Roger Deakins

Roger Deakins

Birth : 1949-05-24, Torquay, Devon, England, UK

History

Roger Alexander Deakins, CBE, ASC, BSC (born May 24, 1949) is an English cinematographer best known for his work on the films of the Coen brothers, Sam Mendes, and Denis Villeneuve. Deakins is a member of both the American and British Society of Cinematographers. He received the 2011 American Society of Cinematographers (A.S.C.) Lifetime Achievement Award. Its president, Richard Crudo, called Deakins "the pre-eminent cinematographer of our time." In recognition of outstanding contribution to the British film industry, Deakins is an honorary fellow of the National Film School in Buckinghamshire of which he is an alumnus. In 2013 he received a CBE at Buckingham Palace for "services to film". A recipient of four BAFTA Awards for Best Cinematography, Deakins has received fourteen nominations and one win for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. His most well-known works include The Shawshank Redemption, Fargo, A Beautiful Mind, Skyfall, Sicario, Blade Runner 2049 and 1917, the last two for which he won an Oscar.

Profile

Roger Deakins

Movies

Empire of Light
Director of Photography
The duty manager of a seaside cinema, who is struggling with her mental health, forms a relationship with a new employee on the south coast of England in the 1980s.
Allied Forces: Making 1917
Self
Learn how the one shot, 360-degree format was executed and the pivotal role Academy Award® winner Roger Deakins served in bringing Sam Mendes’ vision to life.
1917
Camera Operator
At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers.
1917
Director of Photography
At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers.
The Goldfinch
Director of Photography
A boy in New York is taken in by a wealthy family after his mother is killed in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In a rush of panic, he steals 'The Goldfinch', a painting that eventually draws him into a world of crime.
Blade Runner 2049
Director of Photography
Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K, unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard, a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.
Hail, Caesar!
Director of Photography
When a Hollywood star mysteriously disappears in the middle of filming, the studio sends their fixer to get him back.
Sicario
"A" Camera Operator
An idealistic FBI agent is enlisted by a government task force to aid in the escalating war against drugs at the border area between the U.S. and Mexico.
Sicario
Director of Photography
An idealistic FBI agent is enlisted by a government task force to aid in the escalating war against drugs at the border area between the U.S. and Mexico.
Unbroken
Camera Operator
A chronicle of the life of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who was taken prisoner by Japanese forces during World War II.
Unbroken
Director of Photography
A chronicle of the life of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who was taken prisoner by Japanese forces during World War II.
Prisoners
Camera Operator
Keller Dover is facing a parent’s worst nightmare: his young daughter and her friend have gone missing. Heading the investigation, Detective Loki arrests the only suspect – the driver of an RV on which the girls had been playing – but a lack of evidence forces his release. As pressure mounts, Loki’s team pursues multiple leads while a frantic Dover decides he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands.
Prisoners
Director of Photography
Keller Dover is facing a parent’s worst nightmare: his young daughter and her friend have gone missing. Heading the investigation, Detective Loki arrests the only suspect – the driver of an RV on which the girls had been playing – but a lack of evidence forces his release. As pressure mounts, Loki’s team pursues multiple leads while a frantic Dover decides he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands.
Skyfall
Camera Operator
When Bond's latest assignment goes gravely wrong, agents around the world are exposed and MI6 headquarters is attacked. While M faces challenges to her authority and position from Gareth Mallory, the new Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee, it's up to Bond, aided only by field agent Eve, to locate the mastermind behind the attack.
Skyfall
Director of Photography
When Bond's latest assignment goes gravely wrong, agents around the world are exposed and MI6 headquarters is attacked. While M faces challenges to her authority and position from Gareth Mallory, the new Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee, it's up to Bond, aided only by field agent Eve, to locate the mastermind behind the attack.
In Time
Director of Photography
In the not-too-distant future, the aging gene has been switched off. To avoid overpopulation, time has become the currency and the way people pay for luxuries and necessities. The rich can live forever, while the rest try to negotiate for their immortality. A poor young man who comes into a fortune of time is too late to help his mother from dying. He ends up on the run from a corrupt police force known as the "time keepers".
Rango
Director of Photography
When Rango, a lost family pet, accidentally winds up in the gritty, gun-slinging town of Dirt, the less-than-courageous lizard suddenly finds he stands out. Welcomed as the last hope the town has been waiting for, new Sheriff Rango is forced to play his new role to the hilt.
True Grit
Camera Operator
Following the murder of her father by a hired hand, a 14-year-old farm girl sets out to capture the killer. To aid her, she hires the toughest U.S. Marshal she can find—a man with 'true grit'—Reuben J. 'Rooster' Cogburn.
True Grit
Director of Photography
Following the murder of her father by a hired hand, a 14-year-old farm girl sets out to capture the killer. To aid her, she hires the toughest U.S. Marshal she can find—a man with 'true grit'—Reuben J. 'Rooster' Cogburn.
The Company Men
