Doing research on Road to Perdition (2002 dir. Sam Mendes), one of my top 3 favourite films, I realized how well legendary cinematographer Conrad L. Hall created that inky tenebrism throughout the film. Before, I had only associated the film with the American Realist work of Edward Hopper because I knew he was a direct inspiration. But upon another viewing, I realized there was much more to it than just that and I now understand more about the reason he received the Oscar for Best Cinematography for his final film.
I've always been attracted to images with stark contrast. Bold images which use harsh lighting and shadows to form the figure are extremely theatrical and attractive to me and when I discovered the term "chiaroscuro" I was obsessed. That's one of the many reasons I'm interested in film noir; the mixture of realistic settings with the exaggerated lighting of the German expressionists is a unique convention, not afraid of over-stylizing. What I found so interesting about the tenebrists is just how dramatic their images were. They were the original theatrical storytellers because the lighting was so striking and high contrast-a valuable predecessor to the visual art of filmmaking. Some of the artists "rationalized" the intense darkness because they painted a single candle as illumination in the image, such as George de la Tour, whereas Caravaggio tended to use dramatic lighting from an unknown and unnatural-looking source. This makes sense because many of his scenes were based on religious events and the unknown source of light could be spiritual. So for funsies I've compiled some lovely tenebristic shots from various films as well as paintings from the Renaissance.
In order, the images are from 300, Godfather Part II, Seven, Assassination of Jesse James, and Road to Perdition. The Paintings are Georges de la Tour's St. Joseph, Caravaggio's Supper at Emmaus and Gerrit van Honthorst's De koppelaarster.
A pleasure to see you addressing such a strong feature of cinematography, rarely addressed except in commentaries on The Godfather Trilogy. Who can forget, especially in such a tenebric film, the scintillating bright gold of sunset Tahoe water surrounding the intense black silhouette of Fredo's execution? Godfather and Road to Perdition (the latter from a graphic novel) used the technique truly well (ditto the superb Miller's Crossing), whereas it's often just an annoyance -- the old television show Hill Street Blues, in which the characters seemed perpetually hip-deep in blackwater swamp, being an example...But seldom as irritating as the usually unfortunate use of color filters: The cliche of "sepia tone" to tell us it's the Olden Days (started with The Duchess and Dirtwater Fox, I think) is still used, and much worse. Yes, the study of great old paintings, and the work of classic cinematographers like Nicholas Musuraca, should be a must for film students, as well as the stricture: Style and technique and their tools should not be SHORTCUTS. ...And beauty always counts!
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