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The Mission: Impossible franchise has never just been about heart-stopping stunts or Tom Cruise dangling from cliffs and aircraft—it’s also a masterclass in cinematic craftsmanship. One of the often overlooked but absolutely essential components to this franchise’s visceral thrill is its remarkable use of cameras and lenses. From classic Panavision 35mm film cameras to cutting-edge digital rigs like the Sony Venice and the Z Cam E2-F6, the franchise is a visual evolution worthy of its own action-packed story. Thanks to a recent reveal from Panavision, and our own deep dive (complete with detailed slides breaking down camera and lens packages per film), we can now explore how each chapter in this saga was captured—frame by breathtaking frame.

Tom Cruise, the Snorricam, and the Z Cam. Film First: The Panavision Legacy

At the heart of the visual language for most of the Mission: Impossible films lies the magic of celluloid.

Sean Connery made his best movie outside the James Bond franchise when he paired up with Kevin Costner to take down Al Capone in Brian De Palmas Prohibition-era gangster thriller The Untouchables. Connery became the first actor to play Bond on the big screen when he starred in 1962s Dr. No. The character was already a literary icon, but Connery was responsible for making Ian Flemings gentleman spy a beloved staple of the silver screen. He played 007 in five more official Eon productions and one unofficial non-Eon production, 1983s Never Say Never Again.

While Bond is undoubtedly Connerys most iconic role, he had a very prolific career outside the Bond franchise, too. He worked in a wide range of genres under the direction of such renowned filmmakers as Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, John Huston, and Sidney Lumet. From an Agatha Christie murder mystery to a submarine thriller from the director of Die Hard,...

British Cinematographer Peter Biziou, known for his work on pics like The Truman Show and Mississippi Burning, is the recipient of the lifetime achievement award this year at Poland’s Camerimage film festival.

Biziou was born in 1944 in Bangor, Caernarvonshire County, Wales. His family had been evacuated during the Second World War. His father was the cinematographer and special effects artist Leon Bijou who worked with Richard Thorpe on Ivanhoe (1952) and Adrian Lyne on Foxes (1980).

Beyond The Truman Show, Biziou’s credits include Monthy Python’s Life of Brian, Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits (1981), Nine ½ Weeks Lyne (1986), Unfaithful (2002), and A World Apart (1987). Biziou has also lensed pics including Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), City of Joy (1992), Damage (1992), Richard III (1995), Ladies in Lavender (2004), Derailed (2005), and Mississippi Burning (1998), for which he won the Best Cinematography Oscar.

Peter Biziou

Biziou is set to attend the fest held in Torun, Poland, to accept the award...

On May 22, 1996, Paramount Pictures and Tom Cruise unveiled the big screen adaptation of Mission: Impossible, which would go on to gross $180 million and kickstart a feature franchise. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below:

The fuse is burning throughout the big-screen reworking of the cloak-and-dagger TV show Mission: Impossible, but apart from the wham-bam conclusion, there’s a disappointing lack of fireworks in this hotly anticipated production.

An upsy-daisy download takes place as Tom Cruise invades the CIA. The Paramount release will open huge and download gigabucks worldwide. However, tepid word-of-mouth will knock it off the must-see list of many movie goers.

The first production by high-rolling star Tom Cruise and his partner and former agent Paula Wagner, Brian De Palma’s dour and only fitfully entertaining techno-thriller teases one with some of the original show’s team espionage spirit, but overall takes itself too seriously. Set mainly in European cities,...

Considering how long I’ve been writing this editorial series, it’s wild that this is the first entry tackling Brian De Palma. While there’s a history of contentious reactions to his works (primarily from feminists in the 70s and 80s who accused him of misogyny for his often brutal treatment of female characters), aside from Adrian Lyne, De Palma is easily one of the most significant directors to work on mainstream Erotic Thrillers.

Body Double is a solid entry in his filmography. It is also incredibly representative of his filmmaking interests in that it focuses on doubles, deep focus/split screens, Hitchcockian themes of obsession, sex and voyeurism, and, finally, a mystery murder that is more complicated than it initially appears.

