The Globe and Mail - 13.09.2019

A14 | NEWS OTHEGLOBEANDMAIL | FRIDAY,SEPTEMBER13,

Y

ou know a Roger Deakins
shot even if you have no
idea who Roger Deakins is.
Think of the vast snow-drenched
emptiness ofFargoor the sunset
cartel assault inSicarioor the
neon-lit Shanghai fight scene in
Skyfall. The British cinematogra-
pher has been shooting movies
for almost four decades and has,
through his repeat collaborations
with such filmmakers as the Coen
brothers and Denis Villeneuve,
helped define the look of what
we’ll call the “Prestige Motion Pic-
ture.” With Deakins’s name at-
tached, no matter how wobbly
the script or thin the performanc-
es, the film’s visuals are bound to
transfix.
This Friday, Deakins’s latest
project,The Goldfinch, arrives in
theatres – and while the adapta-
tion of Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer
Prize-winning novel disappoints
in almost every other sense, it
scores on an aesthetic level: You
wouldn’t think there’d be a new,
interesting way to shoot the in-
side of, say, an airplane cabin, but
Deakins, 70, excels in exposing
details others would miss.
In Toronto this week for the
world premiere of the film, as
well as to receive the Variety Arti-
san Award at the inaugural TIFF
Tribute Gala, Deakins spoke with
The Globe and Mail about art,
awards and luck.

Youhave14Oscarnominations,
andonewin,lastyear,toyour
name.Andnowyou’reaccepting
thisTIFFaward.Butatthisstagein
yourcareer,doyouhavemuch

needforawards?

They’re icing on the cake. It’s do-

ing the work that’s important,

and what’s been important from

the beginning. I don’t want to be

the one going up there, anyway. It

was great to win an Oscar [for

Blade Runner 2049], but also hor-

rible. It’s terrifying to find a thing

to say, and you feel like such a

fool. It’s funny. A few years ago,

Joel Coen said to me, “God, what

does it feel like? How did it hap-

pen? We’re part of the establish-

ment now.” We never really want-

ed to be.

Soyouconsideryourselfoutside

themainstream?

I do feel terribly like an outsider.

I’m uncomfortable now, I’m un-

comfortable at film festivals, I’m

uncomfortable going to any

meeting, actually. I’m only com-

fortable when I’m behind a cam-

era and shooting.

Howdoyoudealwiththeother

sideofthejob,then,whichis

promotionobligationssuchasthis?

I’m here to support a film I care

about, it’s as simple as that. It is

nice going to festivals, don’t get

me wrong, just as it’s nice going to

the Oscars. I get to see friends I

haven’t seen for a while, like for

theBlade Runner 2049year, I ran

into Gary Oldman, who I had only

seen briefly once since I worked

with him onSid and Nancyall

those years ago. But I still don’t

feel part of those events.

I’vereadthatyoudon’tconsider

yourselfanartist,butastoryteller.

I don’t know what art really is.

Not really. What is art? Is it a

painting on a wall? I don’t know.

Anything that somebody does to

the best of their ability you could

call art in some way. I think film-

making is communication.

You’re trying to provoke an emo-

tional response in your audience

in some way. I don’t know if that’s

art or not. It’s a funny word, “art.”

Onyourpersonalwebsite,yousay

“therearenorules.”Noteven

basictechnicalones?

I don’t think there are. I think any

photographer or cinematogra-

pher has to be true to their own

vision, their own sense of compo-

sition, their own interpretation of

what they see around them.

There are no rules, no. I think a lot

of people who go on the website

are in awe, that they think there’s

a process or a kind of magic. They

think that if they just learn it ...

you know what I mean? That

there’s some magic formula or se-

cret to it. There’s not. It’s basically

hard work.

Whydidyoustartthewebsite?

We were doing a Q&A one time

and so many came up afterward,

because they’re shy during the

actual session, to ask questions. I

said, why not just do a website,

and people can ask questions and

then it becomes a forum, a discus-

sion for everyone to get the bene-

fit. At Q&As, I just want to be at

home, and it’s much easier to an-

swer questions this way. Some go,

“Oh my god, Roger is actually an-

swering,” and I go what’s the big

deal? Whatever you want. I’m not

someone in an ivory tower. I was

very lucky how I got into the busi-

ness, so you have to be open to

those questions, those moments.

Whatwasthedefiningmomentof

luckforyourcareer?

You could say it happened right

at the beginning, when my dad

would play cartoons for me with

this old projector that he kept

from the war. Or maybe he stole

it. But he brought it back from

Germany, and we watched car-

toons on it, and from there, I

joined the film society at school,

and that all turned me on to mo-

vies. I didn’t know what I wanted

to do with my life, but I didn’t

want to carry on with my dad’s

business – he was a builder.

