A film for film makers

Rating: 10/10 (19 September 2004)

This film is a landmark in cinematography for many reasons. First, the use of source lighting throughout the film - only natural light was used, no electrical lighting. Second, the absolute perfect framing of each and every scene, no matter how mundane. I defy anyone to step, frame by frame, through this film and see a single frame that could not be printed as a museum-grade image. It's that good. Exterior lighting was just as good as interior, with precise exposures matching the latitude of the film stocks available at the time.
Many subsequent films have used source lighting (Amadeus comes to mind) with great results, but surely Kubrick was the first director to take this difficult production technique to this level. To achieve interior photography with nothing more than a few candles and perhaps some sunlight from a nearby window, Kubrick utilized a f0.7 lens developed by Perkin Elmer for spy satellite use. Cinema Products in Hollywood acquired this lens from Perkin Elmer and offered it to Kubrick after he inquired about very fast optics. CP modified a standard Mitchel BNC camera to accept this strange lens, building a special mount and grinding the aperture plate down to paper-thin thickness to permit the end element to focus on the emulsion on the BNC.
One of the drawbacks of this special lens was an extremely shallow depth of field with wide open aperture settings. In the card gambling scene, shot entirely by candlelight, Kubrick had to instruct his actors to stay very still - not moving to or from the lens due to the focal length, which was 1 or 2 inches, maximum. It took many days and hundreds of takes to shoot the card scene, requiring the replacement of the candles every once in a while to maintain continuity.
This is a film makers film - a film for photographers. While the story moves a bit slowly, the images captured are so well thought out and framed they overcome any shortcomings of the pace of the story. The use of classical music as a sonic background for the film was admirable, but this film is so well shot it stands above the soundtrack, like the finest silents of the 20's. The image is paramount.