MovieChat Forums > Citizen Ruth (1996) Discussion > Beautiful Photography - spoiler

Beautiful Photography - spoiler

posted 12 years ago by JackBluegrass
3 replies | jump to latest

After watching Election and now this, I'm very impressed with the high quality of Alexander Payne's direction and photography. The images are beautiful and make even down-and-out areas of the American Midwest look good, and even "warm and homey".

Attention to detail fills Payne's movies. The first home Ruth stays at is obviously on the flight path to an airport, and what that would mean about the economic status of the people living there. The suggestion of location is very subtle, as if the director wanted to see if his audience could catch that hint.

Why haven't we heard more of Payne?

Stupid!?! I never called you stupid! To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people!

[–] AZIRKAH-1 11 years ago

We have:

Election (1999)
About Schmidt (2002)
Sideways (2004)
Hung (2009) (HBO Series)
The Descendants (2011)
Nebraska (2013)

There are a few other titles, but these are the most well known.

[–] chas437 11 years ago

I love his work, although he hasn't really been prolific, 7-8 years between Sideways and The Descendants. Perhaps he's very choosy about the material he takes on. He is the best director/screen writer of our time, but isn't that well known.

"For dark is the suede that mows like a harvest"

[–] GeneticSugarKane 10 years ago

To be fair, while Payne was an Executive Producer on Hung, he only directed the very first episode. He had nothing to do with the actual creation or writing of the series either. The movies you listed can fully be attributed to him though.

My IMDb lists: www.imdb.com/user/ur5570856/lists