Directing is an art form that carries immense responsibilities, often with little control to carry out those duties. You don't control the labs. Everything gets out of your control. Yet Shear was able to manage more control when he went digital. That technique created an almost hand-tinted look like postcards from the 1930s, Roger Deakins, the film's director of photography, tells this month's American Cinematographer magazine.
Digital techniques achieve other looks, too.
Using inexpensive digital cameras, von Trier shot a fantasy dance sequence on a moving train from 100 points of view, using 100 cameras. So give the little guys their due. But the digital revolution also has reached the hinterlands of independent, low-budget production. It, too, will never be the same.