Ever since I was 19 years old I knew Salvatore Totino Asc Aic “had it.” That’s because I saw Any Given Sunday, and holy WOW, that film is a cinematographer’s dream come true. Of course, working with Oliver Stone would likely challenge any budding cameraman, and I can’t help but feel that a film as aggressive as Any Given Sunday would probably have been one of the craziest ways to make your big-screen debut as a full-fledged cinematographer. He arrived from a background in music videos, working with all of the greats (REM, Radiohead, U2, Bruce Springsteen), so feature films were the next logical fit. And over the years, Totino has brought a deceptively stylish and obscenely photogenic eye to every project that he’s worked on. He’s shot sports films, historical dramas, light comedy, intense action, and character-based dramatic thrillers, and no matter the genre, he always embodies his films with rich texture, motivation for his choices, and unique angles in which to cover all of the action and conversations. His name is one that I look for on posters and in the credits as a sign of quality, and I can’t wait to see his upcoming efforts Everest, a mountain climbing adventure with a massive cast, and his return to the football field with the NFL brain-trauma expose Concussion.
Watching Any Given Sunday can sometimes make the viewer feel dazed or drunk – there’s so much visual information being hurled at the viewer that it can be a challenge to keep up. But that’s exactly the point – Totino and Stone wanted you to feel the rush of the on-field action in a way you never had before; watching a football game feels boring in comparison to what they did with their film. Each image as a level of dynamism that feels hard-edged and forceful, with the camera wildly swerving from one side of the frame to the other, without ever losing clarity or spatial reasoning. This same sort of attention to geography would be demonstrated during the boxing scenes in Cinderella Man, a deeply burnished, sepia-toned period piece that feels lived-in and incredibly authentic. The ringside sequences sting with bloody realism, and while never going full-on heightened in the same fashion as Raging Bull, there’s an intensely stylish yet still honest aesthetic that comes into play during the many brutal bouts and emotionally draining family and home-life sequences. And then in something modern and contemporary like Changing Lanes, Totino was able to bring out character and emotion in a very grounded, cut-from-the-70’s manner which emphasized clean camera moves and a subtle sense of high-style. And while never calling attention to itself, Changing Lanes still stands out as distinctive, moody, and edgy, with an introspective quality to the images which helps to ratchet up the tension. No matter the film or style or the director that he’s working with, Totino has repeatedly proven to be one of the most versatile and dependable big-studio cinematographers for over the last 15 years.
Podcasting Them Softly 