Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC answers AC's questions about his work on Bulworth.
If you knew you had no more than two days to live, how would you spend your time? What would you do? What would you say? How would you change?
Such questions comprise the overarching theme of the 20th Century Fox film Bulworth, which reunites cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC and director/star Warren Beatty for the fourth time. Both men earned Academy Awards in 1981 (Beatty for directing) for their collaboration on Reds, an epic story that chronicled the role that American journalist John Reed played in the Russian Revolution. It was a landmark film for Storaro, marking the first use of the ENR process developed by Technicolor Labs.
In 1987, Beatty produced and starred in Ishtar, a comedy shot by Storaro. Three years later, the actor/director and cinematographer teamed up again on Dick Tracy (see AC Dec 1990). Storaro mimicked a comic book look on the big screen by visually punctuating the images with deeply saturated primary colors, and earned his fourth Oscar nomination. He received his first Oscar in 1979 for Apocalypse Now, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and his third in 1990 for The Last Emperor, a collaboration with Bernardo Bertolucci. To put that achievement into perspective, no other living cinematographer has earned three Oscars, and in the history of the Academy, only Joe Ruttenberg, ASC and Harry Stradling, ASC have received four statues.
Most of Storaro's early films were co-authored with Bertolucci, whom he met while working as an assistant cameraman on Revolution during the dawn of both their careers. They collaborated during the 1970s and '80s on such landmark films as The Conformist, Luna, 1900 and Last Tango in Paris, and reteamed in 1994 on Little Buddha (see AC May '94). Storaro's other notable narrative credits include One From the Heart (see AC Jan '82), Ladyhawke, Tucker, Taxi and the TV miniseries Peter the Great.
Bulworth was written and co-produced by Beatty, who also directed the film and plays the lead role. The story opens in Washington, D.C., where Senator Jay Bulworth has decided to end his life. He has a wife and daughter, whom he wants to shield, so Bulworth hires a hit man to assassinate him. The contract requires satisfaction within two days, or the deal is off.
Bulworth then flies to Los Angeles, where he goes through the motions of conducting a grueling campaign schedule. Freed from the burden of having to solicit money and seduce supporters, Bulworth does an extraordinary thing: he begins telling the truth. Step by step, Bulworth discovers that he has good reasons to stay alive.
Bulworth was produced in Los Angeles on a relatively modest $30 million budget. Only several scenes were filmed on stages, including the Washington, D.C. setting and the home of a campaign worker's grandmother. The rest of the movie was filmed at a variety of interior and exterior practical locations in and around Los Angeles, mainly at night. Following are excerpts from a conversation with Storaro about his approach to the picture.
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