A BAFTA Tribute to Roger Pratt

A BAFTA TRIBUTE TO

ROGER PRATT 20 JANUARY 2019

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TO P: CH ECK I N G TH E LI G HT WITH D I RECTO R RI CHA RD AT TEN BO RO U G H O N I N LOVE A N D WA R (19 96); A BOVE: CH O CO L AT (20 0 0) 2

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OVERVIEW

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he work of cinematographer Roger Pratt BSC is deceptive. An expert of both light and shadow, Pratt’s work often displays the sort of old school filmmaking that wouldn’t seem out of place in the heyday of film noir, using light to convey mood and to pick out objects via tonal separation. Take, for example, his memorable use of both in Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (1985), Neil Jordan’s Mona Lisa (1986), Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) and Kenneth Branagh’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994).

And yet he also has a talent for sumptuous colour, perhaps best illustrated by his two ‘foodie’ features, Lasse Hallström’s Chocolat (2000) and Amit Gupta’s Jadoo (2013). Has food ever looked so delicious and seductive on film before? Chocolat earned Pratt his second of two BAFTA nominations, the first attained for his stunning work on Neil Jordan’s The End of the Affair (1999), for which he was also Oscar-nominated. The balance of rich colours and deep shadows also mark his exceptional cinematography on two Harry Potter excursions, Chris Columbus’ The Chamber of Secrets (2002) and Mike Newell’s The Goblet of Fire (2005), as well as Wolfgang Petersen’s epic Troy (2004).

Born in Leicester in 1947 and a graduate of the London Film School, Pratt told American Cinematographer magazine that, “Very early on I decided I didn’t want to direct; I wanted to be involved in the camera side of it. But I still did a number of assignments with sound and editing just to get the experience.”

He earned his union card working at a film laboratory before moving to Chippenham Films, which brought him into contact with the Monty Python team (and Gilliam in particular). He says he followed the traditional route to cinematographer, serving as camera loader, focus puller and so on before debuting as director of photography on Roger Christian’s The Sender (1982). Christian told Screen International at the time, “Roger’s lighting will

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by Toby Weidmann

launch him to the top of the ladder,” and he wasn’t wrong; Pratt was soon landing bigger gigs, including three with Gilliam (Brazil; The Fisher King, 1991; Twelve Monkeys, 1995), four with Lord Richard Attenborough (Shadowlands, 1993; In Love and War, 1996; Grey Owl, 1999; Closing the Ring, 2007) and two with Mike Leigh (Meantime, 1983; High Hopes, 1988) across his 30-plus films.

“The best director is one who knows what they want, but does not want you to tell them how to get it, in terms of the look,” he told British Cinematographer magazine. “As a cinematographer, you can do anything, but you want it to be their film.”

Pratt clearly has a love for shooting on film, extolling the virtues of the format to the magazine: “I have shot using digital cameras on music videos and commercials, and they’re good for those jobs. But film is the best medium you can use, especially on features… I would exhort cinematographers to keep on asking for it at the very start of working on a production.”

From jaw-dropping gothic visuals to epic vistas and subtle character plays, Pratt’s incredible filmography demonstrates an enviable mix of the classic with the contemporary. But for Pratt, the art of cinematography is just as much about the practical as the artistic. “People do have the most flowery language to talk about cinematography, the art of it,” he told The New Yorker. “For me, there are many problems on a film that have nothing to do with theories of colour or highfalutin aesthetics. Because my job is concerned with big lumps of lights and metal cameras and laboratories, it’s something that makes half of me very pragmatic; it’s the opposite of artistic. I look at myself as a technician… Photography relies on science…

Photographs, they’re really just chemicals in labs, aren’t they? Lights on paper. Images in silver halide. Celluloid. But they turn into live things.”

Pratt’s cinematography does and will live long in the memory of all who see it. • 3

DEPTH PERCEPTION A few examples of the brilliance of Roger Pratt’s cinematography, as marked by film critics...

BRA ZIL “Brazil contains indelible images that engage and inspire and terrify. It links them around the recurring piece of music that gives the film its title, and achieves things that leave jaws slack and eyes wide.”

– Andrew Blair, Den of Geek

TWELVE MONKEYS “[Director Terry] Gilliam, along with the gifted cinematographer Roger Pratt and production designer Jeffrey Beecroft, fashions a disturbing and dazzling lost world.”

