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" Anna Karenina"


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I watched this film last night at a BSC screening . Shot Panavision Anamorphic "G" lenses by Seamus McGarvey BSC/ ASC . It is the best shot film i have seen for a very very long time . I urge anyone to try and see it on a big screen , chatting after with Seamus he said what terrible time he had with rushes/dailies . Every set up he used a grey scale as he always has , but the results he got back next day were awful , every day different !! . {almost got fired from picture }. It seems there just isnt [already] anyone who knows how to deal with film neg! this is not right !. Anyway when it came to DI the neg was perfect .

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  • 4 months later...

Theatrical distribution is weird and this film has been released two days ago here in Spain. I agree with you, John: McGarvey's work here is excellent, even though I'm not a fan of net diffusion when it's mixed with onscreen sources such as flames (I prefer glass diffusion for this kind of shots). Plus the photochemical textures -even on 2K digital projection- look fantastic, very detailed, but soft and organic at the same time. Keira Knightley also got some great "female-star-of-the-show" portraits.

 

Prior to this film was also screened the trailer of Mike Newell's new version of "Great Expectations", shot by John Mathieson on Cooke Xtal Express anamorphic lenses. That also looks superb, but sharper because Mathieson probably avoided any lens filtration. Anyway, the 35mm anamorphic format is still a great way to shoot period pieces, imho.

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Ignacio thanks for you reply , I watched "Great Expectations " at yet another BSC screening and you are correct no lens filtration looked fantastic , talking to John Mathieson after screening did say some of the anamorphic lenses they in had in the Cooke Xtal Express package they used included Technovision , which of course Panavision bought a few years ago and were Cookes with anamorphics .

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have already seen "Great Expectations" John, and it looks great, indeed! I've always been a fan a John Mathieson, and here he delivers a very natural, yet classic look, the kind of work David Watkin would be proud of if he still were among us. When he's not shooting for Ridley he tends to use wider lenses, with a more classical staging, and it shows better the quality of his lighting and his tendency to use a single source whenever it's possible.

 

The low-light scenes, shot at wider apertures, are stunning, as the blacks and grain structure were still perfect and the images, really beautiful. I really like the look of these Cooke lenses, too bad it's not possible to use them here in Spain, as they are booked all the time. I did noticed one or two shots showing white horizontal flares, as in "Apocalypse Now" (shot on Technovision Cookes), perhaps that's were the Technovision lenses were used. The barrel distortion and lack of sharpness at the edges of the wide focal lenghts is pretty obvious as well, but this lenses make miracles to faces. Perhaps what surprised me the most was that he used the zoom a lot (I'd say about one third of the film used it), but this caused even more softness and flattering, which may be what Mathieson was after.

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  • 1 month later...

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