Coming from James Cameron, that’s praise indeed! The film director who ushered in the dawn of action films with ’80s classics such as Terminator and Aliens, called Gravity ‘the best space film ever done’.
Oscar-winning director goes on to wax lyrical on Alfonso Cuaron’s fantastic achievements:
I was stunned, absolutely floored. I think it’s the best space photography ever done, I think it’s the best space film ever done, and it’s the movie I’ve been hungry to see for an awful long time … What is interesting is the human dimension. Alfonso and Sandra working together to create an absolutely seamless portrayal of a woman fighting for her life in zero gravity.
He also commented on the technical aspects of the film:
I read the script, and I thought it was tremendously challenging to shoot with a high degree of veracity to get the real look of zero gravity … I’m sure Alfonso had a real uphill battle with the studio, with everyone involved, to get it the way it needed to look. But he knew in his mind how it needed to look, and he went after it.
With a budget at around $100 million, Cuaron and his cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki decided to create the entire feature in pre-visualization before they shoot the actors’ faces. Lubezki even created an LED screen allowing lights to be adjusted on a whim. Besides, they used robots allowing the movement of an actor to stretch great lengths and for them to capture a precise frame, angle, zoom, light position, etc.
Cameron praised not just the technical achievements, but also the performance of Sandra Bullock, already tipped for Oscar recognition:
She’s the one that had to take on this unbelievable challenge to perform it. (It was) probably no less demanding than a Cirque du Soleil performer, from what I can see … There’s an art to that, to creating moments that seem spontaneous but are very highly rehearsed and choreographed. Not too many people can do it. … I think it’s really important for people in Hollywood to understand what was accomplished here.
Cuaron’s long awaited sci-fi film Gravity will be premiering at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday, September 8th, 2013.
The follow-up to Cuaron’s 2006 dystopian film Children of Men, hits theaters on October 4th, 2013.