So I went to art college, and

there’s another crucial moment

there, when a friend of mine said

the [National Film and Television

School] is opening up, and he was

applying, so I did, too. Neither of

us got in, but afterward I went for

an interview with the principal

and was told if I applied next year,

they’d give me a place. So I got in,

but my friend didn’t. And that’s

what clinched it for me. I had no

connections, and I was quite shy. I

wasn’t going to go to London and

beat on doors. That moment

changed things completely for

me.

This interview has been condensed

and edited.

Don’tcallRogerDeakinsanartist

InTorontoforthe

premiereofThe

Goldfinch,theBritish

cinematographeroffers

lifelessonsonvision,

awardsandluck

BARRY
HERTZ

SCREEN TIME

CinematographerRogerDeakins–seenwithhiswife,IsabellaJamesPurefoyEllis,attheworldpremiereof

TheGoldfinchattheTorontoInternationalFilmFestivalonSunday–sayshestillfeels‘likeanoutsider’and

neverreallywantedtobeapartofthefilm-industryestablishment.MARIO ANZUONI/REUTERS

BARRY HERTZ

T

urning author Donna Tartt’s polarizing 2013

Pulitzer Prize-winner into a film was never

going to be easy – the novel is 784 pages of

wild coming-of-age Dickensian tragedy and

pop-outrageousness, spread across decades and con-

tinents. But it didn’t have to be so frustratingly diffi-

cult, either.

Telling the up-and-down life story of New York

antique dealer Theo (Ansel Elgort as a young man,

Oakes Fegley as a boy), whose mother was killed in a

museum bombing,The Goldfinchgets the momen-

tum of Tartt’s work all wrong. Director John Crowley

and screenwriter Peter Straughan take their time

when they should speed up, and move far too fast

when they should take a beat to explain just what,

exactly, is going on with Theo and his colourful crew

of friends, lovers and enemies. The one exciting scene

in the film even happens off-screen – from the way

it’s described by one character to another, though, it

sounded pretty neat.

A host of talented performers get caught up in the

mess, too, including Jeffrey Wright, Sarah Paulson

and Nicole Kidman, the latter sporting an even worse

old-age makeup job than in last year’s misfire

Destroyer. And the less said about whateverStranger

Thingsbreakout Finn Wolfhard is attempting in his

role as Theo’s childhood partner in crime, the better.

Crowley knows his way around adaptations

thanks to 2015’s lovingly preciseBrooklyn, but as this

149-minute dramatically inert misfire proves,The

Goldfinchshould have never flown away from its liter-

ary perch.

TheGoldfinchopens Sept. 13.

[ALSOOPENING]

THEGOLDFINCH

CLASSIFICATION: R; 149 MINUTES

Directed by John Crowley

Written by Peter Straughan

Starring Ansel Elgort, Nicole Kidman and Jeffrey Wright

★½

K

eira Knightley’s character
violates Britain’s Official Se-
crets Act about 10 minutes
into the brooding docu-thriller
Official Secrets, which is about 9:
after the actor violates her unoffi-
cial insistence on period dramas
only. But if there is no bustle to her
usual bustle, there is absolutely a
bee in Knightley’s bonnet.
She portrays Katharine Gun, a
British intelligence translator
who leaked top-secret informa-
tion concerning international

arm-twisting by the United States

in its hell-bent push for the inva-

sion of Iraq in 2003.

The film’s trailer suggests a lev-

el of suspense the film itself fails

to deliver, especially for audienc-

es groomed on gun silencers, fog-

set intrigue or something like di-

rector Gavin Hood’s excellentEye

in the Skyfrom 2015. No, this well-

acted political drama plays out in

the open, with fewer spies coming

in from the cold – although

Knightley does don a heavy scarf

against the overcast weather –

and more truth-to-power righ-

teousness of, say,The Post. (Speak-

ing of which, people who make

their livings in newsrooms will get

a kick out of a fantastic spellcheck

scene.)

While Rhys Ifans chews scen-

ery as a scruff-faced foreign corre-

spondent, Knightley plays it taut

and believable, and, as we know,

nobody walks on cobblestones

better than she. The end result is a

professionally made film that is

whistle-blowingly relevant, star-

ring an excellent actor who suc-

cessfully comes in from herPride

& Prejudicepast.

Official Secrets opens Sept. 13.

Knightleygivesatautperformance

inrelevant,truth-to-powerdocu-thriller

BRADWHEELER

KeiraKnightleyplaysBritishtranslatorKatharineGuninOfficialSecrets.

REVIEW

OfficialSecrets
CLASSIFICATION: 14A; 112 MINUTES

Directed by Gavin Hood
Written by Gregory Bernstein,
Sara Bernstein and Gavin Hood
(based onTheSpyWhoTriedto
StopaWar,by Marcia Mitchell
and Thomas Mitchell)
Starring Keira Knightley,
Matt Smith, Matthew Goode,
Adam Bakri, Indira Varma,
Rhys Ifans and Ralph Fiennes
★★★