Through a Glass, Darkly: Film Goes Behind the Scenes of Gregory Crewdson’s ‘Perfect, Frozen Moments’
Posted in: Uncategorized
Gregory Crewdson at work (standing on ladder) on the set of “Untitled (Ophelia).” A scene from Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters, playing through November 13 at Film Forum.
Like the love child of Edward Hopper and Diane Arbus (raised, perhaps, amidst saturated Egglestonian hues, by a spooky yet decisive family of cinematographers), Gregory Crewdson is synonymous with images that are at once magnetic and repelling, haunting and familiar, thrilling and disturbing. His large-scale photographs pack a gorgeous punch. It’s only after the viewer stops reeling that he or she thinks to ask: How he’d do that? The answer, which does not involve Photoshop, is revealed in Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters, a new documentary by Ben Shapiro that is now playing at New York’s Film Forum.
“I was immediately struck by the beauty and power of his images, and also by the care, vision, and complexity of the productions,” says Shapiro of his first encounter with Crewdson’s work, in 2000. A few months later, the New York-based director was on the set of a Crewdson shoot in Lee, Massachusetts filming the meticulous preparations that went into a photograph of a man, fresh from the office, who has jettisoned his suit to scale the flower-covered beanstalk that bursts through his lawn. Shapiro observed members of Crewdson’s team spend a day sifting through boxes of fresh flowers–and then stapling selected blooms to the telephone pole-cum-beanstalk. “It was an introduction to the kind of detail that contributes so much to the richness of his work.” Following Saturday’s NYC debut of Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters in New York, Shapiro answered our questions about the documentary (filmed over ten years), its subject, and the challenges of making a film about the making of movie-like images.
What compelled you to make a film about Gregory Crewdson?
It was a combination of things–I admired and appreciated his pictures, certainly, but I was also struck by the scale and elaborateness of his productions–crews of up to 60, dozens or even hundreds of lights, 90 foot-long custom-built sets–all marshaled by a man creating real-world versions of imagined moments. Key to this project was that Gregory was very open and encouraging, and offered complete access of a kind that’s rare. He told me, and his crew, that I could shoot anywhere, any time, and only asked me to back off when there was nudity on-set. Or if I got in their shot, which did happen a couple of times.
What surprised you the most about Crewdson as a person?
In a way what was surprising about Crewdson was that he wasn’t surprising. That is to say, he’s not what you might expect from the photographs which tend to be dark and have a sense of sadness and mystery about them; Gregory’s a very friendly and sociable guy, who likes to laugh. But at the same time he is extremely focused on his work, very dedicated to getting everything as close to the way he imagines it as he possibly can.
continued…
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
It’s 
In Lynch’s words, his L.A. paper route has all the makings of a haunting film. “I’d pick up my papers at 11:30 at night. I had throws that were particularly fantastic. There was one where I’d release the paper, which would soar with the speed of the car and slam into the front door of this building, triggering its lobby lights—a fantastic experience,” he says. “Another one I called ‘The Big Whale.’ There was a place, the Fish Shanty, on La Cienega. A big whale’s mouth was the front door you entered through. I’d throw a block before it, and hit the paper directly into the mouth.” Lynch is not inclined to fandom, preferring to get his kicks from a mix of coffee, transcendental meditation, and American Spirit cigarettes, but he does cop to a love for Loewy…Robert [sic] Loewy. The famed industrial designer usually goes by 
