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flashback - that fuji moment
MOTION PICTURE & PRO-VIDEO
MILLER’S CROSSING - MEN IN HATS
“It was like Kismet for me because it was exactly what I needed
Fifteen years ago, The Coen Brothers were just two features into their burgeon- ing career when, with a little inspiration from old gangster movies and especially the writing of Dashiell Hammett,
they dreamed up Miller’s Crossing. For Barry Sonnenfeld, who had lit
Blood Simple and Raising Arizona, this was to be his last collaboration with the Coens before becoming a director himself on films like The Addams Family (1&2), Men In Black (1&2) and Get Shorty.
According to Sonnenfeld, “there are wacky movies and handsome movies” and Miller’s Crossing had “to be a hand- some movie.” The Coens agreed, then Sonnenfeld said, ‘well, that means we’re going to have to use long lenses, because long lenses are handsome, while wide angle lenses are funny.
“We wanted it,” said Sonnenfeld, “to be handsome and muted and not wacky, also beautiful and manly. In fact, we used the word ‘manly’ a lot.”
During pre-production, he asked the Coens what they wanted the movie to look like, and producer Ethan (who co-writes with director Joel) stat- ed, “it should be a handsome movie about men in hats.”
Starring Albert Finney, Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden and John Turturro, the film is set in a unnamed, gangster-torn Eastern American city in the Thirties.
In fact, they filmed in and around New Orleans including a key forest scene – setting for the Miller’s Crossing of the title.
Sonnenfeld recalls: “I remember finding these beautiful trees, this incredible forest, and saying to Joel and Ethan, that this will work, but only
if we shoot on overcast days. It will not work on sunny days. It will be too contrasty. Miller’s Crossing – by which I mean the specific location - should always have this sort of soft fog- enshrouded feel to it, I stressed.
“I specifically chose Fuji to shoot just that one scene [featuring Byrne and Turturro in a planned execution] because Fuji is less poppy, less pri- mary, Fuji’s green is a little softer and bluer, and I really wanted this one loca- tion to be feel very soft and muted.
“The Coens looked at me and said, ‘Well, Barry, you know us. If it’s sunny, we’re not going to cover the set or drive back into town because it’s sunny. We’re shooting whether it’s sunny or cloudy.’ I replied, ‘it has to be cloudy.’ They said, ‘well, good luck.’
“It was too big an area to tent-in or make cloudy. We shot in those woods for probably seven to nine days and
of those, the very last shot on the very last day was the only time the sun ever came out. Every thing else was overcast and it was like Kismet for me because it was exactly what I needed visually for that whole sequence.” ■ QUENTIN FALK
Miller’s Crossing is now available as a Special Edition on DVD
visually for that whole sequence.” Barry Sonnenfeld
Photos: Gabriel Byrne (left) and John Turturro (right) with the pair together (centre) in that forest glade scene
Fuji Motion Picture And Professional Video • Exposure • 31