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Mubi's retrospective "Empowering the Spectator: The Films of Michael Haneke" runs October 17 – December 16, 2019 in the United Kingdom.Alexander (Udo Samel) has his eyes glued to a TV screen when he recounts, halfway through Michael Haneke’s The Seventh Continent, his mother’s last words: “How would it be if we had a monitor instead of a head, where we could see our thoughts?” Released in 1989, The Seventh Continent marked Haneke’s feature film debut, but not the end of a career the Austrian had amassed during the previous fifteen years he’d spent writing and directing TV productions. Take his two-part 1979 television movie Lemmings as a single project, and the twenty-three films Haneke has directed since 1974 are somewhat evenly split: twelve features and eleven TV movies—the last of which, an adaptation of his theatrical staging of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, only came out in 2013. But the relationship...

If you've had the privilege to see a film lensed by D.P Adam J. Minnick, you'd have recognized an eye disciplined by the story it's telling rather than by personal inclinations or some sybaritic style that steals from the story. Buzzard, was shot super raw and cold on a 5D, The Alchemist Cookbook was shot formally composed with a warm palllete on an Alexa, and Actor Martinez (Us Premiering this April at Tribeca) was shot with Altman inspired slow zooms on a Red Epic Dragon. The aesthetic decisions and stories speak for his adaptability and understanding of the form. And, his latest release, The Alchemist Cookbook, which hit SXSW hard when it world premiered, has audiences, critics, and filmmakers predominately sitting on the 'loved it' side of its divisive disposition.

We were fortunate to talk with the cinematographer on how the hell the team pulled it off.

Could you...

Could you give us a general overview of your working relationship with Joel?

Joel and I are first and foremost friends...he's always been one of my closest. We've been making music, watching films and making little movies together starting in high school. He and I were really the only two buddies in our tight group that pursued visual arts of any sort through college and beyond, so it made sense that one day we could ultimately work together on a professional level, too. There's a trust that I can't really put into words, but we know that it's there. The Alchemist Cookbook was a new endeavor into a different filmmaking experience for both of us, and his trust in me as an image maker was very clear from the beginning. As far as collaborative art goes, I've never been more aligned with anyone, so I consider myself very fortunate...