By April MacIntyre Apr 18, 2008, 3:41 GMT
One of the breakout hits of the moment is "The Visitor," a woven story of unlikely alliances.
10/04/2007 - Richard Jenkins - © Janet Mayer / PR Photos
Thomas McCarthy’s "The Visitor" is a tale of friendship with the backdrop of the ramped up crackdown on illegal immigrants.
Filmmaker McCarthy also gave us the haunting and subtle "The Station Agent," a masterful and emotional movie experience. A visually beautiful one too, thanks to Cinematographer Oliver Bokelberg, who has reteamed with McCarthy for “The Visitor.”
I spoke with Oliver after a screening of his latest film.
The location of “The Visitor” production came up: “We made it right here in New York. During pre-production, Tom McCarthy took a few of us to visit a detention center in New Jersey. It is not a nice place!” shared Bokelberg, who told me of the process of shot planning and pre-production for the film.
“The facility is run by an outsourced agency; the building resembles a storage warehouse void of any character. But this is the reality that we needed to capture. The gentleman that I was talking with, through a glass panel via telephone, had been in detention for the last 2 Years,” Bokelberg added.
“The Visitor" is Walter Vale’s story - a widowed and burned out college professor played by the veteran character actor, Richard Jenkins.
Walter strikes up a friendship with a young immigrant couple, Tarek and Zainab, who are occupying his vacant apartment.
Tarek is caught without the right papers and is put into a detention center in Queens. Since both Tarek's mother and girlfriend are illegal, Walter is the de facto link to any chance of freedom.
The process of making “The Visitor” was heavily etched into Bokelberg’s heart, a son of Hamburg, Germany, and director McCarthy’s, too. McCarthy is a third-generation member of an Irish Catholic family from New Jersey who described the detention centers as our new Ellis Island from a previous interview. “ 'The Visitor' became very personal to us and we needed to be honest with our filmmaking,” revealed Bokelberg.
“Tom also brought along Production Designer John Paino and Editor Tom McArdle from ‘The Station Agent.’ “
The look of Bokelberg’s work is some of the most distinct in the business for a contemporary cinematographer. His camera work visually propels the written script and makes everything he lenses an integral part of the story telling.
Famed cinematographer Gordon Willis (Godfather 1 &2, Klute, Zelig, among many notable films) once told me of all the young DP’s out there, Oliver’s work impressed him very much.
I asked Oliver what gear he worked with on this shoot: “For the look we chose 35mm Kodak Film and shot with an Arricam Lite Camera for mobility.
We favored an intimate set and utilized much controlled handheld work as well as a few Zooms. All in support of our great cast led by Richard Jenkins."
The technical details:“The Visitor”
Shot on Kodak 5201, 5205 and 5218Arricam LiteZeiss Ultra PrimesAngenieux 25-250Technicolor New York
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