For first time viewers, it might be surprising to learn that star Melanie Griffith does not appear until well past the one hour mark, after her doppelgänger,...

Director Francis Ford Coppola and star Adam Driver responded to a report that the set of “Megalopolis” has “descended into chaos,” each issuing strongly worded statements to refute that characterization.

“I love my cast, I love what I’m getting each day, I am on schedule and on budget, and that’s what is important to me,” Coppola told Deadline from the set of the new movie. Coppola’s representatives referred TheWrap to the Deadline interview when we reached out.

On Monday, the Hollywood Reporter published a piece about “Megalopolis,” Coppola’s longtime sci-fi passion project, into which he has sunk a considerable amount of his own money (he sold off some of his Northern California wineries). The report stated that the project is extremely over budget and in the midst of a creative crisis thanks to Coppola firing the visual effects department (as he had done on “Bram Stoker’s Dracula...

The story of Emmett Till continues to stir emotions in our collective hearts and minds nearly 70 years after his 1955 murder in Mississippi. Chinonye Chukwu’s acclaimed film “Till,” in theaters now, follows the inspirational plight of Emmett’s mother Mamie Till (played by Danielle Deadwyler) to advocate, educate and bring attention to the vicious hatred that led to her son’s violent death when he was 14 years old.

At The Wrap’s recent in-person screening of “Till,” the emotional experience of making the film resonated deeply among the department heads present for the post-screening Q&a. During a conversation moderated by The Wrap’s Elija Gil, the on-stage participants included the film’s production designer Curt Beech, makeup department head Denise Tunnell, hair department head Deaundra Metzger, composer Abel Korzeniowski and cinematographer Bobby Bukowski.

Also Read:

‘Till’ Review: Danielle Deadwyler Delivers a Riveting Performance as Mourning Mother Turned Civil-Rights Legend

In a particularly poignant exchange,...

The 2022 EnergaCamerimage 30th International Film Festival concluded today in Toruń, Poland, with “Tár,” the first film in 16 years from Academy Award-nominated writer-director Todd Field, taking the Golden Frog, the festival’s highest honor, with kudos going to first-time winner Florian Hoffmeister, who shot the picture.

The awards further elevate the status of a number of Oscar-contender hopefuls in the coming months, as previous winners for the Golden Frog include Robbie Ryan for Mike Mills’ “C’mon C’mon” in 2021, Joshua James Richards for Chloe Zhao’s Best Picture winner “Nomadland” in 2020, and Lawrence Sher for Todd Phillips’ “Joker” in 2019.

Also Read:

Sarah Polley Named Director of the Year by Palm Springs International Film Awards

The runners-up Silver Frog and Bronze Frog went respectively to cinematographer Darius Khondji’s work on filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s “Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” and cinematographer Jamie D. Ramsay for Oliver Hermanus’ “Living,...

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Florian Hoffmeister’s lensing of Tár, the Todd Field drama starring Cate Blanchett as an Egot-winning German conductor in a downward spiral, topped the EnergaCamerimage main competition by winning its Golden Frog.

Also Saturday in Toruń, Poland, during the closing ceremony of the 30th edition of the international cinematography film festival, runners-up were Dp Darius Khondji, who won the Silver Frog for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s personal Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths; and Dp Jamie Ramsay, who collected the Bronze Frog for Oliver Hermanus-helmed drama Living, which premiered in January during Sundance.

Hoffmeister was filming in Iceland and accepted the award via video. He saluted director Field for his “passion about cinematography.”

During the ceremony, Bardo claimed the Fipresci critics prize, and the Audience Award went to Mandy Walker’s bold lensing of Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis.

Festival director...

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Stephen H. Burum — an American Society of Cinematographers Lifetime Achievement Award recipient who earned an Oscar nomination for lensing Danny DeVito’s 1992 drama Hoffa — will accept the EnergaCamerimage Lifetime Achievement Award on Saturday during the cinematography fest’s closing ceremony in Torun, Poland. In addition to Hoffa, the Barum’s credits include The Untouchables, The War of the Roses, St. Elmo’s Fire and 1996’s Mission: Impossible.

