Film review. An analysis of the cinematography of Only God Forgives, by Nicolas Winding Refn

Only God Forgives is the last film by the Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Bronson, Valahalla Rising) which was selected in last year Cannes Film Festival official Competition.

The plot. A drug smuggler owns a Thai box gym in Bangkok as a front for his drug operations. When his brother is killed, his mother, and chief of the organization, arrives urging him to find his brother's killer and revenge him.

Cinematography: Larry Smith

Camera: Arri Alexa Plus, Red Epic

Lenses:  Cooke S4

Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Format: ARRIRAW, Redcode RAW

Film Stock: -

Only God Forgives is the second collaboration between director  Nicolas Winding Refn and cinematographer Larry Smith (The Guard, Bronson) who worked as gaffer and lighting cameraman in Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, Barry Lyndon and The Shining. His election for digital and cameras such as the Arri Alexa and the Red Epic is justified not only for budget reasons but also because they were working with a 7 weeks schedule with numerous locations, so they had to be quick and fast at shooting.

The image is softened with  the lenses used, the Cooke S4, as we can notice by its signature: the octagonal iris. Borders are soft, contrast isn't high and the transition to out-of-focus areas is soft too, while skin tones are slightly warmer. Definitely one of the best solutions to give the digital format a cine-like look.

Most of the times Smith chooses a one-light-set-up to light the scene. It is often a strong light which falls onto the characters after passing trough some kind of grid, painting patterns of strong shadows on character's face and body, which is visually interesting. This kind of lighting is obviously theatrical and it is reinforced with the beautiful use of on set lights, like Chinese lanterns in the karaoke club  or the lights on the wall at the restaurant, creating a more natural and diffused light.

But the characteristic of Smith's cinematography which is predominant throughout the film is the use of colored filters on light. In order to recreate the ambient of Bangkok and of the places where most of the scenes where shots, lights are filtered with red gels. Sometimes different colours filters, mainly blue, are used so colour contrast is strongly increased. There are scenes, like the fight one,  lit with a red tone ambient light  while the key light lighting the characters is white: bright neons and strong reds coexist to transmit the feeling of a city and a story filled up with blood, eroticism, violence and darkness.

Anyway, Only God Forgives' cinematography is meant to visually impress only. There are some beautiful images in the film but they are just that: they don't enhance character's feelings or the story which itself is also meant to impress and is missing something that has to be basic for a film: content.

Film review. An analysis of the cinematography of À Perdre la Raison, directed by Joachim Lafosse

À Perdre la Raison (Our Children is the title in English) is a film by Belgian director Joachim Lafosse (Élève Libre,  Nue Propriétè) whose story was freely inspired by a tragedy  happened 5 years ago that shocked Belgium.

The plot.  Mounir (Moroccan immigrant) and Murielle fall in love, get married and have 4 children, but they share their hous and life with André a doctor who has been taking care of Mounir since he arrive to Belgium. The situation generates tensions, especially inside the fragile Murielle.

Cinematography: Jean-François Hensgens

Camera:Aaton Penelope, Arricam LT, Moviecam Compact MK2

Lenses: Cooke S4

Aspect ratio: 2.35:1

Format: 35mm

Film Stock: Kodak Vision 5219 500T, Kodak Vision 5205 250D

Jean-François Hensgens (Darktide, District 13: Ultimtum) is a young cinematographer from Belgium who already worked with director Joachim Lafosse years ago for a short-film. The approach they made to tell the story visually is very natural. The choice of film and the Cooke S4 lenses was made in this sense. Cooke lenses produce a neat and soft image, low contrast and a soft transition from focused to out-of-focus areas. But, I think that the main reason why Cooke lenses were chosen is because of their colour reproduction: they are generally warmer than other lenses; in fact, the beginning of the film is warm, with golden colours: this helps the audience to connect with the family and the story and be closer to them; later, this sense of warmth tends to disappear till the final moments of the film: when Maurielle is driving and crying alone, she is lit by the sun-light but it is not yellowish as normally it is represented: it is white and harsh, it hurts.

The way of lighting is naturalistic: windows and lamps on set are used as source lights and Hesgens' job here is so good that you can hardly say he lit the scene. He reinforced the light coming through windows but softening it with Chimeras or Softubes, achieving a light which is natural but always diffused. Light is always bright and colourful, apart from some scenes where the landscape or the sky are in the background and for compensating the exposure he tends to under-expose the actors, which doesn't really work for the approach of not making a dark look film.

The use of camera contributes to the naturalistic look too. It's always hand-held with an easyrig following the actors all around, and often they are framed with the back facing the camera, reminding a docu-film style. The shaky camera not only allows the audience to be there with the actors and experience what they do, but also reflects the instability of the three characters, particularly Maurielle's.  The focal length used barely goes under the 50mm: telephoto lenses are preferred producing shallower depth of field and constraining the camera to move back. This results in the negative space being always filled with blurred objects which most of the time is a door frame due to location space availability, a quite pretty aesthetic that also transmits the impossibility of the characters of crossing and leaving their boundaries.

À Perdre la Raison is a nice movie that tells us an horrible tragedy in a simple and elegant way with a fine cinematography that serves well to the story.