Darius Khondji

Darius Khondji found his name on the lists of top cinematographers in the world after his startling work on David Fincher's "Seven" (1995), in which the light almost became more frightening than the dark and contrasts were oblique. His range was well-established with "Stealing Beauty" (1996), for director Bernardo Bertolucci, in which the colors had great passion, yet the photography never subsumed the story of a young woman (Liv Tyler) finding romance. Khondji is becoming a director's favorite because he does not allow the visuals to overwhelm the story, rather they get under the skin and into the hearts and minds of the audience to enhance and trigger the emotions. If cinematography can marry story archetypes, Khondji has found a way. His inky shadows touch on emotions, but don't submerge into an atmospheric bog. This was particularly true on "Evita" (1996), in which the lighting was a baroque opera in and of itself, setting Eva Peron as goddess in one sequence, exposing the darkness of her life in another. Rarely had there been such a varied palette within one movie and Khondji's efforts were rewarded with an Oscar nomination.