– Peter Travers, Rolling Stone “I like the distorting effect [of wide angle lenses], and I like the way a wide lens bends architecture and forces perspectives; things look deeper, and the scale of things is altered. I also like what it does to people. My visual fetishes do make things a bit hard on Roger and the crew. If you’re shooting with long lenses, as most people do, you put lights anywhere. Because Roger and I have worked together since Brazil, he’s gotten very good at hiding his lights; I probably take him for granted now.”

– Terry Gilliam, director, from an American

Cinematographer article by Stephen Pizzello

THE FISHER KING “Roger will give to an hour-and-a-half lighting setup the same magic quality that takes others all day to deliver, and he has tricks up his sleeve to give compelling magical effects in a minute…

Roger is like Mr Science. He’s innovative, and he doesn’t try to make himself look like a genius.”

– Lynda Obst, producer, from a The New

Yorker article by Alec Wilkinson

LEF T: A PERSO NA L N OTE A N D SK E TCH FRO M TERRY G I LLIA M; O PP OSITE (FRO M TO P): T WELVE MO N K E YS (19 95); MO NA LISA (1986)

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MONA LISA “Most films that spend time in the streets of London focus on the familiar sights: Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, etc. Not so with Mona Lisa, which takes us into squalid back-alleys and onto forbidding overpasses…

With its porn shops, strip clubs and prostitute-clogged sidewalks, the portrait painted by Mona Lisa is far from a postcard representation of London.”

– James Barardinelli, Reelviews “The look of the film is also gorgeous. Terry Gilliam’s favourite cinematographer Roger Pratt takes the images from an initial low-key documentary style through the noir-ish nightmare of Soho sleaze to end up with an almost classical Hollywood framing. Note the final shot of Simone.”

– John Bleasdale, Cinevue

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THE END OF THE AFFAIR “Technical credits are striking, most notably Roger Pratt’s carefully modulated lensing, Anthony Pratt’s authentic production design that’s packed with fascinating details and Sandy Powell’s accurately alluring period costumes… The End of the Affair is arguably the finest screen adaptation of a Graham Greene novel since Carol Reed’s seminal films, The Fallen Idol and The Third Man.” – Emanuel Levy, Variety “To observe the effect of light on an actress’s face, one might note in The End of the Affair the difference between Julianne Moore’s appearance in the grip of sexual excitement and as a pallid figure on her deathbed. The cameraman was a British cinematographer named Roger Pratt. Pratt is admired for his perhaps unexampled ability to light the face of women and photograph them to their best advantage.”

– Alec Wilkinson, The New Yorker

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MARY SHELLEYÕS FRANKENSTEIN “It is often wondrous to look upon – beautifully designed by Tim Harvey and lit by Roger Pratt.”

– Christopher Tookey, Daily Mail “Innovative and iconoclastic with stunning production design and photography.”

– Alexander Walker, Evening Standard “[Kenneth] Branagh has been served with some panache

by Roger Pratt, his cinematographer and Tim Harvey, his production designer. The film presents a world that swirls uneasily between glittering riches and grimy poverty, the hope of progress and the uncertainty of life itself. It has a visual style which matches the best of its genre.”

– Derek Malcolm, The Guardian O PP OSITE: TH E EN D O F TH E A FFA I R (1999); BELOW: M A RY SH ELLE YÕS FR A N K ENSTEI N (19 94)

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HARRY POTTER “That [Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets] is more frightening than the first is a tribute to director Chris Columbus, who dares to move the camera and goes for a more noir-ish, threatening atmosphere in between the comical moments... Cinematographer Roger Pratt does an inspired job of lighting (and not lighting the corners of) Stuart Craig’s magnificent sets.”

– Christopher Tookey, Daily Mail “[Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets]’ heightened murkiness is partly the work of the new director of photography, Roger Pratt.

Sylvan and creepy, it’s closer in style to the first instalment of The Lord of the Rings.”

– Sukhdev Sandhu, The Telegraph TO P A N D A BOVE: BEH I N D TH E SCEN ES O N HA RRY POT TER A N D TH E CHA M BER O F SECRE TS (20 02); O PP OSITE: JA D O O (2013)

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JADOO “The film’s secret ingredient is cinematographer Roger Pratt, whose exceptional food photography is genuinely mouth-watering and will have you running for the nearest curry house after the film.”

– Matthew Turner, View “As far as the overall look is concerned, I’d call it organic. We wanted to capture contemporary Britain. By the nature of the story, there was a lot of colour involved. For example, we recreated a Holi Festival, the festival of colour, in a local park, where the participants throw powdered paint at one another. The challenge here, typifies much of the challenge throughout the film, which was to not let the images get over-saturated.

