The Black Dahlia by Cinematographer
VILMOS ZSIGMOND

The Black Dahlia is a collaboration between director Brian de Palma and cinematographer VILMOS ZSIGMOND. Previous collaborations are: Obsession (1976), Blow Out (1981) and The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990).

The Black Dahlia is an adaptation of one of James Ellroy’s quartet: the first one, now screening, “The Black Dahlia”, the second one “The Big Nowhere”, followed by “L.A Confidential” (adapted to the screen by Curtis Hanson in 1997) and finally “White Jazz”. Ellroy’s goal, in writing these four books titled “The L.A. Quartet”, was to overcome his own personal story that has a lot in common with the one told in The Black Dahlia. Betty Ann, that always wore a dahlia in her hair, was a struggling actress brutally murdered in 1947. Eleven years later, in 1958, Geneva Hilliker, another struggling actress, was also brutally murdered. Both murders were real, both murders are unsolved until this day and both happened in L.A.. This last murder has a direct connection with Ellory because Geneva Hilliker was his mother. Ellroy’s novel The Black Dahlia was first a David Fincher’s director project but at a certain point it became a Brian de Palma’s project. Josh Friedman, also recently responsible for Spiellberg’s War of the Worlds, did the screenwriting adaptation.

The Black Dahlia, according to de Palma’s vision, intended to look like a film “noir” from the forties/ fifties and so the option was casting young actors that would match in a Humphrey Bogart/Lauren Bacall style. In the 2006 adaptation The Black Dahlia, main characters are: two LA police officers that investigate Betty Ann’s murder, and their wives: Josh Hartnett/ Scarlett Johansson and Aaron Eckhart/ Hilary Swank. As Betty Ann Short, actress Mia Kirshner (Exotica (1994)) was cast. The visual aspect of The Black Dahlia was carefully thought out as production designer Dante Ferreti was chosen (Fellini’s collaborator) and as cinematographer, VILMOS ZSIGMOND. The movie was shot mostly in Sofia (Bulgaria) where LA hills in the forties were able to be recreated.

The Black Dahlia was nominated by the Venice Film Festival for the “Golden Palm” but lost, that year, to Zhang Ke Jia’s Still life [ Sanxia haoren].

Comments On The Black Dahlia Cinematography Options
(in The Black Dahlia’s official website)

“Few American directors have opted to use the palette of colors and complex camera movements for which De Palma is known. Up until the fight scene between his two supercops, De Palma uses saturation coloring. Then, he moves on to very strong contrasting colors to tell the bulk of his story, complete with desaturated flashbacks. The director notes, "The whole movie is basically a descent into hell. With noir, you try to use high contrast, a lot of shadows and low angles."

De Palma chose to work with a team-including longtime collaborators, former opera set and Fellini designer Dante Ferretti and renowned cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond-to design specific sequences in service of the story. The director relates, "I look at a scene, and then I figure out what's the best position for the camera for a particular piece of action. Then, I maximize the visuals and design the locations for sequences." Notably, De Palma is known to create three-dimensional models to understand exactly what he wants to film before he starts rolling camera.

De Palma and Zsigmond's choices draw us in even further into Betty's world, pre- and post-mortem. The complicated camera work needed to follow the fight between Mr. Fire and Mr. Ice would prove not only a physical challenge for Hartnett and Eckhart, but one for cinematographer Zsigmond. As Bucky throws the fight, dropping his right and taking a left hook from Lee-followed by a fast right uppercut that takes out his two front teeth-the camera and choreography work blend beautifully. In this scene and others, De Palma would make much use of his signature split-screen and split-diopter shots.

"In an anamorphic (traditional lens) movie, you see a big face in the foreground and someone 30 feet away, then both of them out of focus," notes cinematographer Zsigmond. "Optically, it's impossible to make both clear, so we use a split diopter lens that hides the split and makes the image seamless." This is also a trademark De Palma imprint, used in films like The Untouchables, Blow Out and Carrie.”

On Cinematographer VILOS ZSIGMOND

Both Zsigmond and well known cinematographer Laszlo Kovaks are Hungarian. Curiously enough, they began their career at the same time: in 1956, during the Hungarian Revolution against Soviet communist imposed policies. They shot footage of the Soviet invasion and then escaped to the United States where they sold the footage to CBS.

Born in 1930, Zsigmond does mainly sci-fi/ horror/ comedy movies, during the sixties, working several times with director James Landis. In 1971 Peter Fonda (after his big hit as scriptwriter in Easy Rider (1969)) chooses Zsigmond for his first directing long feature, The Hired Hand. The seventies are definitely Zsigmond’s recognition decade: in 1973 he’s nominated three times for BAFTA, for three different titles: McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) and Images (1972), both directed by Robert Altman, and Deliverance (1972) by John Boorman. Again with Altman he shoots The Long Goodbye (1973), a crime/ drama/ thriller/ mystery movie. In 1974 he works for the first time with Steven Spielberg in The Sugarland Express (1974). The movie stars Goldie Hawn and is nominated for the Golden Palm in Cannes 1974 still, it ends up winning Best Screenplay only. For Zsigmond’s second collaboration with Spielberg in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) he receives his first Oscar (1978) and a BAFTA nomination (1979). This film had important nominations for several Oscar categories but only Zsigmond’s category won. The first BAFTA awarded to Zsigmond came with Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter (1978) in 1980, also Oscar nominated in 1979.

In the eighties he’s again an Oscar nominee in 1985 for The River (1984) by Mark Rydell. He also photographs the popular title The Witches of Eastwick (1987) by George Miller.

Jack Nicholson’s directing adventure The Two Jakes (1990), starring himself and Harvey Keitel opens the nineties for Zsigmond. In 1993 he wins an Emmy and an American Society of Cinematographers award for a Tv movie on Stalin’s life, Stalin (1992). In 1994 he works in Maverick (1994) by Richard Donner, Sean Penn’s second long feature The Crossing Guard (1995) staring Jack Nicholson and in 1997 he is nominated by the American Society of Cinematographers for The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) directed by Stephen Hopkins.

That same year, in 1997, he’s awarded the “Lifetime Achievement Award” by Camerimage. The same recognition arrives from the American Society of Cinematographers in 1999 and also the Cinequest San Jose Film Festival awards him the “Maverick Tribute Award”.

In 2002 he wins his first Camerimage award for “Best Film Adaptation of an Opera” with Bánk Bán (2001) along with the director Csaba Káel. Also in the same year he wins his career’s second Emmy, this time for The Mists of Avalon (2001) miniseries. Director Woody Allen chooses Zsigmond for his Melinda and Melinda (2004) and next he collaborates with Brian de Palma in The Black Dahlia (2006). During his career time he has won several international and domestic awards as director of TV commercials.

VILOS ZSIGMOND’s works premiering soon are:

Woody Allen’s Untitled Woody Allen Summer Project (2007) staring Hayley Atwell, Colin Farrell, Sally Hawkins and Ewan McGregor;

A documentary on the significant global effects of the Hungarian revolution of 1956, also featuring Laszlo Kovaks as cinematographer, titled Torn from the Flag (2006) and directed by Jonathan Halperin and;

Bolden! (2008) directed by Dan Pritzker.

To know more… go to The Black Dahlia’s official website

News content by Diana Soeiro for IMAGO