10 Of The Very Best Cinematographers Working Today

The paradox of the various departments of film production, whether it’s design, music, photography or others, is that when they’re executed with the highest level of skill they stand out, but they’re not really meant to. Most agree that a movie’s score, for instance, is operating at its best when it is affecting the audience’s response to and understanding of a particular scene or moment in a film but on a completely unconscious level. It’s only afterward, perhaps on repeat viewings, that we notice how beautifully composed the music was throughout, and in particular segments of the movie. If it stands out too much, it can be overbearing, and overly noticeable, and actually distract from the story that we’re supposed to be engaging in.

Darren Ruecker Sep 20, 2013 6:52 pm2014-05-11T22:00:06-05:00

[h2]5) Christopher Doyle[/h2]

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Christopher Doyle is a name I came to know because it had a certain way of standing out: he has been the cinematographer on several Chinese language movies, and a name like Christopher Doyle tends to stand out when listed in the major credits of such movies. His most frequent collaborating director is Wong Kar-wai, the king of Hong Kong cinema, and is the eye behind gorgeous films like Chungking Express and In the Mood for Love.

But he has been prolific elsewhere, working with directors like Gus Van Sant, Jim Jarmusch and Phillip Noyce, as well as M. Night Shyamalan (whose movies are at the very least visually spectacular) and Zhang Yimou on one of the most beautiful films of the 2000s, Hero. Most recently his work gave a haunting and sinister feel to Sebastian Silva’s Magic Magic starring Michael Cera and Juno Temple. As cinematographers who are Australian transplants living in Taiwan and fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin go, he’s probably my favorite.

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