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Red Sparrow - Photographed by Jo Willems


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Red Sparrow

Ballerina Dominika Egorova is recruited to 'Sparrow School,' a Russian intelligence service where she is forced to use her body as a weapon. Her first mission, targeting a C.I.A. agent, threatens to unravel the security of both nations.

 

Trailer

 

So, I have been a fan of Jo Willems since I saw Hard Candy and with every single movie that he shot I was more and more impressed by the path he was taking.

 

I went to watch Red Sparrow last night and I just think that it is his best work ever.

 

I thought that "The Hunger Games" were amongst the most interesting photographed "young" movies ever and with Red Sparrow he just continues that line of work but in a "smaller" and more natural environment.

 

The way he decided to light the rooms (especially Dominika's apartment) are natural but with a stylized touch.

His work in this movie reminded me of that of Harris Savides or Martin Ruhe.

 

The production design is quite atmospheric and real and even though we know that there are some licences here and there I don't think that that affects the movie at all.

 

All in all it is a really interesting movie visually speaking so if you have a chance go and watch it in your local cinema.

 

Have a lovely day!

 

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Just got home from a screening, really dug the movie, I think I've been missing having a nice espionage thriller to see at the cinemas (they're certainly not as common as they used to be).

I enjoyed the grounded feel to the photography, everything felt 'possible' and that's important for things to have the impact they need. It was pretty impossible to miss the Panavisioniness of the lenses, and it got a little over flarey at times, but everything else was kept on the level so it didn't take me out of the movie.

The big fight scene at the end was possibly the most brutal thing I've seen on film since the knife fight in Eastern Promises. I was physically flinching in my seat. Spectacularly well done stuff.

I'd certainly recommend it for anyone else who misses their spy thrillers.

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  • 4 months later...

Good movie, very well shot (looks like single camera, which is not!) by Francis Lawrence and beautiful lighting by Jo Willems. The wide-angle anamorphic lenses have a huge barrel distortion as expected, but I was surprised because there's also pincushion distortion in wide-angle lenses. I found this before on Cooke anamorphics (which I dislike due to this) and Angenieux anamorphic wide-angle zoom, but never before on a Panavision show. Maybe there's a new Panavision front anamorphic zoom in there with pincushion distortion instead of barrel? Is that the look of the "T-Series"? That would explain things!

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