2023 was a very big year for Rodrigo Prieto. The cinematographer worked on two of the year's biggest films — Greta Gerwig's Barbie and Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon — which racked up a collective 18 nominations at the 96th Oscars (eight for Barbie and ten for Killers of the Flower Moon). "I'm always proud of the movies I participate in, but these two definitely seem more culturally important than usual," Prieto reflects.
The Mexico City-born cinematographer received his first Oscar nomination for 2005's Brokeback Mountain. He was nominated for Best Cinematography again in 2017 and 2020 for Martin Scorsese's Silence and The Irishman, respectively, and garnered his latest Oscar nomination with Killers of the Flower Moon, which marks his fourth collaboration with Scorsese to date.
Prieto is no stranger to working on high-profile films, but even he seems a bit taken aback by how passionately both Barbie and Killers of the Flower Moon have been embraced. "It feels like there's a before Barbie and after Barbie in terms of cinema history," he says. "And Killers of the Flower Moon is an incredible story that hasn't been told and has actually been actively hidden for decades. To be part of bringing its story to the public forum in such an impactful way is an honor."
"Sometimes, I pinch myself over my luck getting to work on such important films. I just tried to do my part, and I hope that the cinematography of those movies helps propel them into the minds of viewers," Prieto expresses. "Hopefully, the shots within them aren't just interesting images, but ones that will remain in the public consciousness and help move the needle socially a little bit."
Notably, Prieto also spent part of 2023 shooting his feature directorial debut, Pedro Páramo, based on a Juan Rulfo novel of the same name. Whilst he was making it, the cinematographer says, "I could sense and feel the presence of all the directors I've worked with." He credits Scorsese with teaching him "how to work with actors and treat them like they're part of a team," and says that he tried to bring the same level of excitement to his set that Gerwig brought to her Barbie set. "She feels such joy over having the opportunity to tell a story, be on a set, and design a shot. She loves it, and that's very contagious."
Although Pedro Páramo will see Prieto step into the director's chair and relinquish director of photography duties to Nico Aguilar, he says, "I loved directing, but I also still love being a cinematographer. For me, cinematography wasn't just a stepping stone to becoming a director. I'd love to direct something else, but I'm still a cinematographer at heart." He laughs, "So, hopefully, directors will keep hiring me!"
Below, Prieto shares with A.frame five films that had a major impact on him.
Directed by: Don Chaffey | Cinematography by: Wilkie Cooper
I always think about the series of movies that Ray Harryhausen did, and Jason and the Argonauts was specifically a huge influence on me. I found the magic of stop-motion animation in that film astounding. To be able to tell a story with actors and also to be able to incorporate skeletons and monsters was magical to me, because I couldn't understand it! I couldn't understand that it was an actual miniature and that it was melded with the actors. Those things were fascinating to me. The stop-motion work in those films is what inspired me to start doing my own 8mm and Super 8 movies.
I started doing my own handmade visual effects, and that playfulness is what I have carried with me throughout my career. It's always been about figuring out the tricks. As a cinematographer, you do the tricks yourself. You try to make the audience really feel like they're in a specific place and time. You make sure the light feels a certain way, but it's all a trick, you know? I love that.
Directed by: Norman Jewison | Cinematography by: Douglas Slocombe
Another film that was very big for me when I was young was Jesus Christ Superstar. At the time, I didn't really like musicals. I thought they were just for girls or something. There was something about that film, though, that felt so shocking to me in a good way. I was raised Catholic, so to see Jesus Christ singing with a rock soundtrack was really exciting to me. It really painted him as a human being with flaws, who was singing to God, 'Why me? Why choose me?' He was angry at God and feeling all these things that, for me in that moment, seemed incredible. At the time, I was trying to understand what being Catholic meant, and I was having my own doubts about all of that. That film was really impactful and influential on me.
Directed by: Bob Fosse | Cinematography by: Giuseppe Rotunno
One of my all-time favorite films is All That Jazz. I found the whole surrealism of it very interesting and compelling, as well as the character himself. I was struck by the self-destructiveness of that man — how he is basically working himself to death — and his relationship with his daughter. All of those things were really interesting to me. Now, I have two daughters. When I saw it for the first time, they weren't born yet. I was able to show it to them eventually, though, and they couldn't really understand why I was so excited about the movie, but I still really love it.
Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola | Cinematography by: Stephen H. Burum
I remember loving Rumble Fish enormously when I saw it. It was the style of the movie. I was blown away by the sort of brownish-black and white cinematography, the weirdness of the shadows, and the wide-angle lenses, as well as the distortion of time and the time-lapse shots throughout it. The sound of it was really interesting, too — the way that you can hear Mickey Rourke's Motorcycle Boy whisper his dialogue and it still feels so present. There are all these things about it that felt so strange and surreal to me. I enjoyed it really because of the formal aspects of it.
Directed by: Martin Scorsese | Cinematography by: Michael Chapman
For me, Raging Bull is just Scorsese. It's the way he portrays these characters that can be so morally corrupt. We could judge them and say, 'They're bad people. Goodbye.' We could look away from them, but Scorsese looks at them. He looks deeply into them, and that's something that I've not only enjoyed seeing in his movies but also participating in with him. In Killers of the Flower Moon, we focus on these characters who are murderers, but we ask, 'How do you understand a man like Ernest Burkhart, who was in love with his wife and yet participating in the killing of her family and her?' How do you even do a movie about that where you follow this character for a long time and stay engaged with him? There's something magical about getting to do that with Marty.
I don't know how he does it. It's incredible, and he certainly does it in Raging Bull. It's this compelling, powerful film that makes you feel compassion for this man, even though he pursues an underage girl. That's horrible! And yet, you're watching anyway. You could just look away from people like that, who have made huge, horrible mistakes. You could put them in jail, sweep them under the rug, and be done with it. But I think Scorsese's doing a huge service to us as a human race by exploring the dark areas of our psyche. For that, I'm grateful.
