, from their beginning till the famous and exciting 1976 season.

Cinematography: Anthony Dod Mentle

Camera:Arri Alexa Plus, Arri Studio, Canon Eos C300, IndiCam GS2K

Lenses: Bausch & Lomb Super Baltar

Aspect ratio: 2.35:1

Format: ARRIRAW

Film Stock: -

Anthony Dod Mentle (Slumdog Millionaire, Antichrist, Trance) was the man in charge of the cinematography of Rush. It was its first collaboration with Ron Howard thus he managed to convince the director to shoot his first feature in digital. The British cinematographer made a great job in achieving to enhance the story visually by the camera angles used, sizes of shots, camera movements and lens used along with the constant presence of flares.

The 70's look of the film is the first characteristic of Rush cinematography the audience notice since the very first sequence. But it's a kind of false one because there's no downgraded, saturated and predictable look typical of the seventies. The colour palette used is brilliant; colours are really vivid and sometimes they pop up in the shot like during the scenes of rainy Grand Prix or the one of the rendez-vous between Hunt and Suzy, where the rest of colours is desaturated or fall into grey due to light. He achieved this look also thanks to the heavy presence of a really organic grain (which is something I really love to see).

Apart from a brilliant job in post production, this was the result of combining  one of the best digital camera on the market, the Arri Alexa Plus, with its latitude and resolution, with  very old lenses like the 60's Bausch & Lomb lenses, which added aberrations and beautiful flares to the image. Dod Mentle also used a Soft Grad filter to further soften the image, producing a very soft and kind of dirty look which remind us of a 70's film stock. The soft filter anyway, produced blurred out of focus highlights (typical with this kind of filters) which sometimes I found a bit distracting.

The use of camera is amazing. It get us into the action with close ups or extreme close ups of the two rivals and the cars, where the camera is placed practically everywhere to show us every single detail important to the story: the cockpit, the silencer, the motor itself...

Dod Montle himself wore a burn suit and stepped into Niki Lauda burning car (whose accident was recreated in all details following the only footage available of the crash) to shoot subjective point of view trough the flames, sitting the audience with Lauda.

Another remarkable shot is delivered with the use of the IndiCam, a mini HD camera, that is placed inside the helmet Lauda try to wear while he is recovering in the hospital after the crash. Once again we adopt Lauda's point of view and we really pull the helmet despite the bounds and suffer with him.

Every now and then Dutch tilt is used: the camera angle is deliberately slanted on one side which adds a dramatic effect and suits well the unease, desperation and even the inner agitation hidden behind the apparent calm of the two characters.

Light has a natural feel throughout the whole film; light sources are always justified but  a bit  exaggerated to create more contrast and lots of flares that better suit the story, with lots of situations on the edge,  and the characters, always on the spotlight and pushing to the limit. The result is visually pleasant.

To shoot the Grand Prix scenes, 7 to 10 Arri cameras were used plus lots of IndiCams mounted everywhere on the car to cover every angle even subjective shots at 300Kmph; lots of CGI was employed though, for crashes, flips and recreation of circuits. Despite of that (no, I'm not very fond of today digital tricks) Rush is a very entertaining film, very well directed by Ron Howard, in which the director and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mentle, along with the rest of the crew, managed to transmit the 1970`s Formula 1 atmosphere and the adrenalin characters feel.

Film review. An analysis of the cinematography of Trance, by Danny Boyle

Trance is the last work by very well known director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Shining, Slumdog millionaire, 147 Hours...) shot during a break among the two tears preparation for the London Olympic show.

The plot. An art auctioneer who joined a group of criminals for an inside job, has to seek the help of hypnosis to find a lost painting. But the line between reality, suggestion and desire becomes more and more undefined.

Cinematography: Anthony Dod Mentle

Camera: Arri Alexa, Phantom Gold, Canon Eos 1D MarkIV, Canon Eos C500, Indiecam IndiePov

Lenses: Zeiss Ultra Prime, Fujinon Alura, Hawk V-Lite, Canon, Indiecam lenses

Aspect ratio: 2.35:1

Format: ARRIRAW, Canon cinema Raw, H264, CinemaDNG

Film Stock: -

Danny Boyle confirmed again his usual collaborator Anthony Dod Mentle as cinematographer for Trance. In the first image of the film the light is quite theatrical and expressionist, then the following scene the light becomes natural. I could not understand the meaning of it till the plot develops: the whole movie is a game between reality, hypnotic suggestions and lies, creating confusion among characters and audience. Mentle played with this confusion by using light in different ways, alternating naturalism and expressionism with a tendency for the last one, never, or almost never, justifying the light source and always positioning the light source on the side of the character creating a strong contrast (1:3 or even greater sometimes) on the face of the actors leaving it half in shadow, with a stronger split for Vincent Cassel and James McAvoy and a softer one for Rosario Dawson. This lighting set-up creates a chiaroscuro throughout the film that highlights the fact that no one of the characters say entirely the truth and everyone seems to be hiding something. 

The use of the rim light helps this concept too: it is quite strong, often used as key light, sometimes exaggerated (and blowing some areas of the image) and always helping to create a sense of mystery, strength and menace. Memories play an important part in the film: Mentle gives them different texture and aesthetic using different cameras and a huge selection of lenses: of course he used the Phantom for the high frame rates shot and the indiPov , the world smallest HD camera shooting RAW, for placing the camera in unconventional places; when shooting with  the Eos camera, he added a soft diffusion filter on the lens to soften the hard line  Canon cameras produce. The choice of the focal length is never extreme, apart from few shots were an extreme wide angle lens is used and where the camera is placed at a very low angle. 

There's no camera movement worth to point out because Mentle used instead peculiar locations to help telling the story visually: they are full of shimmering surfaces, creating multiple reflections of the characters, in great consonance with the plot. When he could not manipulate the surface, he used flares. Another interesting decision is the use of colour in some scenes: a single colour pops out vivid from the rest which are quite dull, like the scene of the Selfridges bag.

Anthony Dod Memtle made a very good job with the cinematography of Trance, a film well crafted and entertaining, but, honestly not as good as other Danny Boyle's works: he has proved that he can make far better films.

Cinematography: Laurie Rose

Camera: Red MX

Aspect ratio: 2.35:1

Format: RedCode RAW

Film Stock: -

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