Along with early grading tests, it also helped that I had a good creative relationship with the production designer, Adrian Smith, who was thorough and very sensitive to the colour palette in the film.”

– Roger Pratt, from a British Cinematographer article by Ron Prince

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FILMOGRAPHY (SELECT) 2014 Keeping Rosy 2013 Jadoo 2010 The Karate Kid 2009 Dorian Gray 2008 Inkheart 2007 Closing the Ring 2005 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 2004 Troy 2002 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 2001 Iris 2000 Chocolat 2000 102 Dalmatians 1999 The End of the Affair 1999 Grey Owl

1998 The Avengers 1996 In Love and War 1995 Twelve Monkeys 1994 Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein 1993 Shadowlands 1992 Year of the Comet 1991 The Fisher King 1989 Batman 1988 Paris by Night 1988 High Hopes 1988 Consuming Passions 1986 Mona Lisa 1985 Brazil 1983 Meantime 1982 The Sender

BAFTA NOMINATIONS

OSCAR NOMINATION

2001 Chocolat 2000 The End of the Affair

2000 The End of the Affair

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A BOVE: SIZI N G U P TO 6F T10 I N NATHA N J O N ES O N TROY (20 04); BELOW: BATM A N (1989); OVERLE A F: PREPPI N G M OA N I N G MYRTLEÕS BATHT U B SCEN E, HA RRY POT TER A N D TH E G O BLE T O F FI RE (20 05)

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WITH SPECIAL THANKS

THANKS

QUOTES SOURCES

Roger Pratt May Phillips and family Stephen Woolley

Roger Christian Richard Eyre Terry Gilliam Mike Leigh

Overview: Roger Pratt, as featured in in ‘Twelve Monkeys: A Dystopian Trip Through Time’ by Stephen Pizzello, American Cinematographer (Vol 77, No. 1, Jan 1996); Roger Christian, as featured in ‘The Sender – a paranormal debut’ by Colin Vaines, Screen International (7 Aug 1982); Roger Pratt, as featured in ‘Roger Pratt BSC On Troy’ by Madelyn Most, British Cinematographer (Issue 09, May 2004); Roger Pratt, as featured in ‘Your face in lights’ by Alec Wilkinson, The New Yorker (20 Oct, 2003)

EVENT PRODUCTION Event Producer Cassandra Neal Film Programme Manager Mariayah Kaderbhai Director of Learning & New Talent Tim Hunter Learning & New Talent Officers Julia Carruthers Alexa Tamsett

Learning & New Talent Coordinator Emma Nicholson Learning & New Talent Intern Emma Tarcy BAFTA Photography Director Claire Rees Event Photographer Danny Cozens

BROCHURE Editor Toby Weidmann

Published by British Academy of Film and Television Arts 195 Piccadilly London w1j 9ln T: 020 7734 0022 E: info@bafta.org www.bafta.org

Design Joe Lawrence

Depth Perceptions: Brazil, Twelve Monkeys and The Fisher King: ‘Looking back at Terry Gilliam’s Brazil’ by Andrew Blair, denofgeek.com; review by Peter Travers, rollingstone.com; Terry Gilliam, as featured in ‘Twelve Monkeys: A Dystopian Trip Through Time’

by Stephen Pizzello, American Cinematographer; Lynda Obst, as featured in ‘Your face in lights’ by Alec Wilkinson, The New Yorker Mona Lisa: review by James Barardinelli, reelviews.net; ‘Blu-ray Review: Mona Lisa’

by John Bleasdale, cine-vue.com The End of the Affair: review by Emanuel Levy, variety.com; ‘Your face in lights’ by Alec Wilkinson, The New Yorker Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: review by Christopher Tookey, Daily Mail; review by Alexander Walker, London Evening Standard; review by Derek Malcolm, The Guardian Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: review by Christopher Tookey, dailymail.co.uk; review by Sukhdev Sandhu, www.telegraph.co.uk Jadoo: review by Matthew Turner, viewaukland.co.nz; Roger Pratt, as featured in ‘Back to my roots’ by Ron Prince, britishcinematographer.co.uk

Image Credits: Cover image ‒ AF archive/Alamy Stock Photo; Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein ‒ United CoArchives GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo; Jadoo ‒ courtesy of Amit Gupta. Chocolat, Twelve Monkeys, Mona Lisa, The End of the Affair and Batman c/o BFI. All other imagery supplied by recipient.

Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, the Publishers cannot accept liability for errors or omissions. No part of the publication may be reproduced without the permission of BAFTA. © BAFTA 2019 The Academy chooses Soporcel, supporting excellence in print.

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