Film in 2012 may not have been
quite as strong overall as 2011, but right at the top there were a lot of good
and very entertaining films. 2012 also featured many wonderful performances,
particularly among men (many great performances that would have made my lists
in past years were sadly left off). The LeapBackBlog Film Awards are comprised
of what I think were the best and most interesting films, the strongest
performances (taking into consideration who the actor is and what else they
have done), the narrative style that drew me in (best directing), and exquisite
craftsmanship (best technical achievements). But really, these are lists of my
favorites from the year.
Hugh Bateup & Uli
Hanisch – Production Design – Cloud Atlas
Cloud
Atlas is insanely ambitious. Most production designers have a difficult
enough task creating one narrative world – Hugh Bateup (working with the Wachowskis) and Uli Hanisch (working with Tom Tykwer) each created three
(to make up the film’s six different stories). The worlds range from the mid
nineteenth century South Pacific to modern day London to far into the future in
Seoul to the post-apocalyptic (almost like the rebirth of society) tribesman on
the Hawaiian Islands. And yet, even with such a grand undertaking of scale and
scope, plus two different crews filming different stories, the film still has a
unified feel and look, and a lot of that goes to the absolutely amazing work of
Bateup and Hanisch.
Roger Deakins – Cinematography – Skyfall
2012 saw a lot of very good cinematography work, but Roger
Deakins’s photography in Skyfall
is simply the best of the year. Working with director Sam
Mendes (their third collaboration), Deakins delivers aesthetically stunning
work – from the gloomy fog covered moors to the crisp sheen of red lights against
the night in Macau, or the almost sci-fi feel of Bond’s fight with an assassin
in Shanghai. Visually, the film is never content to just be a straight forward
action film, or just another entry in the Bond franchise. It completely blew me
away.
Alexandre Desplat – Score – Moonrise Kingdom
I often joke about composer Alexandre
Desplat being the hardest working man in Hollywood – well, in 2012 he
scored eight films, including Zero
Dark Thirty, Argo,
Rust
and Bone, and Moonrise
Kingdom. Working with director Wes
Anderson, Desplat has created a fun, playful, and charming score for Sam
and Suzy’s adventure (in their second collaboration). Like the best pieces of
film music, it matches the tone for the film and sets the mood for the
audience. Desplat is one of the great composers working in cinema today (or at
the very least the most prolific). His work is always brilliant.
Greig Fraser – Cinematography – Killing Them Softly
Director of photography Greig Fraser had three films hit
theatres in 2012 – Snow
White and the Huntsman, Zero
Dark Thirty, and Killing
Them Softly. Now while Zero Dark Thirty will likely get more accolades and
coverage, it is Killing Them Softy that is far more aesthetically interesting
and artistically ambitious. Working with director Andrew Dominik, Fraser’s
photography gives the film a sort of a post-apocalyptic feel, with lots of stormy
skies, broken down landscapes, and exaggeration
of violence (along with morally corrupt characters populating the narrative). Dominik
and Fraser use extreme slow motion to drag out the violence or drug use, making
it feel more impactful and poetic (reminding me of the moving stills in Lars von Trier’s Melancholia).
It is brilliant and absorbing work.
Jonny Greenwood – Score – The Master
After their fantastic collaboration on There
Will Be Blood (creating 2007’s best score along with Dario Marianelli’s score for Atonement),
composer Jonny Greenwood and
director Paul
Thomas Anderson worked together again on The
Master. Greenwood’s score both fits the period in places and provides an
uneasy and wondrous experience for the viewer, emotionally and psychologically
matching the character of Freddie Quell perfectly. The music is unlike anything
else in cinematic scores right now, pushing the boundaries artistically.
Sarah Greenwood – Production Design – Anna Karenina
Joe
Wright threw everyone involved in the production of Anna
Karenina a curveball when for budgetary reasons he decided to shoot most of
the film inside a theatre. Production designer Sarah Greenwood rose to the
challenge creating the year’s best design work (in her fifth feature
collaboration with Wright). Every set is perfectly fitted to match the tone and
style of the scene and characters, be it the high society parties (which are
marvelously decorated) or the slum back ally-like stage rafters. Visually, the
film is unparalleled, and that is thanks to cinematographer Seamus McGarvey, director Joe
Wright, and especially production designer Sarah Greenwood.
Claudio Miranda – Cinematography – Life of Pi
Life
of Pi is an absolutely beautiful film to watch. The visuals capture the
imagination and dazzle with a stunning array of colors and pristine
composition. More so than any other of this year’s top films, Life of Pi is
very much an emotional and visual experience, and Claudio Miranda’s work is
magnificent, to say the least. In my opinion, he is one of the ten best directors
of photography working in Hollywood today (along with Wally
Pfister and Roger
Deakins, both making this Awards list as well). It is impossible to watch
this film and not be completely enamored with the photography and use of color.
Wally Pfister – Cinematography – The Dark Knight Rises
The most impressive aspect of Wally Pfister’s cinematography
in The
Dark Knight Rises is that everything lighting-wise the viewer sees in the
final film is done in camera – which means that Pfister and director Christopher
Nolan did not color correct in post-production (a very common practice
these days, even among the best D.P.s). Pfister’s work with IMAX cameras is
also very impressive, as the film has a massive sense of scale – it truly is a
phenomenal experience to see in IMAX. Pfister is directing his first film in
2014 with Transcendence, but
hopefully his collaboration with Nolan will continue as well – they are one of
the best teams working today (if not the best period).
Ed Verreaux – Production Design – Looper
Working with director Rian Johnson, Ed Verreaux
creates a wonderful look for Looper.
The film mixes genres, feeling like a sci-fi film, a crime drama, and a western
in different parts. Verreaux’s production design gives the film a taste of each
of these genres. The city is a mix of futuristic technology and sort of a
collapsed society feel (most of the vehicles are junk-cars from today adapted
to run on a new fuel source). The design work is also very artistically
interesting, with aesthetically pleasing patterns and lights. Verreaux’s work
may be overlooked given the great action, psychic abilities, and a time-travel
plot, but it really grounds everything in a world that feels real and thus is a
crucial part of what makes the overall film brilliant.
Hans Zimmer – Score – The Dark Knight Rises
Hans Zimmer’s
collaborations with Christopher
Nolan have yielded fantastic scores (notably for Inception),
including the first two films in The Dark Knight Trilogy. With The
Dark Knight Rises, Zimmer gives the film such a brutal and hard hitting
accompaniment perfectly matching the film’s main villain Bane. For Selina Kyle
his score is sleek, slinky, and refined, but with a touch of immediacy – again
matching the character wonderfully. The music grips the audience from the
start and matches the tone throughout. Like the film itself, the score is big
and masterful.
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