Congratulations. How does it feel to be accepting the EnergaCamerimage Lifetime Achievement Award?

The reason I accepted it was that I thought that cinematographers needed to be promoted, especially with all the new digital stuff and [on-set] monitors. With everyone having access to the image, people have to remember who’s really in control. I’m not an awards kind of person, but if I can use the award to further the image and the respect for cinematographers,...

Francis Ford Coppola is known for big swings throughout his career, but one of his biggest was filming the adaptations of S.E. Hinton’s “The Outsiders” and “Rumble Fish” back-to-back and releasing them both in 1983 only months apart. The two movies’ filmmaking styles could not possibly be more different, with the lush Technicolor palette of “The Outsiders” giving way to the shadowy, moody black-and-white of “Rumble Fish,” a film so stylish in its look that it became a prototype for indies in years to come.

This is thanks to cinematographer Stephen H. Burum, the recipient of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the international cinematography festival EnergaCamerimage in Poland. Burum was on hand after a retrospective screening of “Rumble Fish,” one of many of his films screened throughout festival. (Others range from “St. Elmo’s Fire” to “The Untouchables” to “Hoffa;” he received an Oscar nomination for the latter.) The 82 year-old lenser,...

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As the 30th edition of Poland’s EnergaCamerimage international cinematography film festival gets underway, creator and director Marek Żydowicz asserts that promoting cinematographers’ artistic contributions in the hopes of expanding authorship rights to their work remains a priority. He also shares an update on the planned European Film Center Camerimage, a cultural center that will be built in host city Toruń.

Planning for the center began in 2019, when Żydowicz signed an agreement with the Polish state and Toruń government. Construction — representing an investment of Pln 600 million (roughly 128.9 million) — is slated to begin next year and expected to be completed by the end of 2025.

Żydowicz says the center will include a main screening room with seating for roughly 1,500, as well as three 200-300 seat screening rooms. “There will be areas for exhibitions, there will be areas for education,” he adds, nothing that the project...

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The EnergaCamerimage international cinematography film festival has unveiled its main competition lineup, including Elvis, White Noise, Top Gun: Maverick and Empire of Light, which is set to open the 30th edition.

Camerimage, held annually in Poland, has also booked into its main competition the cinematographic work for All Quiet on the West Front, War Sailor, Tár, The Perfect Number and The Angel in the Wall. The international festival has become a bellwether for what’s to come in the cinematography Oscar race.

Camerimage earlier announced that Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light, which was lensed by Roger Deakins, will open the 2022 edition set to be held Nov. 12-19 in Toruń, Poland. Mendes will also receive the Special Krzysztof Kieslowski Award for Director during the festival.

Also previously announced, Oscar-nominated cinematographer Stephen Burum (Hoffa) will accept the Camerimage Lifetime Achievement Award during this year’s festival.

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Sam Mendes will accept the Special Krzysztof Kieslowski Award for Director during the 30th edition of the EnergaCamerimage international cinematography film festival, which is slated to be held Nov. 12-19 in Toruń, Poland.

Additionally, Mendes’ new drama Empire of Light, lensed by Roger Deakins and starring Olivia Colman and Michael Ward, will be the opening night film and one of the main competition nominees. The Searchlight film is set in and around an old cinema in an English coastal town in the early 1980s.

Mendes’ films include American Beauty, for which he won best picture and best director Oscars, as well as Road to Perdition, Jarhead, Revolutionary Road, Away We Go, Skyfall, Spectre and 1917.

As previously announced, Oscar-nominated cinematographer Stephen Burum (Hoffa) will accept the Camerimage Lifetime Achievement Award during this year’s festival.

