ROBERT YEOMAN
“The Grand Budapest Hotel”
The magic behind the films of Wes Anderson is how interconnected all the elements are when you really look at them. Of course, any film has interconnected parts. If the visual effects are bad, it makes the cinematography perhaps look less intense. But to make a style all your own, you need everyone on the same team and it shows in Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel”. As brilliant as the production design in the film is, if the cinematographer were not able to line up the shots just perfectly, the audience still might not be able to differentiate his films from the rest. The framing of an Anderson film is normally a dead giveaway for his work, fitting in so much design and character movement that cutting become almost obsolete, unless you are cutting to the next scene. There is an awkwardness (meant in the best possible way) to the way the frame works in his films. On top of this, with the grand designs of the hotel, it takes a keen eye to get everything of importance in many of the shots, whether it be 5-10 characters taking up the screen or delivering on some of the hilarious gags that Anderson enjoys pulling, like the fist fight scene where the angle changes every time some gets punched.
Needless to say, cinematographer Robert Yeoman has been pivotal in making a name for Wes Anderson and his unique brand of humor. Like I stated, the cinematography done by Yeoman is a dead giveaway to an Anderson film and for that, to have both Anderson nominated for directing and Yeoman nominated for cinematography is really giving both men their due, as Yeoman has been Anderson’s cinematographer from the beginning, but yet this is his first nomination, as is it Anderson’s first nomination for directing.
What’s his competition? Yeoman shares the stage with a distinct crew. Cinematographers in this category to keep an eye on are Emmanuel Lubezski who won the Oscar last year for “Gravity” and provided the Best Picture nominated “Birdman” with its single take allusion that should make it an easy frontrunner. But also look out for Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski who were nominated for their work on Best Foreign Language Feature nominee “Ida”. To pull of a nomination like that, there has to be support behind you. Luckily, Robert Yeoman has a Best Picture nomination behind “The Grand Budapest Hotel” as well, pitting it mostly against “Birdman” and Lubezki, which could make this more of a two pony race.
// Produced by Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, and Jeremy Dawson // Directed by Wes Anderson //
// Dated Viewed: Sunday, January 25th, 2015 // BLU-RAY // 33 films – 29 days //
