Welcome to another episode of the Scene 2 Scene podcast! It’s Valerie Complex with an exciting new episode where I chat with Devotion director JD Dillard.
12.12.2022 - 23:17 / deadline.com
Every director brings a piece of themselves to their work, but this Oscar season has seen films becoming ever more personal. And it’s up to the cinematographer to work with their director to bring those stories to life.
James Gray explores his relationship with his grandfather and a pivotal childhood friendship in Armageddon Time; a young, gay Black man looks for his mother’s approval by joining the Marines in The Inspection, using actual quotes from Elegance Bratton’s mother; and Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans shows the early life of a young filmmaker and his family’s influence on his art.
Armageddon Time
Armageddon Time brings the viewer into 1980s Queens to follow Paul Graff (Banks Repeta), a Jewish-American boy on the cusp of adolescence. Paul is a stand-in for James Gray, who wrote and directed this, his own coming-of-age story. Cinematographer Darius Khondji, who had just wrapped up Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s surreal exploration of trauma with Bardo, worked closely with Gray to highlight Paul’s emotional journey. “I love having the director himself telling me, in his own words, what he was really feeling,” says Khondji.
Getting into the director’s emotional state was key, as the film dove into meaningful relationships that shaped his childhood. One relationship was with his grandfather, played by Anthony Hopkins. “The scenes are very different with his grandpa,” says Khondji. “When we were filming [Hopkins], the voice of reason, we were filming his face. His face was almost like a library, like opening an incredible book of who his grandfather was.”
The connection between Paul and his grandfather contrasts with the relationship between Paul and his father, played by Jeremy Strong. “The scene with his father was
Welcome to another episode of the Scene 2 Scene podcast! It’s Valerie Complex with an exciting new episode where I chat with Devotion director JD Dillard.
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