This big screen, big star crowd-pleaser is a whopping entertainment yet too disjointed to satisfy as a gangster movie. It can ignore history to make its points, but what is gained by killing off the only characters we really love? Audiences didn’t feel shortchanged: Sean Connery and Robert De Niro deliver strong characterizations and Ennio Morricone’s music is ideal. Brian De Palma’s visual instincts are at full strength too; the show is marvelous to look at. It’s a real winner, at least when its not running in knee-jerk Scarface overkill mode.

The Untouchables 4K

4K Ultra HD + Digital

Paramount

1987 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 119 min. / Street Date May 31, 2022 / Available from Amazon / 25.99

Starring: Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garcia, Robert De Niro, Richard Bradford, Jack Kehoe, Brad Sullivan, Billy Drago, Patricia Clarkson, Steven Goldstein, Del Close, Clifton James.

Cinematography: Stephen H. Burum

Art Director: William A.

Cinematographer Stephen H. Burum will be honored at EnergaCamerimage with the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Set to run in Torun, Poland, on Nov. 12-19, Camerimage, which focuses on films and cinematography, will celebrate its 30th anniversary this year.

Burum is best known for his collaborations with director Brian De Palma, which yielded such classics as “The Untouchables” (1987), a tale of the battle between good and evil; Vietnam War drama “Casualties of War” (1989); ”Carlito’s Way” (1993), which portrayed deep social divides; the iconic “Mission: Impossible” (1996); “Snake Eyes (1998); and “Mission to Mars” (2000).

His body of work also includes Joel Schumacher’s “St. Elmo’s Fire” (1985), Danny DeVito’s “The War of the Roses (1989), and Ken Kwapis’ and Marisa Silver’s “He Said, She Said” (1991).

Born in rural California in 1939 to a family of that owned and worked on several small newspapers, Burum became interested at an early age in film and shot his...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe late Machiko Kyo in Cannes, c. 1960.Machiko Kyo, the star of Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon, Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu, and Teinosuke Kinugasa's Gate of Hell, has passed away at the age of 95. Recommended VIEWINGThe 2nd trailer for Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, which expands further upon the film's storytelling ambitions, comic tone, and inspired casting. Janus Films has released the trailer for its new restoration of Paris is Burning, Jennie Livingston's seminal 1990 documentary on New York City drag ball culture. Ahead of its June 21 release, the final trailer for Toy Story 4 promises road trip adventures and, as per usual, some existential mayhem regarding what it means to be a child's toy. Exclusive clips by way of Cannes, each depicting intimate encounters. Abel Ferrara's Tommaso follows an...

Casualties of War

Blu-ray – Region B

Explosive Media

1992/ 2:35:1 / 113 Min. / Street Date December 1, 2016

Starring Michael J. Fox, Sean Penn

Cinematography by Stephen Burum

Written by David Rabe

Music by Ennio Morricone

Edited by Bill Pankow

Produced by Fred C. Caruso, Art Linson

Directed by Brian De Palma

In 1969 The New Yorker published a detailed exposé by Daniel Lang concerning four soldiers deployed in the Phu My district of Vietnam who abducted a young woman and raped her repeatedly over the course of the next 24 hours. The following day, fearing discovery by incoming American helicopters, the sergeant in command of the squad ordered her killed.

There was a fifth soldier traveling with that crew, Max Erickson, the only man in Lang’s reporting with anything resembling a moral compass, who observed the actions of his sidekicks with a mix of helplessness and horror. His accusations lead to courts martial...

Tonight on ‘movies we really want to like’ we have Hal Ashby’s final feature, an L.A.- based crime saga with a great cast and spirited direction and . . . and not much else. It isn’t the train wreck described in Kino’s candid actor interviews, but we can see only too well why it wasn’t a big winner when new. Any day that a Jeff Bridges picture doesn’t shine, is a dark day in my book.

8 Million Ways to Die

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1986 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date June 20, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Rosanna Arquette, Andy Garcia, Alexandra Paul, Randy Brooks.

