Ask Ed Lachman about the use of color and the Kinematographer gives a perfect layman in art education.
“Why are hospitals blue and green? It is restful, peaceful colors. Why are fast food restaurants red and orange? As they activate our passion and our appetite, Lachman said in his relaxed, easy -going voice. “Theorist on painting, such as Goethe in his book 1810 or Josef Albers in the 1960s, has talked a lot about how color affects the viewer. Everything is very primitive and emotional and I love to play with it. “
Lachman certainly plays with color, as well as four different film formats, in Pablo Larraín ‘”Maria”, which shows the last days of opera star Maria Callas (Angelina Jolie). The work has got Lachman his fourth Oscar nomination, after nods for “Father from Heaven”, “Carol” and “El Conde.”
Lachman, who was known for his artificial, adventurous lens, recently marked his 50th year as a cinematographer. His first credit was 1974’s “The Lords of Flatbush”, followed by collaborations with many of the most important filmmakers on the Indie scene: Robert Altman, Steven Soderbergh, Sofia Coppola, Werner Herzog, Mira Nair, Gregory Nava, Todd Solondz, Paul Schrader, Wim Wenders and seven projects with Todd Haynes.
And it is a tribute to Lachman’s craft and reputation that for the second year in a row, his Oscar nomination marked the only recognition for the film he worked with, after Larraín’s black and white Satire “El Conde” last year. Lachman broke the hip during the 2022 production of “El Conde” in Chile, which led to a long recovery process that is still ongoing. But Larraín had been destroyed by his creative partnership and friendship with Lachman and wanted the relationship to continue for “Maria.”
“I thought Pablo might want to work with a European, as this was taken in Budapest and Paris,” said New York-based Lachman. “But he called and said he would really like me to do it. I have to admit Pablo’s vision. Thinking about this film’s aesthetics in the form of an opera really created what my pictures were. And in addition to the production designs’ work, the costume designer. And the other main aspect is Angelina Jolie and her exquisite, nuanced, heartbreaking performance. I was just very lucky to fall into a very creative group of artists. “
Lachman is a champion in film warehouses and lenses, which is important for the look and feeling of Mary. The film’s sequences set this week that led to her death in 1977 were filmed on the Golden-Hued 35mm movie; Scenes of Calla’s imagination were 16 mm; Moments in the public eye were 8 mm; And flashbacks were taken on black and white 35mm movie.
Lachman’s glass lenses for the black and white pictures, called Ultra Baltars, were of the same type as those used for films made in the 1940s, such as “Citizen Kane” and “The Magnificent Amberson” Flashbacks in “Maria” takes place.
“By using these different types of film, we can enter the inner world of the character,” Lachman said. “And for me, the camera does two different things in the film: one, it’s like a moving scene, where the camera becomes views on the audience in an opera. And then two, that’s an increased reality. Operas are not naturalistic – they offer a reality that is male, expressionist, through color and through contrast. And so even in Maria’s personal world in her apartment, I made it feel that we always look at an opera. “
For the interiors in Calla’s home, Larraín preferred to film wide angles in a real apartment and left some room for Lachman’s lighting equipment. So the chandelier lamps were covered with porcelain balls to offer more ambient temperatures, and the cinematographer put up gigantic, 90 feet from the cranes outside the apartment’s window with the sixth floor. Even at home, Callas was in the limelight.
“We did it in an increased way, with the mixed colors between the heat inside and the coolness that comes in the windows,” Lachman said. “So her apartment was like her nest.”
Lachman prefers an impressionistic attitude to the Biopic format. It is a philosophy he practiced in his cinematography of “El Conde”, which depicts Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet as an old vampire, and Haynes’ 2007 Bob Dylan Kaleidoscope, “I’m not there”, where six actors including Cate Blanchet played The music icon.
“Maria” is an extension of her belief that “the film language is metaphor,” he said. “That’s the strength of it. And even if you shoot a movie that is natural, you have still interpreted how to show something staged to portray the real world. Movies are an illusion of a reality, but what is reality but our illusion? “
He counts Larraín and Haynes among his cherished collaborators – both called him on the Oscar nomination day – and also points out the skill and skill in the film’s star.
“Angelina is also a director and she smiled when I told her: ‘I am very humble because you as a director have worked with some of the largest contemporary kinematographers: Roger Deakins, Anthony Dod Mantle, Seamus McGarvey.’ It was wonderful to have such good communication with her during the filming. Some actors can play to the frame, which means they have a deep, poetic understanding of film acts, and she is one of them.
In recent months, 78-year-old Lachman has been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Awards from the American Cinematheque and Cameraimage Festival. He comes out to Los Angeles for Oscars in early March, but with a feeling of enormous grief after the fire destroyed the city has held; He hopes that this year’s ceremony Jettison’s glitter.
He plans to start working on a new movie soon by Taiwanese director Midi Z, with one of the current best actors nominated. “I’m still definitely kind of outsider,” he said about the Oscar circus, with a laugh. “But I really appreciate getting this recognition. You know, I haven’t become for pasture yet. “