Director of Photography
Bobby Walker lives the proverbial American dream: great job, beautiful family, shiny Porsche in the garage. When corporate downsizing leaves him and two co-workers jobless, the three men are forced to re-define their lives as men, husbands and fathers.
A Cinematic Life: The Art and Influence of Conrad Hall
Himself
A Serious Man
Director of Photography
It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith that she is leaving him. She has fallen in love with one of his more pompous acquaintances Sy Ableman.
The Rules of Film Noir
Himself
Matthew Sweet explores his rules of 1940s and 50s American film noir thrillers.
Revolutionary Road
Director of Photography
A young couple living in a Connecticut suburb during the mid-1950s struggle to come to terms with their personal problems while trying to raise their two children. Based on a novel by Richard Yates.
Doubt
Director of Photography
In 1964, a Catholic school nun questions a priest's ambiguous relationship with a troubled young student, suspecting him of abuse. He denies the charges.
The Reader
Director of Photography
The story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. He alone realizes that Hanna is illiterate and may be concealing that fact at the expense of her freedom.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
"A" Camera Operator
Outlaw Jesse James is rumored to be the 'fastest gun in the West'. An eager recruit into James' notorious gang, Robert Ford eventually grows jealous of the famed outlaw and, when Robert and his brother sense an opportunity to kill James, their murderous action elevates their target to near mythical status.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Director of Photography
Outlaw Jesse James is rumored to be the 'fastest gun in the West'. An eager recruit into James' notorious gang, Robert Ford eventually grows jealous of the famed outlaw and, when Robert and his brother sense an opportunity to kill James, their murderous action elevates their target to near mythical status.
In the Valley of Elah
Director of Photography
A career officer and his wife work with a police detective to uncover the truth behind their son's disappearance following his return from a tour of duty in Iraq.
No Country for Old Men
Camera Operator
Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon dead bodies, $2 million and a hoard of heroin in a Texas desert, but methodical killer Anton Chigurh comes looking for it, with local sheriff Ed Tom Bell hot on his trail. The roles of prey and predator blur as the violent pursuit of money and justice collide.
No Country for Old Men
Director of Photography
Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon dead bodies, $2 million and a hoard of heroin in a Texas desert, but methodical killer Anton Chigurh comes looking for it, with local sheriff Ed Tom Bell hot on his trail. The roles of prey and predator blur as the violent pursuit of money and justice collide.
The Maltese Falcon: One Magnificent Bird
Self
An appreciation and the story of the making of the 1941 film The Maltese Falcon.
Film Noir: Bringing Darkness to Light
Self
Film Noir burrows into the mind; it's disorienting, intriguing and enthralling. Noir brings us into a gritty underworld of lush morbidity, providing intimate peeks at its tough, scheming dames, mischievous misfits and flawed men - all caught in the wicked web of a twisted fate.
Cinematographer Style
Self
110 of the world's top cinematographers discuss the art of how and why films look the way they do.
Who Needs Sleep?
Himself
A documentary that highlights the deadly combination of sleep deprivation and long days of work.
Jarhead
Director of Photography
Jarhead is a film about a US Marine Anthony Swofford’s experience in the Gulf War. After putting up with an arduous boot camp, Swofford and his unit are sent to the Persian Gulf where they are eager to fight, but are forced to stay back from the action. Swofford struggles with the possibility of his girlfriend cheating on him, and as his mental state deteriorates, his desire to kill increases.
The Village
Director of Photography
When a willful young man tries to venture beyond his sequestered Pennsylvania hamlet, his actions set off a chain of chilling incidents that will alter the community forever.
The Ladykillers
Director of Photography
An eccentric, if not charming Southern professor and his crew pose as a band in order to rob a casino, all under the nose of his unsuspecting landlord – a sharp old woman.
House of Sand and Fog
Director of Photography
Behrani, an Iranian immigrant buys a California bungalow, thinking he can fix it up, sell it again, and make enough money to send his son to college. However, the house is the legal property of former drug addict Kathy. After losing the house in an unfair legal dispute with the county, she is left with nowhere to go. Wanting her house back, she hires a lawyer and befriends a police officer. Neither Kathy nor Behrani have broken the law, so they find themselves involved in a difficult moral dilemma.
Intolerable Cruelty
Director of Photography
A revenge-seeking gold digger marries a womanizing Beverly Hills lawyer with the intention of making a killing in the divorce.
Levity
Director of Photography
Manuel Jordan is a man who is free after serving 23 years for killing a teenager during an attempted robbery. After nearly two decades of staring at his victim's face on a newspaper clipping in his cell, the newly paroled man seeks redemption. Instead, redemption—in the form of a mysterious minister and two needy women— finds him.
A Beautiful Mind
Director of Photography
John Nash is a brilliant but asocial mathematician fighting schizophrenia. After he accepts secret work in cryptography, his life takes a turn for the nightmarish.
The Man Who Wasn't There
Director of Photography
A tale of murder, crime and punishment set in the summer of 1949. Ed Crane, a barber in a small California town, is dissatisfied with his life, but his wife Doris' infidelity and a mysterious opportunity presents him with a chance to change it.
