#masanobu takayanagi

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HOSTILES (2017)  Timothee Chalamet as Pvt. Philippe DeJardin

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The Pale Blue Eye (2022)

Directed by Scott Cooper

Cinematography by Masanobu Takayanagi

[cinesludge]

Movie #5 of 2023: The Pale Blue Eye

“Are you implying the Academy is to blame for these deaths?”

“Someone connected to the Academy, yes, hence the Academy itself.” 

“Well that’s absurd. By your standard, every crime committed by a Christian will be a stain on Christ.” 

“ And so it is.” 

[quicksiluers]

Mr. Landor, do you harbor a latent hostility to this Academy? Is that it?

I am risking my life on behalf of your precious institution. But yes. I do believe that the Academy takes away a young man’s will. It fences him with regulations and rules. Deprives him of reason. It makes him less human. 

Are you implying the Academy is to blame for these deaths?

Someone connected to the Academy, yes. Hence, the Academy itself. 

Well, that’s absurd. By your standard, every crime committed by a Christian will be a stain on Christ. 

And so it is. 

The Pale Blue Eye (2022) Dir. Scott Cooper

[byneddiedingo]

Johnny Depp in Black Mass (Scott Cooper, 2015)

Cast: Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson, Kevin Bacon, Peter Sarsgaard, Jesse Plemons, Rory Cochrane, David Harbour, Adam Scott, Corey Stoll, Julianne NIcholson. Screenplay: Mark Mallouk, Jez Butterworth, based on a book by Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill. Cinematography: Masanobu Takayanagi. Production design: Stefania Cella. Film editing: David Rosenbloom. Music: Tom Holkenborg. 

Johnny Depp's cruel and icy portrayal of Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger is the best reason for seeing Black Mass. Otherwise there's not enough heft and momentum to Scott Cooper's film. It takes a fascinating story of the interrelationships between Bulger's mob, the FBI, and the government of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and reduces it to a routine and often derivative gangster movie. Cooper and screenwriters Mark Mallouk and Jez Butterworth borrow shamelessly from GoodFellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990) in a scene in which Bulger playfully terrorizes a colleague in the same way Joe Pesci's character -- "What do you mean, I'm funny?" -- frightens Ray Liotta's Henry Hill. The film often seems overloaded with good actors -- Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson, Kevin Bacon, Peter Sarsgaard, Jesse Plemons, Adam Scott, Julianne Nicholson -- in parts that don't give them enough to do. And while it was filmed in Boston, it misses the opportunity to capture the Boston neighborhood milieu in which Whitey, his politician brother Billy (Cumberbatch), and FBI agent John Connolly (Edgerton) grew up, something that was done to much better effect in films like Mystic River (Clint Eastwood, 2003), Gone Baby Gone (Ben Affleck, 2007), and even Good Will Hunting (Gus Van Sant, 1997). Still, the cold menace projected by Depp's Bulger is haunting, enhanced by the decision to provide the actor with ice-blue contact lenses that pierce through the shadows and give him an air of otherworldly surveillance.

[somebaconlover]

The Pale Blue Eye (2022)

Directed by Scott Cooper

Cinematography by Masanobu Takayanagi

Starring Christian Bale, Harry Melling, Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton and Robert Duvall

"The heart is a symbol or it is nothing. Now take away the symbol and what do you have? It’s a fistful of muscle of no more aesthetic interest than a bladder. Now, to remove a man’s heart is to traffic in symbol. And who better equipped for such labor than a poet?"

[gloriousruth]

The Pale Blue Eye (2022) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14138650/ Cinematography by Masanobu Takayanagi

[scenesandscreens]

Hostiles (2017)

Director - Scott Cooper, Cinematography - Masanobu Takayanagi

"Don't look back, my friend. Go in a good way. A part of me dies with you."

[sesiondemadrugada]

The Grey (Joe Carnahan, 2011).

[genevieveetguy]

- We need to focus on the institution, not the individual priests. Practice and policy; show me the church manipulated the system so that these guys wouldn't have to face charges, show me they put those same priests back into parishes time and time again. Show me this was systemic, that it came from the top, down. - Sounds like we're going after Law. - We're going after the system.

Spotlight, Tom McCarthy (2015)

[cinemamonamore]

True Story (2015) dir. Rupert Goold 

Cinematography: Masanobu Takayanagi

[boardchairman-blog]

**Shots of the Movie**

Spotlight (2015)

Director: Tom McCarthy Cinematographer: Masanobu Takayanagi

[stillsmybeatingheart]

[kansassire]

Masanobu Takayanagi, Photography

Hostiles, 2017, Scott Cooper

[greatestnorthern]

“You believe in the Lord, Joseph?“

“Yes, I do.”

Hostiles (2017) dop. Masanobu Takayanagi dir. Scott Cooper

[byneddiedingo]

Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton, and Brian d’Arcy James in Spotlight (Tom McCarthy, 2015)

Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Brian d’Arcy James, Stanley Tucci, Gene Amoroso, Jamey Sheridan, Billy Crudup, Richard Jenkins, Paul Guilfoyle, Len Cariou. Screenplay: Josh Singer, Tom McCarthy. Cinematography: Masanobu Takayanagi. Production design: Stephen H. Carter. Film editing: Tom McArdle. Music: Howard Shore.

Considering that we spend half our waking lives at work, it's surprising that there are so few good films about what we do there. The problem may be that many, if not most, of the jobs we do lack the essential narrative shape: beginning, middle, and end. They're a routine repeating itself until death or retirement provides the closure. The exceptions would seem to be cops and doctors, who deal with life and death, and sometimes lawyers, if their jobs lead to the courtroom and aren't just an eternal drawing up of documents. But surprisingly, given the low esteem in which they're held by the general public, there are also some classic films about journalists at work; His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940) and All the President's Men (Alan J. Pakula, 1976) come immediately to mind. (I omit Orson Welles's Citizen Kane because it seems to me less about journalism than about obsession.) I will have to add Spotlight to the list, though despite its best picture Oscar (or maybe because of it) I think it's too soon to call it a great film. What makes it work for me is that it's a convincing portrait of what I know about journalists: that the good ones love what they do. What Mark Ruffalo gets right about Mike Rezendes, whom I know slightly, is his absolute delight in doing the job right, flinging himself body and soul into his work. I would also single out here the performance of Liev Schreiber, one of our best and most underappreciated actors, whose Marty Baron is a spot-on portrait of the journalist who has found himself promoted upstairs to where his commitment to the profession is regarded with suspicion, even though his heart is in the right place. Michael Keaton's Walter Robinson is one of those who suspect Baron, and I wish there had been more scenes in which the growing confidence each has in the other was dramatized. John Slattery's Ben Bradlee Jr. is a keen portrayal of the journalist whose edges have been worn down to the point where he's always in danger of playing it too safe. Now, this judgment of the film is being made by someone who knows the territory, but considering how many cop movies seem ludicrous to cops, and how doctors tend to despise medical dramas, I think it speaks well of writer-director Tom McCarthy and his co-screenwriter Josh Singer that they manage to capture the essence of the journalism game (at least as it was in 2001-03, before the demise of newspapers) so extraordinarily well.