MATCH GAME

         In keeping with his cinematic nickname – The Prince of Darkness – the great cinematographer Gordon Willis, ASC is widely known for his low-key work on such classics as The Godfather, The Godfather Part Two, Klute and The Parallax View.  I’ve never given much credence to that tag, as anyone who’s delved into the breadth of his career would agree.  His work in Woody Allen’s A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1982) proves the point.

         Focus on the ways Willis treated the movie’s numerous day\exterior settings.  Like an elite professional in any pursuit, he makes it look easy…but believe me, it’s not.  When working outside in the daytime, a cinematographer has only two factors under their control: the hour during which shooting takes place and the angle the lens is facing.  By using those to his best advantage – while adding his own measure of artificial light and filtration – Willis’s shot-to-shot consistency throughout the film is something to marvel at.  Given the frequently changing state of the summer sky above its location in upstate New York, you’d have to wonder if he had some pull with the Weather Service.  More likely, he knew exactly how to expose and print his negative, something that has all but become a lost art.  There were no second chances or digital fixes available when he did this in 1981; every visual element had to be spot-on correct at the moment of exposure.  With the passage of time, the achievement becomes ever more impressive.  There weren’t many cinematographers who worked to that level of exactitude back then.  Hell, there are even fewer who can do it so well right now!

         Day\interiors also rate praise for their unobtrusive, natural look.  Nearly all of them were shot not on sets but in a real location, without the use of translites or studio backings.  Exposure-wise, the window-sources always preserve great detail outside, while the light inside shows a soft, natural fall-off.  This is no mean feat within such tight confines.  Besides the obvious technical concerns, it requires the full cooperation of the director and careful staging of the actors,  none of which looks stodgy or contrived.

         But Willis’s greatest triumph presents itself during a dinner table scene set in a grassy meadow at magic hour (which, as we know, lasts for much less than that!).  Though its four minute, fifteen second length would suggest it was shot over the course of several weeks, every frame is perfectly exposed and printed for the effect.  And though he no doubt used some level of fill from time to time, the overall look is un-lit.  Once again, he had no LED volumes to extend the working day nor high-def monitors to check the results.  Everything had to be judged in the moment by eye, and clearly, they were done to perfection.  

         As for the night\interiors, they’re boilerplate Willis.  If you have any awareness of his work, you’ll know what to expect.  And in these low-key, kerosene lamp-sourced situations, he may well have exceeded some of his better-known titles by a considerable margin.

            Willis’s brilliant facility for shot-matching in A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy never calls attention to itself.  By always putting the story first, he disappears into the background – but you can bet he’s pulling all the strings.  It’s too bad this amusing little trifle seems to have fallen through the cracks.  But now, you’ve been told.  As a student, fan or practitioner, you have no excuse not to seek it out.  And pay close attention to the points I’ve noted.  Out of all the people who’ve ever wielded a light meter, I don’t know that a single one of them could have done it as well!