Roger Deakins’s Nashville Weekend

Tim Robbins’s prison break in The Shawshank Redemption remains etched in the minds of the American consciousness thanks to that movie’s ubiquitous run on basic cable. Even as Shawshank has maintained its #1 spot on the IMDb Top 250 for years, it’s easy to overlook the scene’s power.

Lit by a flashlight, Robbins’s Andy Dufresne crawls through 500 yards of sewage in an unbroken shot before ripping off his soiled shirt as rain washes over him. It’s one of the most recognizable moments in American cinema. But, as the man responsible for pulling it off told a Nashville audience during a recent weekend visit, he thinks it’s embarrassingly overlit. 

From December 6th-8th, British cinematographer Roger Deakins, and his wife, James, set up shop in Nashville to share the lessons they learned working on some of the greatest movies of the past three decades. Throughout their stay, Team Deakins—as the duo refer to themselves on their recently launched podcast—revisited nearly every facet of their collaborations for hundreds of local fans and film professionals thanks to a series of events that the Nashville Filmmakers Guild spearheaded.

Beginning with a special screening of the Coen Brothers’s new classic O Brother Where Art Thou? at Belmont and ending with a two-hour Sunday afternoon discussion of his career, a host of moderators prodded Deakins for insights into his artistic process. Yet, the two-time Oscar winner approached the near hagiography with a clear-eyed pragmatism, proving himself a man fulfilled by his work but in search of a sense of perfection only he can see. 

By all accounts, Deakins was generous and down-to-earth to everyone he met on his visit—an impressive feat considering the barrage of cool-shot questions from local film bros he encountered at the conclusion of every stop on his itinerary. Such was especially irksome given the movie legend’s mantra throughout the weekend—one he best summed up during a Sunday afternoon Q&A at Vanderbilt’s Sarratt Cinema: “It’s not about the visuals.”

Though the weekend was carefully planned, its central purpose remains a bit murky. Deakins spent some time Sunday afternoon signing copies of his recent coffee table book, Byways, a collection of black-and-white photographs he’s taken throughout his career in locales ranging from the farms of the English countryside to the bordertowns where he shot the 2015 film Sicario with frequent collaborator Denis Villeneuve. Like his movie work, Deakins's photographs show an unparalleled ability to create striking images through extreme contrasts. But each also carries a narrative weight ripe for the types of movies he makes, which, as he told the audience at Sunday’s discussion are, “Dark, depressing films that don’t make money at the box office.” 

While Deakins’s filmography boasts some major hits like Sam Mendes’s Bond magnum opus Skyfall and one-shot WWI movie 1917, Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind, and the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men and True Grit, some of his most revered films were initial box office misfires. Beyond Shawshank, Deakins didn’t get the recognition he deserved for the Coens’ breakout 1996 film, Fargo, until nearly a year after its release when it received major award attention in the wake of its success on home video. Likewise  2017’s Bladerunner 2049, which drastically underperformed at the box office despite earning Deakins his first Oscar. The Ryan Gosling/Harrison Ford sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 cult film has only now begun to find its audience (it had a rep screening at The Belcourt in November).

Team Deakins made themselves available at numerous mixers and meet and greets, but the highlight of the weekend was Sunday’s conversation with Travis Wears, host of the podcast Cine Kit List. As Wears played a series of iconic scenes, Deakins provided his own commentary peppered with stories from set. Despite the power of the movie moments under discussion, Deakins remained quite modest, painting his contributions as just part of the whole that made each movie reach its full potential. The initial meeting of Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem in No Country is a scene in which, “everything is about the little sounds.” Sicario’s border crossing traffic shootout is all in the service of dramatic tension. Even on projects like Bladerunner that have massive budgets, the latest technology may not set the right tone. “Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean it’s good for the film.” 

While spending two hours in the presence of a living legend was an unparalleled master class in moviemaking, the most impressive aspect of Deakins’s visit was his curiosity about the Greater Nashville Metro Area and those who flock to it. Amid endless selfies and inscription requests, Deakins repeatedly asked his fans about their hometowns. During our brief exchange, he asked me about growing up in Appalachia and the imagery of coal camps both abandoned and just squeaking by. 

The weekend of Team Deakins’s visit may have been an event in and of itself, but it was also the time in the city’s recent history when Nashville felt most like Los Angeles in its heyday. Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis were in Old Hickory with Halloween and All the Real Girls director David Gordon Green shooting an Amazon series set in the American South. The night of Deakins’s arrival, Timothée Chalamet made a surprise appearance at Vanderbilt and The Belcourt for a screening of his new Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. Yet, amid all the celebrity hoopla, Deakins’s humility and focus on region remained a testament to what makes cinema universally resonate with audiences: stories rooted in the reality of places as distinct as the city we call home.