If I had to pick one guy who would shoot every movie I ever watched for the foreseeable future, it would probably be Emmanuel Lubezki. It’s tough to argue there’s anyone creating better cinematic products right now. His name first came to my attention when his incredible work on Children of Men seemed to be the talk of the movie world back in 2006; his collaborative effort with director Alfonso Cuarón was one of the most visually innovative films to date. The extraordinarily long takes and swirling camera movements put us right in the middle of a world that was utterly convincing. More than any other film I had seen to that point, I felt like I was one of the people in the movie. And that was without 3D. The buzz surrounding their upcoming picture, Gravity, is that it is even more immersive, which is hard to imagine.
Along with this stunning documentary-style realism, Lubezki is also able to manipulate light and color to create images that resemble paintings. I thought Sleepy Hollow, on a visual level alone, was one of the most gorgeous films I had ever seen. Then came The Tree of Life, and the team of Terrence Malick and Emmanuel Lubezki proved to be the most formidable in all of cinema. Every shot of this movie is a masterpiece. It’s no wonder Lubezki is one of the most sought after names in the business.
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