Young Gods Rise Up

One of the inspirations for cinematographer James Laxton for his work on the film Moonlight was Dutch art photographer Viviane Sassen. Her work had a huge influence on Laxton’s choice of colors for some of the film’s most iconic scenes like the swimming lesson, set in it high contrast colors and crystalline blues. The moment feels biblical as Juan holds Chiron in what looks like a pieta over the waves. As Juan releases him to float, Chiron quickly steadies himself and Juan says, “Right there, you’re in the middle of the world”. In the midst of this pivotal moment of self-discovery there’s a real awareness of the camera as the water is lapping against the lens. Laxton had to maneuver a 200-pound camera in an underwater housing for the scene. The waves distort the lens to accentuate the feeling of being present at such an intimate moment.

“Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”

I didn’t want to be the Vogue woman. I didn’t want to be the woman who came in with the sexualized. Every time you see that sexual, mysterious, kind of cold woman, she always looks like she jumps out of bed with that blow-dried hair and that dewy skin and, you know, those Double-Zero clothes. I did not want to be that woman because I don’t know that woman. And I’ve been watching that woman in movies for several years. And I felt like this was my chance to woman up. I want to present women as they really are. It’s not always about being pretty. But it is about uncovering and feeling comfortable with the way we are and the way we look when we’re in private. You know, as soon as you walk through the door, what do you do? You take off your bra, you let your titties sag, you let your hair come off. I don’t have any eyebrows. I let my eyebrows be exactly what they are. And it’s me. And I wanted that scene to be somewhere in the narrative of Annalise. That who she is in her public life and who she was in her private life were absolutely, completely diametrically opposed to one another. Because that’s who we are as people. We wear the mask that grins and lies.