Acclaimed and beloved cinematographer Roger Deakins has fashioned a steady Hollywood career in recent years. An Englishman, he got his start behind the camera on such Brit flicks as Sid and Nancy, White Mischief, and even Ray (The Kinks) Davies’ directorial debut Return to Waterloo. When the Coen Bros. hired Deakins to work on Barton Fink, however, his career suddenly surged. He’s worked with the Coens on every film since, and will take a break from them (replaced by Emmanuel Lubezki) on their 2008 release, Burn After Reading. Nevertheless, his body of work with them spans almost 20 years and an endless array of colors, textures, and emotion.
Deakins will have enough on his hands as it is. He’s spent the last two decades collaborating with directors such as Martin Scorsese (Kundun), Edward Zwick (Courage Under Fire), Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind), and Sam Mendes (Jarhead, Revolutionary Road). Hell, Deakins was even nominated twice in the Best Cinematography Oscar category this year: once for No Country For Old Men and again for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. And, according to IMDB, he’ll reunite with the Coens on their 2009 feature Hail Caesar.
The Guardian recently caught up with Deakins and asked him to select “the five favourite shots of his career.” You may be surprised by his choices, you may not. I think he picked some good ones.
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