Anthony Dod Mantle
They were queueing outside the cinema at Odéon in Paris. To get in to watch the new international hit directed by Danny Boyle, ”Slumdog Millionaire”, which is not going to be reviewed here, it has been all over, and touching and entertaining is this film from the slum of Bombay, tabloid in a good sense, a bollywood inspired story that plays on all kind of simplifications. The audience applaused after the screening.
What makes it watchable is the stunning cinematography by Anthony Dod Mantle, a cameraman with the ability to make every scene full of atmosphere and authenticity in terms of light and angle and framing. Composition in other words. And movement. And what I would call documentary presence.
I want to draw your attention to the fact that his unique talent for dramatizing and interpreting reality with the camera is also manifest in several Danish documentaries that he has made with his friends Thomas Stenderup (”Portal to Peace”), Jens Loftager (”Words” and ”War”) and Poul Rude (”Night Shade”). Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg are other Danish directors he has worked with.