Cinematography: Stephen H. Burum

Film Editor: Robert Lawrence, Stuart H. Pappé

Original Music: James Newton Howard

Written by Oliver Stone, David Lee Henry (R. Lance Hill) from the book by Lawrence Block

Produced by Steve Roth

Directed by Hal Ashby

Well,...

Cinematographers guild board also votes in officers for 2017-18 term.

The American Society of Cinematographers (Asc) has re-elected Kees van Oostrum for a second term as president.

The Asc board met on Monday night and also voted in the officers for the 2017-18 term.

They are: Bill Bennett, John Simmons and Cynthia Pusheck as vice-presidents; Levie Isaacks as treasurer; David Darby as secretary; and Isidore Mankofsky as sergeant-at-arms.

“As an organisation, we are focused on education, international outreach, diversity and preservation of our heritage,” van Oostrum said. “Over the past year, we expanded our Master Class programme internationally to Toronto and China. We launched a Chinese version of American Cinematographer magazine. We are preparing for a third International Cinematography Summit, which sees attendees from several other societies around the world.

“And our Vision Committee has many initiatives planned after presenting two very successful ‘Day of Inspiration’ events in Los Angeles and New York, which were designed...

Rumble Fish

Blu-ray

Criterion

1940 / B&W / 1:85 / Street Date April 25, 2017

Starring: Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Diane Lane.

Cinematography: Stephen Burum

Film Editor: Barry Malkin

Written by S.E. Hinton and Francis Ford Coppola

Produced by Francis Ford Coppola

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Rumble Fish, Francis Ford Coppola’s Young Adult tone poem, unspools in a black and white never-never land of sullen teens, pool tables and pompadours. It may take a moment for the audience to suss out that we’re not in the Eisenhower era with Chuck Berry, Marilyn Monroe and the Cold War but squarely in Reagan’s domain of MTV, Madonna and the Cold War.

Set in a destitute Oklahoma town with the ghost of The Last Picture Show whistling through its empty streets, Matt Dillon plays Rusty, an inveterate gang-banger growing up in the shadow of his older brother played by Mickey Rourke, a reformed juvenile...

Every week we dive into the cream of the crop when it comes to home releases, including Blu-ray and DVDs, as well as recommended deals of the week. Check out our rundown below and return every Tuesday for the best (or most interesting) films one can take home. Note that if you’re looking to support the site, every purchase you make through the links below helps us and is greatly appreciated.

Anatahan (Josef von Sternberg)

Josef von Sternberg called Anatahan his best film. Borne from more than a decade’s worth of frustration with the studio system, it was, as the last picture he completed, his stamp on his time as a director. Even then, when released in 1953, it was only released in a butchered format, and, as it often goes in such cases, was subsequently abandoned by popular consciousness. But a few times each year, cinephiles (at least...

In the weeks leading up to Snake Eyes’ release in August of 1998, my dad and I had gone together to see Lethal Weapon 4, There’s Something About Mary and The Negotiator. Both action titles were forgettable fare, but were a big deal upon release. (Riggs and Murtaugh vs. Jet Li! Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey conversing via walkie-talkie!) Brian De Palma‘s Snake Eyes with dad was the next order of business. The theater was packed because adults frequented the multiplexes not so long ago. You’re all of 10 years old, Nicolas Cage’s recent output – The Rock, Con Air, and Face/Off — has been terrific, and something seemed off with this new one. You remember leaving the theater not disappointed, but with little to discuss with dad on the ride home. Dad passed away in 2013, long after the Gary Sinise villain era and a few years before...

“Voyeurs And Victims”

By Raymond Benson

Just when everyone thought director Brian De Palma’s work couldn’t get more controversial than 1983’s Scarface, out came 1984’s Body Double, which was simultaneously praised and reviled. Just as they had with 1980’s Dressed to Kill, feminist groups protested Double with even more vitriol due to the picture’s perceived violence against women. Many critics and audiences dismissed the movie as merely a small step above porn, given the fact that much of the plot does deal with Hollywood’s “other industry” that was soaring to new heights in the mid-80s thanks to the rise of home video and VHS. And yet, Body Double is now a certified cult classic, a De Palma fan favorite, and, frankly, in this reviewer’s opinion, one of his most accomplished and stylish efforts.

