NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� The first photograph Roger Deakins ever took, in 1969 Bournemouth, England, shows a man and a woman quietly eating lunch on a bench outside a ladies room. A sign reads: 鈥淜eep it to yourself.鈥�
Deakins has taken countless images since that first snap. He's photographed 鈥淔argo,鈥� 鈥淜undun" and 鈥淭he Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.鈥� He's shot 鈥淣o Country for Old Men," 鈥淭he Man Who Wasn't There鈥� and 鈥淪kyfall.鈥� He's been nominated for 15 Oscars and won two. He's .
But if given the chance, he'd take that first black-and-white shot exactly the same way.
鈥淚 would take the same photograph now with the same situation, the same frame, the same lens,鈥� Deakins says, chuckling. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think my eye has changed much at all.鈥�
For decades, Deakins' eye has been one of the keenest in movies. It's not easy to pinpoint what makes a film's cinematography identifiably Deakins' work and yet it's obvious. Something about how seamlessly the images connect. A sometimes wry perspective. 鈥淚 try to find a bit of humor,鈥� he said in a recent interview from outside London.
Deakins' latest is Sam Mendes' starring Olivia Colman and Michael Ward as workers at a 1980s shoreline cinema in the south of England. The film, currently in theaters, returns Deakins to the coastal setting that he knew growing up in the English county of Devon and that deeply influenced him as a cinematographer and occasional still photographer. Deakins recently published some of his early photos in the stunning collection
Deakins and his wife and collaborator, James Deakins, also maintain one of the most essential podcasts on moviemaking. In each episode of they interview craftspeople, offering a window into the behind-the-scenes arts of filmmaking.
Deakins, a widely revered master of the form, has built an empire of light of his own. On a recent fall day, the 73-year-old, reflected on his life in image-making, his concern for the future of filmmaking and why 鈥淏yways" and the podcast shouldn't be taken as a new backward-looking impulse.
鈥淲hen people come up to you and gush over your career and stuff, there are moments like that where you go, 'I suppose I have done a lot,'" Deakins says. "But I don鈥檛 really think about it. You just go from project to project, year to year, and just see how things go. That鈥檚 how I live my life, really.鈥�
Remarks have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
AP: Cinematography is a hard-to-define art sometimes compared to painting or described as a grammar. To you, cinematography is...
Deakins: A visual interpretation of a story. To aid the director in a visual interpretation of a story, really. Filmmaking is a collaborative process. Where does directing end and cinematography begin? Where does production design begin and end? Wardrobe, costume, acting. The lines change depending on the combination of characters involved. It鈥檚 what's always been so interesting, really, about doing movies. It can even change project to project with the same people.
AP: Is the solitary nature of still-photography part of its appeal to you?
Deakins: It is, frankly. I find working on movies as a cinematographer really stressful. And it doesn鈥檛 get any less stressful the more experience I get, which is strange, really. I find more and more just wandering around with a still camera a great relaxation, really, because I don鈥檛 have any great pressure but my own pressure, I suppose.
AP: When you go out shooting, do you take a lot of pictures?
Deakins. I went out the other day for about five hours wandering around the coastline and I took one shot. (Laughs) Which is OK. It鈥檚 quite good if a get a shot. No, I don鈥檛 take very many. I enjoy the experience of just looking around and walking. The camera is kind of an excuse to do that, in a way.
AP: There are images in 鈥淏yways鈥� not so distant from some of the coastal scenes of 鈥淓mpire of Light.鈥�
Deakins: Well, yeah. I grew up in Torquay and we have a place in Devon. I鈥檝e lived by the coast all my life. We mainly live in L.A., but in Santa Monica so we鈥檙e only a few blocks from the beach. I don鈥檛 think I could live far from the ocean. I find it hard shooting in New Mexico or something for four months. Where鈥檚 the sea? I like that sense of the beyond, I suppose.
AP: Is it true you once studied meteorology?
Deakins: I did, yeah, as a kid. When I went to art college, in the first year you had to do some other discipline as well as art. I took some meteorology courses. Mainly meteorology came because I spent a lot of my time as a kid fishing. In fact, I was fishing today out in my boat. Of course that鈥檚 very weather-dependent. It鈥檚 all connected.
AP: You've surely spent many hours on film productions waiting for the weather to change. Do you have a good sense for it?
