Cinematography-Theory-And-Practice

Figure 5.5. Although not strictly anoir film, Citizen Kane is of the sameera and employs the same techniquesof visual storytelling withlighting that is expressive, visuallystriking, and makes specific storypoints.Here the reporter has come to thevault where Kane’s memoirs are kept.As the guard brings forward thesacred book that we hope will containthe ultimate secrets, the singlebeam of light represents knowledgereaching into the darkened space inmuch the same way that it does inthe Caravaggio (Figure 5.1).Being a backlight with no fill, itleaves the characters in completesilhouette, perhaps representingtheir ignorance of the knowledge.LIGHT AS VISUAL METAPHORLet’s turn now to a more recent example, a film that uses light asa metaphor and as storytelling perhaps better than any other ofthe modern era: Barry Levinson’s The Natural. Masterfully photographedby Caleb Deschanel, the film is so visually unified and wellthought out that it would be possible to comment on the metaphoricor narrative use of lighting in almost every scene; here we will examineonly the high points.In the opening shot we see the title character alone, dejected andolder, sitting at a railroad station. He is half in light and half inshadow, a metaphor for his uncertain future and his dark, unclearpast. The train arrives and blacks out the screen. He gets on. Endof title sequence. It is mysterious, suggestive, and supremely simple(Figure 5.7). The Natural is the tale of a talented young baseball playerRoy Hobbes (Robert Redford) who is diverted from his career by achance encounter with a dark and mysterious young lady, but makesa comeback years later as he simultaneously finds love with his longlostchildhood sweetheart. It is a story of good versus evil in theclassic sense, and Levinson and Deschanel use a wide variety of cinematicand narrative devices to tell it. More than anything, they uselight as a visual metaphor — a key part of the visual storytelling.As the story begins, Roy is a young farm boy full of energy, talent,promise, and infatuation for his sweetheart Iris (Glenn Close), whoalways wears white. This section is shot in bright afternoon sunlight:the vibrant energy of nature with just a hint of a soft filter. It is backlitwith the sun, and everything is warm and golden.His father dies of a heart attack in the shade of a tree, and thatnight there is a ferocious storm: inky blue punctuated with stabs ofviolent lightning. A bolt splits the tree, and Roy uses the heart of thecinematography70