As Sideways and Nebraska show, Payne is very much a chronicler of "place" in America. In Sideways, it's obviously the Californian landscape (at least from L.A., freeway California) to Santa Barbaran coastal landscape--and the various interiors that humans hide in.
For further landscape/inscape shots click here. I've included a few shots from Delicatessen to contrast its assiduously fabricated environment to Payne's relentlessly ordinary ones, even the more scenic landscapes of wine country.
By the way, you may have notice the very convincing photograph of a young Miles with his father. Obviously, the photo was an actual photo from Giamatti's youth. His father you may or may not know was once commissioner of the Major League Baseball, A. Bartlett Giamatti, who did die tragically before his time.
One thing that I noticed was that since it wasn't so elaborate in landscape you generally focused on the characters instead of the surrounding area. However, since this was the third or fourth seeing the movie for me, I started to look at the landscape and the choices used in the film. The Windmill hotel had a windmill that had been damaged and it's been hanging there for a while, it drove me nuts every time they panned across that windmill.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to me just how ordinary the scenery and settings were. I have always associated wine connoisseurs with a more upscale look (probably incorrectly but I don't drink wine). Even the nice restaurant the two couples go out to is quite plain, having walls of wine bottles for decor. It definitely made me think about the "ordinary" guy having expensive and interesting tastes. And I think any movie that makes you think has done well.
ReplyDeleteI agree! When I picture "wine country" the scenes from this film are not what I envisioned. I thought the landscape here was pretty boring and not what I expected. I felt this almost made the movie more powerful though. If this would have taken place in a more upscale environment, I think it would have changed the entire film.
DeleteI've never been to wine country...but when you here that term, I guess you would think it's, maybe not glamorous, but a little more upscale and such. But that really wasn't the case. It really is pretty simple and plain, but with (sometimes) world class wine.
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