I went to see The King’s Speech last night, after ubiquitous rave reviews. I enjoyed it as much as anyone else but found that the cinematography excited me most.
It was all fog and wide angle distortion and natural lighting. There’s always some debate when a film comes out looking different from the typical, often causing a Marmite love-it-or-hate-it situation, but I found it really refeshing. The colouring and close-ups were superb.
In one scene, where Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter walk down a flight of stairs, they almost walk into darkness and it’s this avoidance of studio- or over-lighting that makes it feel more real.
Cinematographer Danny Cohen talks about it a little here and there are some caps from the trailer here.
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