Cinema is a visual art form, and images, along with the music, sound and the dialogue, tell the story. I’m thinking about this obvious point because the great cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno died last week at age 97. Rotunno could frame showy eye candy, of course, like his shot from Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen above. But, check out how Rotunno could tell the audience about the characters and their relation to each other in the stills below from Mike Nichols’ Carnal Knowledge, Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard and Rocco and His Brothers, Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz and Federico Fellini’s Amarcord.
Of course, film imagery is even more impactful when the images move. To appreciate how intoxicating Rotunno’s cinematography could be, I recommend this brilliant video essay from Scout Tafoya on RogerEbert.com.
