Giovanni Ribisi Talks ‘Strange Darling’ And His First Outing As A Cinematographer
Giovanni Ribisi has been gracing our screens for decades, playing roles both heroic and terrifying, easily embodying each character as if he were putting on a second skin. But now, he’s stepping behind the camera for his first outing as cinematographer in the new psychological thriller Strange Darling. Working with director JT Mollner, he crafted the film’s fairytale-like vibe, steeped in bright colors, unnatural lighting, and beautiful film grain.
In Strange Darling, “Nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer’s vicious murder spree.”
In honor of the film’s release, we spoke with Ribisi about when he caught the cinematography bug, the beauty of actual film, and the joys of playing with lighting.
Dread Central: It’s so cool that you’re diving into cinematography with Strange Darling. When did you get an idea that you wanted to try this out, getting behind the camera?
Giovanni Ribisi: Oh, wow. I mean, I don’t even remember because I’ve been an actor for 40 years and I think along the line, the seed was planted.
But I really dove in about 15 years ago. I had a visual effects company that I grew with some partners, and we ended up selling it. Then there was this moment where I took a step back from what I was doing in my life, and I dove into cinematography from there. And also with the larger aim of wanting to write and direct and looking at maybe just possibly a different way of making movies, whether that’s successful or completely unsuccessful or presumptuous or whatever it is.
Movies are so encumbered nowadays with so many crew members, and sometimes that’s necessary. But it becomes, ultimately, this issue where you have a very difficult point of entry for a younger generation when you have a thriller or a drama with an $80 million budget. There’s a lot of responsibility that comes along with that. So it was sort of this idea of “Xan a smallish to medium-sized film be made with 10 people without killing people?” That was essentially the spark.
DC: That’s so cool. I feel like so often actors go to writing and directing, which is great, but it’s really cool that you’re going to cinematography and playing with an even more artistic eye. What a cool movie to be your first as a cinematographer. What was that like collaborating with JT to create the very weird and lush look for Strange Darling?
GR: JT and I worked for months and months and months, I don’t know, it was six or seven months on the pre-production, which is, I guess for a smaller movie, considerable. We really made the movie on paper beforehand. We typed out an 83-page document of shot lists and the tools that we were going to use and the schedule. Of course, that becomes an organic document and changes. We kind of felt like we had no choice with that [approach]. But in that, to answer your question, the look of the movie we discussed a lot. And I think it was sort of based on the idea of what is the wrong thing to do. In other words, what is everybody else doing and focusing on? It was almost as a creative exercise as our launching pad.
So then part of that was JT really wanted saturated rich colors, blues, and reds. Basically, there was a four-color color palette. There were some people who came up to us later who were sophisticated cinematography people, and they were like, “Was your colorist on acid?” as if they were trying to offend us. But we took it as a compliment actually,
The other thing is you do the prep, and then you get into the actual production, and the storyboards, I threw those in the trash.I didn’t even refer to them. I did all that work and then we didn’t use anything. We couldn’t because of the rigors of production. But I still think that that kind of work is very valuable because it gives you a sense of confidence. You have so many questions and so many people that you’re looking after in a production that you have to be able to default to your intuitive memory. But then also JT and I, there’s another part of us that does like a traditional classical look or feel to a movie. Enter celluloid, which was really important for both of us. And it’s having this incredible resurgence.
DC: Yes, it really is.
GR: And I think that people are waking up to the fact that there is something after over a hundred years that Kodak got, right, that isn’t actually that much more expensive, if at all. And it just elevates not just the final outcome or look of a movie. It elevates the process really, because during production, people tend to be a little bit more focused on the task at hand, which is really important. We have a society nowadays with cell phones and technology that has preoccupations. So anyway, that’s another very long answer.
DC: No, I love that though. I feel like you just threw a lot of challenges at yourself for your first time being a cinematographer, working with actual film.
GR: It’s not that hard!
DC: I’m curious about what that experience was like working with film.
GR: It’s interesting how you see a sort of common thread in industries that allow people to have a little bit more control is where you have the aficionados who are the engineers or the technical people, and they protect that information in order to make their lives easier. I mean, we’ve been using film for over a hundred years. It’s amazing.
And here’s the other thing. Anytime I’ve ever shot film, always in the dailies, or when you get the film the next day, it always ends up being a little better than what you thought, experienced or imagined. But in digital, it’s the opposite of that. It becomes like, “Oh, I remember being a little better than that, but it’s fine.” And film just really does, it has this sort of magic thing.
DC: That’s amazing. I wanted to hear more about working with the lighting, especially in the hotel scenes, because again, those were so dramatic. I loved how erotic and weird and fun and chaotic and a little scary they felt. So I wanted to hear about shooting those scenes and your approach to lighting Strange Darling.
GR: So one of the things we wanted to do in the hotel scene sequences is that we wanted to emulate the films of the 1960s, specifically British deep focus, anamorphic. Films like The Innocents, or there’s a great movie called Mademoiselle, which was [shot by] David Watkin. The Innocents was shot by famous cinematographer, Freddie Francis. So we were building a set in a warehouse in Oregon and it’s a long story, but it fell through. Then we had to find a real hotel room.
And so all of the whole deep focus, Freddie Francis fantasy that we had went in the trash because we just couldn’t get enough light and room. There were eight-foot ceilings and there wasn’t enough light. So it was extemporaneous really. I remember the production designer had 18 hours on a Sunday to prep that hotel room that’s in the film with her team. And she’s just an incredible person and an incredibly creative person, and a great attitude.
Anyways, so the idea was just sort of a soft, dreamy, very red and warm fairytale. I personally love tungsten lights with film. We had 500-watt light bulbs and I had to augment it a little bit, but it was just really about getting something set and trying to tuck it up onto the ceiling, out of the shot as much as possible.
DC: A nightmare.
GR: And then also, we had a neon sign for the Blue Angel Hotel. We wanted that because there are several scenes out in front of the hotel where they’re parked inside of a truck and they’re bathed in blue light. So we wanted to have sort of a remnant of that. And it was also contrasting to everything else. Then the bathroom, we had this strange sort of red light in the bathroom. That was great. Why? I don’t know. But because I think honestly, it looked good. It was interesting. It informed the story on a more visceral level.
DC: Well, it was such a joy to get to chat with you about becoming a cinematographer. I mean, what a cool film for your first outing as a cinematographer. It was so beautiful and luscious and cool.
GR: Awesome. Thank you. We’re really proud of it and we’re just happy for JT. And he’s just such a good person. Kyle’s an amazing person. He’s
DC: He’s the nicest guy on the planet, I swear.
GR: I mean, he’s just a dream to work with because he’s just so talented, he shows up and there’s just no baggage. He’s there to work. And it is just kind of, it’s almost surprising because he’s just so focused.
Strange Darling comes to theaters on August 23, 2024.
Categorized:Interviews