Still working in full Hitchcock Homage Mode, De Palma borrowed some of the plot of Vertigo,...

Snake Eyes

Written by David Koepp

Directed by Brian De Palma

USA/Canada, 1998

Snake Eyes is not one of Brian De Palma’s bad films – and yes, he has a few; the man has been making films since the 1960s, of course he’s had some misfires. It pains to read complaints about how ill-conceived Snake Eyes is, though. One can take little issue with someone claiming to dislike the film based on personal preference or a disdain for the subject matter, but it is unfair to base claims around how ineptly artificial and forced the whole thing is, as if punishing the film for failing to attain to some sort of authenticity. It’s a b-movie directed by Brian De Palma, starring a wildly over-the-top Nicolas Cage, and featuring not one, but two mind-blowing sequences. At what point does it need to be realistic and sincere? It’s a...

The Shadow, the template for most of comic books’ mystery men, captured America’s imagination in radio and pulp magazines for decades. His paperback revival in the 1960s and 1970s (the latter with spectacular covers from Steranko) led to his brilliant portrayal by Denny O’Neil and Michael William Kaluta in the short-lived DC Comics adaptation. Currently, he’s cutting down the weed of crime for Dynamite Entertainment but this overlooked gem of a film is worth a look. Here are the official details:

Who knows what evil lurks in the shadow of men? The Shadow knows! Adapted from the long-running classic radio program and Walter B. Gibson’s popular pulp fiction, legendary crime-fighting superhero The Shadow comes to life in the 1994 film adaptation The Shadow, starring Alec Baldwin (30 Rock) from visionary filmmaker Russell Mulcahy (Resident Evil: Extinction, Highlander). Brimming with non-stop action and suspense, this wildly entertaining cinematic adventure...

Fans of old time radio will remember The Shadow fondly! People who saw the 1994 film starring Alec Baldwin as Lamont Cranston, everyone's favorite crime fighter with supernatural powers... eh... not so much. Has time been kind to this feature film? Only The Shadow knows!

From the Press Release

Who knows what evil lurks in the shadow of men? The Shadow knows! Adapted from the long-running classic radio program and Walter B. Gibson’s popular pulp fiction, legendary crime-fighting superhero The Shadow comes to life in the 1994 film adaptation The Shadow, starring Alec Baldwin ("30 Rock") from visionary filmmaker Russell Mulcahy (Resident Evil: Extinction, Highlander). Brimming with non-stop action and suspense, this wildly entertaining cinematic adventure also stars John Lone (The Last Emperor), Penelope Ann Miller (Carlito’s Way), Peter Boyle ("Everybody Loves Raymond"), Ian McKellen (X-Men), Jonathan Winters (The Smurfs), and Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror Picture Show).

On February 25, 2014, Shout!

Brian De Palma's new film Passion was one of our favorites at the Toronto International Film Festival. I raved and rambled on about the film in one of our correspondences (though, as you'll see, I was wrong about one key facet of the film's production):

A remake of the solid Alain Corneau corporate thriller Love Crime, De Palma plunges without hesitation into the iconography, audience expectations, and conventions of noirs, sex thrillers, corporate intrigue, post-Hitchcock films and Brian De Palma movies themselves, retaining the shell appearance of all of these things but hollowing them from the inside out. The result is something out of late Resnais—a study of a study. And that study, of course, is of the cinema image. Remember how Rebecca Romijn watches Stanwyck in Double Indemnity at the beginning of Femme Fatale, as if taking notes? The characters in Passion have taken notes from...

★★★☆☆ Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, 1983's Rumble Fish is the latest cult favourite to be given the Blu-ray treatment, courtesy of Masters of Cinema. It's easy to see why Coppola's teen odyssey has been given precedence, with its artful monochrome cinematography (courtesy of Stephen H. Burum) and menagerie of American talent, including the likes of Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Nicholas Cage and Diane Lane. Yet it's also a difficult film to truly grasp, with S. E. Hinton's authorial voice as resonant as that of its auteur director.

