One of the most defining aspects of the golden era of cinema was the grandness of VistaVision cameras. After capturing classic films like The Ten Commandments, Vertigo, and the original Star Wars, the legendary camera took a back seat with the advent of digital cameras. Now, the vast canvas of the VistaVision camera is making a comeback with recent films like One Battle After Another, The Mentalist, and Bugonia. Alejandro G Inarritu and Tom Cruise are at the forefront of bringing back old-school Hollywood extravagance and charm. So, no better duo to take up VistaVision to capture their debut collaboration, Digger, which has cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki.
Speaking about the first time he flirted with the idea of shooting a film in VistaVision, director Inarritu says, “When I started testing the VistaVision in 2020 for my film Bardo, I realised VistaVision requires a lot of light, especially at the aperture that I wanted to shoot. How the colors behave, how things feel very different. There’s something that is almost indescribable in the end product.” The auteur, who gained prominence for his signature visual language, breaks down the nuances behind the VistaVision. “For the last 15 years, I’ve fallen in love with the depth of field. I love films that feel like paintings, where there’s a foreground, a middle ground, and a background, and they are all dancing and revealing different layers, giving you context. A face tells you who someone is, but a room tells you why. VistaVision gave us an extraordinary amount of information; I wanted everything in focus so the audience can choose where to look, where to wander, and ultimately get lost in the painting.”
Inarritu reveals how he was discussing bringing back VistaVision with fellow auteur Paul Thomas Anderson, who went on to use it in his recent film, One Battle After Another. “We were really pushing for the cameras to be ready. Then I learned Giovanni Ribisi owns the camera, and so Paul used it, and then I used it,” says Inarritu. Tom Cruise, who plays the titular role in Digger, was more fascinated with the natural obstacles of an older technology. “Just loading a camera in VistaVision was such a discovery for me, that sound of the film going through. I was fascinated; I had to ask everyone to be quiet for just a second. Let’s just hear it going through. It’s a beautiful thing. I loved it. It never got old.”
The actor further reveals that the team had to develop special lenses to get the specific look Inarritu designed for Digger. Tom Cruise says, “We were not just shooting on VistaVision, there was also the development of the handmade lenses that we were able to create to get this handcrafted look. It’s wild, you can see and feel the difference.”
Also starring Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Jesse Plemons. Robert John Burke, Emma D’Arcy, Burn Gorman and Sophie Wilde, the film is currently running in theatres.