Bring on the shackles - I'm your prisoner
I think that film is still an artform and it doesn't really matter if you're using a digital camera or a film camera.
I'm always looking for directors who are very strong, they have great ideas, but on the other hand, that need help. It means they rely mostly on my eyes.
In a period piece, particularly a fantasy, the lighting is your own choice, the lenses are your own choice. It's really a great thing for a cinematographer to do. Everything is open for you. You can even be more creative and you can use more shadows than usual.
Kubrick was one of those directors who actually did practically everything in his movies. He actually directed, photographed, wrote, lit, edited - everything. A few people can be like that.
When we came to America, the movies here needed a "new wave. " European films looked totally different than American movies, which were these lush, glossy pictures with this elaborate production design.
Mexican cinematographers Gabriel Figueroa and Emilio Fernandez were students of both Sergei Eisenstein and Toland. Their exteriors and lighting were gorgeous. And the films Ingmar Bergman did with Sven Nykvist were exceptional.
We’re too Christian to enjoy sin and too sinful to enjoy Christ. We’ve got just enough Jesus to be informed, but not enough to be transformed.
I had spent time in New York, where I loved the idea that theater could be done up in tiny little rooms rather than for lots of money on a big stage, and be tied to ordinary life.
I try to visualize geometric shapes and patterns slowly spinning and expanding into infinity.
The denigration of those we love always detaches us from them in some degree. Never touch your idols: the gilding will stick to your fingers.