Fateless

The Look: Roman Vishniac Makes a Movie
It's actually unfair to compare the look of Fateless to the extraordinary photography of Roman Vishniac, a Russian photographer who documented the now-vanished world of Eastern European Jews as Hitler rose to power. Unfair only because Fateless, which is adapted from a semi-autobiographical novel by Nobel Prize-winner Imre Kertesz, has its own stellar pedigree: it's directed by Oscar-nominated cinematographer Lajos Koltai (his feature directorial debut) and shot by Gyula Pados, H.S.E. who just finished Basic Instinct 2, after the critically acclaimed Kontroll.
But the collaboration between screenwriter, director and cinematographer is evident in every frame of this stunning 140-minute film. The opening scenes recreate a Budapest that Vishniac documented: the culturally rich lives of secular Jews in one of the world's leading cities. Here the photography makes the most of the stately architecture of the recently dissolved Austro-Hungarian Empire, the heavy, dark furniture, the apartments crammed with evidence of its inhabitants' long residence. This world is full of rich color and highlights, animating vibrant lives, while the darkness of shadows signals to the viewer that this world is on the brink of disaster.
Where the movie really goes into photographic overdrive is the scenes in Auschwitz and the many other concentration camps to which our protagonist is sent. The palette is desaturated but not enough to take away the vivid sense of reality, and light is used – or not used – to enhance moments of despair and transcendence. It's an amazing intersection of art and message: perhaps no other Holocaust-themed movie puts the audience there so convincingly.
At the same time, the use of light and color – presumably enhanced in the digital intermediate at Framestore CFC in London – create moments of terrible beauty that register almost subconsciously.