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Lenny (1974) - Bruce Surtees


Dylan H Grant

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Watched Lenny again last night.  I'm always struck by how stark and, for lack of a better word, tactile the cinematography is, the close-ups in particular.  Has anything been written about this?  I can't find anything ... 

How was this achieved?  I thought Surtees might have underexposed to get that kind of inkiness, but some of the highlights are so intense that I'm not sure.  Is it just - hah, "just" - a matter of lighting, or was he using some kind of filtration?  I'm also wondering how much of the look came out of whatever was done in the lab.

I'm sure the answer is some version of "all of the above."  What do you think?  If you were to emulate this look, where would you even begin?

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I think it's just lighting and the stock, perhaps developed to a higher gamma. I watched it a few years ago before I began the pilot for "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" -- took some ideas like cutaways to strange people watching the stand-up act, some asleep, etc. And of course the bright hot spotlight in a dark room.  B&W emulsions are prone to some halation due to the type of anti-halation backing they use so I don't know if filters were necessary though of course the 1970's was a big era for filtering, but on color stocks.

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