Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/02/20

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Subject: [Leica] Leica cinema sighting: "Closer"
From: pklein at 2alpha.net (Peter Klein)
Date: Sun Feb 20 14:50:32 2005

I saw the movie "Closer" last night.  Julia Roberts plays an American 
photographer in London.  She has a studio taking up what looks like an 
entire floor of an old building, with windows in every direction.

Julia takes Jude Law's portrait with an MF camera on a tripod (didn't 
notice the brand).  Then she switches to a chrome M6, handheld.  I couldn't 
quite make out what lens it was, but the lens had a focusing lever, and it 
looked like one of the newer Solms lenses, not a 1980s 50 Summicron.

Later in the same scene, Julia takes an M6 picture of Natalie Portman 
crying by windowlight, which ends up blown up about about 10 feet high at 
an exhibition of Julia's photograph's. Great testament to the resolution of 
Leica optics  :-)   Julia is also seen out and about with the M6, and takes 
Clive Owens' picture with it as well.

Natalie Portman has a great speech about how photographs can lie because 
they make sad things look too beautiful.  Perhaps Mike Nichols has read LUG 
debates about Salgado.   :-)

The shutter sound used in the soundtrack, was, of course, an SLR sound.  :-(

IMHO, the movie itself is a bit depressing and shows four not especially 
likeable characters degrading each other in the course of some overlapping 
changes of partners. But it is very well made and well-acted.  No regrets 
about having seen it.

--Peter


Replies: Reply from wooderson at gmail.com (Matt Powell) ([Leica] Leica cinema sighting: "Closer")