Deakins: Yeah, I do pretty well. Especially down here in Dedham because I鈥檝e lived here most of my life. Nowadays, you can just log on to the . If you can read them, you know what鈥檚 coming. It鈥檚 kind of amazing. I never had those when I was a teenager going fishing. We had to use whether the seaweed was wet or dry. My granny used to hang seaweed in the back of the house. When it was wet, it was going to rain.
AP: Directors must often turn to you to ask when the sun is coming out.
Deakins: Yeah, that鈥檚 one of the big pressures on a set, especially when you鈥檙e shooting a lot of exteriors. Like on 鈥�1917,鈥� that was a huge pressure because we didn鈥檛 want to shoot anything in the sun. Sam would say to me, 鈥淚t鈥檚 not your responsibility, Rog. You can鈥檛 control the weather.鈥� I said, 鈥淏ut, yeah, everyone鈥檚 looking at me.鈥�
AP: You鈥檝e said you wished you could have made a film with John Huston (鈥淭he Maltese Falcon,鈥� 鈥淜ey Largo鈥�). Is there a style of moviemaking that doesn鈥檛 exist anymore that you wish you could have been a part of?
Deakins: I do see films moving in a direction of everything鈥檚 got to be so naturalistic and softly lit. I used to love film noir and black-and-white cinematography, especially people like or , their use of light. I think that鈥檚 kind of changed. There鈥檚 not that stylization and I think there鈥檚 a place for that. Of course, there鈥檚 a place for total naturalism. And I should talk because I do quite a lot of naturalism. But I think we are losing that whole range of ways of creating a world through cinema.
AP: 鈥淓mpire of Light鈥� seems to be participating in a dialogue about movies鈥� shifting place in culture. Do you ever fear for the future of the medium?
Deakins: I have for a while. My heroes when I was starting out, when I was a teenager and first turned on to movies, were and (Andrei) and . They鈥檙e people that were telling stories in different ways. They weren鈥檛 linear narratives. It wasn鈥檛 a series of talking heads. Especially with Tarkovsky, there鈥檚 a structure to his movies that is a kind of visual poetry. But it鈥檚 more than poetry because it鈥檚 visuals and it鈥檚 sounds and it鈥檚 a whole bunch of things. I can鈥檛 talk about it, but it leaves me emotionally drained watching You can鈥檛 put your finger on it, and that, to me, is real film. (Michelangelo) Antonioni could do it and (Luchino) Visconti did it. I don鈥檛 see much of that now. I see a lot of talking heads and linear narrative storytelling and, frankly, it bores the hell out of me.
AP: You鈥檝e been thinking this way for a while?
Deakins: I鈥檝e been very lucky. Some of the films I鈥檝e done like 鈥淭he Assassination of Jesse James鈥� with Andrew Dominik or 鈥淜undun鈥� with Martin Scorsese. There鈥檚 something about those movie that鈥檚 more than just a story. They鈥檙e attempting to do something that鈥檚 pure cinema. I don鈥檛 see so much of that. The films that are being made, some of them are great. But I don鈥檛 see that range.
AP: Why do you think that shift happened?
Deakins: I don鈥檛 know. There鈥檚 also the kind of action films as well. It鈥檚 becoming a very narrow vision. I don鈥檛 know. Maybe because it鈥檚 easy. It guaranteed they鈥檙e going to make money on those kind of films. But I don鈥檛 see producers and studios taking chances now so much. For me, the best year of cinema ever was 1969. You had You had 鈥淭he Wild Bunch.鈥� You had 鈥淶.鈥� I mean, it was an amazing number of films that one year, and you think the equivalent hasn鈥檛 happened since. And they were all so different. One of (Sergio) Leone鈥檚 films came out that year, as well. The difference in stylistic approach in the same genre, you don鈥檛 see that now. To Leone, film is like opera or something. It shouldn鈥檛 work but it does. It鈥檚 so over-the-top it鈥檚 just absolutely awesome. I watch 鈥淭he Good, the Bad and the Ugly鈥� or 鈥淥nce Upon a Time in the West鈥� quite regularly because they鈥檙e so moving.
AP: Your father had a construction business. What did he make of you pursuing filmmaking?
Deakins: For a long time, he thought I would be ending up going back to the company and taking it over from him. It wasn鈥檛 until many, many years later that he came to L.A. for one time. It just happened to be the premiere of 鈥淜undun.鈥� It was at that he said, 鈥淣ow I really understand why you do it.鈥�
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Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
