Director of photography Stephen Goldblatt, ASC helps bring Jacquelyn Mitchard's compelling bestseller The Deep End of the Ocean to the screen.
by Jay Holben
Long before Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel columnist Jacquelyn Mitchard's first novel, The Deep End of the Ocean, hit the bookstores, it arrived in the hands of producer Kate Guinzburg. The compelling and enthralling story — which concerns the Cappadora family, whose 3-year-old son, Ben, vanishes without a trace — struck a deep chord in Guinzburg, and she immediately passed the galleys along to her partner in Via Rosa Productions, Michelle Pfeiffer. The actress couldn't put the book down, and arrangements were made with Mandalay Pictures president Peter Guber to purchase the rights.
To helm their project, the production team turned to distinguished director Ulu Grosbard, who also found himself deeply moved by the story. Known for being highly selective about the material he chooses to film, Grosbard took to The Deep End of the Ocean with a passion. "He had pages and pages of notes about the characters and the script," recalls Guinzburg of their first meeting. "I've never been in a meeting with a director who was as prepared as he was."
Grosbard, a Belgian refugee who fled to Havana in 1942 with his family, earned a B.A. from the University of Chicago and a master's degree from the Yale School of Drama. He did his first work as a theatrical director on such productions as Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge, for which he won an Obie Award; David Mamet's American Buffalo, which earned him a Tony nomination; and a Broadway adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Subject Was Roses, which garnered him another Tony nomination. Grosbard's first foray into film direction was the feature version of the latter play, which was photographed by Jack Priestley, ASC. The director followed his debut with several fascinating films, including Straight Time and True Confessions (both photographed by Owen Roizman, ASC) and, more recently, Georgia (shot by Jan Kiesser, ASC), which earned Grosbard an Independent Spirit Award nomination as Best Director.
For The Deep End of the Ocean, Grosbard turned to renowned cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt, ASC to help him bring the project to fruition. "I first met Ulu at the Sundance Institute," the cinematographer recalls. "Every June, Sundance runs a directors' lab for three or four weeks, and they bring in a team of advisors — directors, editors, writers, actors, cinematographers — who consult with new directors on their projects. Both Ulu and I have been on the panels for a number of years, and I got to know him. When this project came up, he asked me to do it."
A drastic departure from Goldblatt's flamboyant work on such visually striking films as Outland, The Hunger, The Cotton Club, Lethal Weapon 1 and 2, Batman Forever (see AC July '95) and Batman and Robin (AC August '97), The Deep End of the Ocean has a more subdued look dictated by the tale's narrative arc. The cinematographer remarks, "What really drove me to this project was the story and the chance to work with Ulu. The book was wonderful, and I really wanted to do something narrative. Ulu is an entirely narrative director. He gave me responsibility for the camerawork, while he concentrated primarily on the story, the script and the actors. We formed a very quick collaboration and truly enjoyed each other. His nickname is the 'Diamond Cutter,' which was actually his original profession. He knows his script backwards, forwards and upside-down, but he doesn't want to shoot in a 360-degree circle all the time. He tries to let the camera work within the scene."
Goldblatt was determined to approach The Deep End of the Ocean in a very naturalistic manner. "I was a little out of practice with that, but I got it back," the cinematographer jokes. "It was quite a contrast to the stuff I had been doing before, with the Batman films and whatnot. Ulu is a fiend for naturalism — in set design, costumes, lighting and cinematography — and it was nice for me to do something so steadfastly simple. Every day was not a discussion of special effects, safety or some other razzmatazz. It was all very traditional. We'd rehearse the scene, and then the script supervisor and I would discuss the staging and block it. After that, the crew would be brought in and we'd work it all out."
Since the picture is principally driven by the actors' performances, Goldblatt strove to use his lighting to accurately reflect the emotional transitions that the characters make throughout the story. "Michelle [Pfeiffer] was an absolute pleasure to work with. She is an amazing actress," the cameraman attests. "Of course, she wants to be in her best light, but she's not vain. When her character, Beth, has been up all night because her son, Vincent [Jonathan Jackson], was arrested for drunk driving and nearly killed, she looks wrung-out, and she should! There was no pressure from Michelle to 'gild the lily,' and that makes her performance all the more powerful.
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