Read more »...

The director explains why his film about gangs and brothers needed fast clouds and fake sweat

Francis Ford Coppola (director)

I shot Rumble Fish back-to-back with The Outsiders, in the same location. Both were set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and based on novels by Se Hinton – who has a small part in Rumble Fish as a hooker who approaches Rusty James, the hero, while he's out walking with his brother. Hinton's book appealed to me because of the focus on brotherly relationships. August, my older brother, was a major influence on me, and I was intrigued by the adoration Rusty (Matt Dillon) has for his own older brother, the Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke).

There were some great performances, especially from Matt, Mickey and Dennis Hopper. I prepped Mickey by giving him a copy of Albert Camus's The Outsider. He had a reputation for volatility, but he's actually very sweet, so odd and interesting,...

After doing the rounds on VoD for a few weeks, where many of you will have seen it, Sarah Polley's "Take This Waltz" starts to roll out in theaters from tomorrow, and we can't recommend it enough; it's a messy, sometimes frustrating film, but a deeply felt, beautifully made and wonderfully acted one, and we named it last week as one of the best of the year so far. It is not, however, recommended as a date movie, fitting into a long cinematic tradition of painful examinations of broken, decaying, collapsing or dead relationships.

After all, it's one of the more universal human experiences; unless you get very lucky, everyone who falls in love will at some point have the wrenching experience of falling out of it, or being fallen out of love with. And when done best in film, it can be bruising and borderline torturous for a filmmaker and an audience,...

"Tscherkassky sculpts with time and space, rhythms and arrhythmia in a way that feels like an entirely new film space, a new language altogether," wrote Rhys Graham in Senses of Cinema back in 2001 and the declaration stands ten years on, well into our current era of digital filmmaking. With Films by Peter Tscherkassky, we're proud to team up with Index to present a selection of early and later work by one of the most important figures in the Austrian avant-garde (see, for example, Alexander Horwath's essay from SoC 28), both as a practitioner and theorist. Even as he was writing his doctoral thesis in the mid-80s ("Film as Art. Towards a Critical Aesthetics of Cinematography"), Tscherkassky created Miniatures (1983), Motion Picture (1984) and Manufraktur (1985) and would eventually co-found the distribution collective Sixpack Film, lecture and program for a variety of festivals. That's just scratching the surface; be sure to explore his site.

Stephen H. Burum will receive the American Society of Cinematographers 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award. The honor will be presented at the 22nd Annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood and Highland on Jan. 26.

Burum earned an ASC Outstanding Achievement Award and an Oscar nomination for Hoffa in 1993. He collected additional ASC Award nominations for The Untouchables in 1988 and The War of the Roses in 1990.

Earlier in his career, he earned a share of a technical craft Emmy for Cosmos, a PBS TV special that explored outer space.

Burum's credits include The Outsiders and Rumble Fish, directed by Francis Ford Coppola; and Casualties of War, Carlito's Way, Mission: Impossible, Snake Eyes and Mission to Mars, among his eight projects with helmer Brian De Palma.

Said ASC president Daryn Okada: "Stephen Burum was in the front ranks of a new generation of talented cinematographers who entered the industry during the 1970s. His innovative cinematography has made a deep impression on a constantly evolving art form."

George Spiro Dibie will receive the 2008 ASC Career Achievement in Television Award.

DP Stephen Burum has been named the Kodak Cinematographer in Residence for the spring quarter at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. The annual residency program was inaugurated by professor William McDonald in 2000 and is sponsored by Kodak. Burum's residency program will begin with a screening of a 70mm print of Casualties of War on April 16 at UCLA's James Bridges Theater in Westwood. Burum, an alumnus of the UCLA undergraduate and graduate Theater Arts programs, also will conduct eight lighting workshops for students.