Peter Suschitzky

Shawn Mielke · October 26, 2004

Just wanted to shout out loud about his work on Cronenberg's Naked Lunch. Watched it last night. I've seen it before, but the lighting stood out like never before, this time around. What a frickin' eye for detail!

humbled,

Shawn

ps. great commentary by Cronenberg and Weller too

October 27, 2004

Have you ever seen Krull? His work on that is very variable, but I blame the director for that one...

Shawn Mielke · October 28, 2004

Krull...hee. Not in many, many years. I think I'm mostly familiar with him as Cronenberg's #1 DP for the last ten or fifteen years. There is just something about their crafted pictures of an imagined NY and Tangier in Naked Lunch, particularly Tangier (Interzone), that stand out for me.

David Mullen ASC · October 28, 2004

I'm a big fan. Love his work on some of the Ken Russell pictures, love "Empire Strikes Back", "Naked Lunch", "Dead Ringers", "Immortal Beloved", "Crash". I even liked some of "Mars Attacks!" and "Red Planet" -- a little conservative visually but at least it proved that Suschitsky can deliver slick anamorphic photography.

I even love parts of "Krull" but the whole thing is undone by too many soundstage-bound exterior sets, too many opticals, and a bad story. But there were some nice close-ups of Lysette Anthony in that movie, and some of the real exterior work was nice. Clearly all-out fantasy was not Peter Yate's forte...

DavidSloan · October 28, 2004

I have not seen Krull, but Crash is one of my favorite films...I thought the cinematography was significant in adding to the sterility and absurdity of the fetishistic yearnings of those characters. And the book's good too :D

Shawn Mielke · October 28, 2004

Crash is next on my viewing list. I first saw it in the theatres, as double billing with Lynch's "Lost Highway". Crash was much more interesting to me, btw.

Sterility, yeah, but then there is some of that in all of Cronenberg's films. It adds to a sense of voyeurism, I think. It seems intentional.

I like Existenz quite a lot too. Again, that surreal artifice (lighting and angles), in combination with muted human interactions and behavior.

October 28, 2004

Rocky Horror is his best IMO- I love the swimming pool stuff which is in that typical practicals and soft source light style we love :D Holds up unbelievably well especially with the occassionally verite inspired camera moves- along with Paynter's magnificent Little Shop of Horrors it's the ultimate cult horror musical.

Well said about Yeates on Krull David- It always disappointed how Peter Su shot Empire's "exterior" sets on stages to perfection yet on Krull it's PAINFULLY obvious what is and isn't stagebound (some really telling badly lit, often underexposed cycloramas in there)- Also the dominant soft colours and lighting, glamour filtration and lack of shadow and contrast do make the film look like early HD from the 90s throughout the movie, and this is especially true in the many modest optical sequences.

All the net work is fantastic however, especially for the glints on the Glave and the monster. Paul Wilson's miniature shots really enhance the softlight too for the mountain model shots and his force perspective foreground model work for set enhancements and the like are the films only true moments of contrast.

Bad, trashy, uninspired, derivitive, shallow movie with very redeeming moments, just not enough to warrant it's existence...