Dinner with Friends
Director of Photography
A husband and wife reevaluate their marriage after their closest friends, another couple decide to split up after twelve years.
The Coen Brothers
Self
During the promotional campaign for "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" in 1999, BBC broadcast a documentary about the Coen brothers, mainly concerning their past. The documentary consists of featured interviews with many of the actors that they have worked with, along with family, friends and crew members.
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Director of Photography
In the deep south during the 1930s, three escaped convicts search for hidden treasure while a relentless lawman pursues them. On their journey they come across many comical characters and incredible situations. Based upon Homer's 'Odyssey'.
Anywhere but Here
Director of Photography
Single mother Adele August is bad with money, and even worse when it comes to making decisions. Her straight-laced daughter, Ann, is a successful high school student with Ivy League aspirations. When Adele decides to pack up and move the two of them from the Midwest to Beverly Hills, Calif., to pursue her dreams of Hollywood success, Ann grows frustrated with her mother's irresponsible and impulsive ways.
The Hurricane
Director of Photography
The story of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.
The Siege
Director of Photography
The secret US abduction of a suspected terrorist from his Middle East homeland leads to a wave of terrorist attacks in New York. An FBI senior agent and his team attempt to locate and decommission the enemy cells, but must also deal with an Army General gone rogue and a female CIA agent of uncertain loyalties.
In Search of 'Kundun' with Martin Scorsese
Self
In Search of Kundun, a “making-of” documentary that is so much more, follows Scorsese as he plans his epic film and shoots in Morocco, and continues on to an audience with the Dalai Lama himself in the foothills of the Himalayas. Edited from over a hundred hours of footage, the documentary captures Scorsese’s fervor as a filmmaker and a man, the modest yet charismatic Dalai Lama, and the plight of the exiled Tibetans. -Denver Film Society
The Big Lebowski
Director of Photography
Jeffrey 'The Dude' Lebowski, a Los Angeles slacker who only wants to bowl and drink White Russians, is mistaken for another Jeffrey Lebowski, a wheelchair-bound millionaire, and finds himself dragged into a strange series of events involving nihilists, adult film producers, ferrets, errant toes, and large sums of money.
Kundun
Director of Photography
The Tibetans refer to the Dalai Lama as 'Kundun', which means 'The Presence'. He was forced to escape from his native home, Tibet, when communist China invaded and enforced an oppressive regime upon the peaceful nation. The Dalai Lama escaped to India in 1959 and has been living in exile in Dharamsala ever since.
Fargo
Director of Photography
Jerry, a small-town Minnesota car salesman is bursting at the seams with debt... but he's got a plan. He's going to hire two thugs to kidnap his wife in a scheme to collect a hefty ransom from his wealthy father-in-law. It's going to be a snap and nobody's going to get hurt... until people start dying. Enter Police Chief Marge, a coffee-drinking, parka-wearing - and extremely pregnant - investigator who'll stop at nothing to get her man. And if you think her small-time investigative skills will give the crooks a run for their ransom... you betcha!
Dead Man Walking
Director of Photography
A death row inmate turns for spiritual guidance to a local nun in the days leading up to his scheduled execution for the murders of a young couple.
The Shawshank Redemption
Director of Photography
Framed in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne begins a new life at the Shawshank prison, where he puts his accounting skills to work for an amoral warden. During his long stretch in prison, Dufresne comes to be admired by the other inmates -- including an older prisoner named Red -- for his integrity and unquenchable sense of hope.
The Hudsucker Proxy
Director of Photography
A naive business graduate is installed as president of a manufacturing company as part of a stock scam.
The Secret Garden
Director of Photography
A young British girl born and reared in India loses her neglectful parents in an earthquake. She is returned to England to live at her uncle's castle. Her uncle is very distant due to the loss of his wife ten years before. Neglected once again, she begins exploring the estate and discovers a garden that has been locked and neglected. Aided by one of the servants' boys, she begins restoring the garden, and eventually discovers some other secrets of the manor.
Passion Fish
Director of Photography
After an accident leaves her a paraplegic, a former soap opera star struggles to recover both emotionally and mentally, until she meets her newest nurse, who has struggles of her own.
Thunderheart
Director of Photography
An FBI man with Sioux background is sent to a reservation to help with a murder investigation, where he has to come to terms with his heritage.
Barton Fink
Director of Photography
A renowned New York playwright is enticed to California to write for the movies and discovers the hellish truth of Hollywood.
Homicide
Director of Photography
A Jewish homicide detective investigates a seemingly minor murder and falls in with a Zionist group as a result.
The Long Walk Home
Director of Photography
Two women, black and white, in 1955 Montgomery Alabama, must decide what they are going to do in response to the famous bus boycott led by Martin Luther King.
Air America
Director of Photography
Air America was the CIA's private airline operating in Laos during the Vietnam War, running anything and everything from soldiers to foodstuffs for local villagers. After losing his pilot's license, Billy Covington is recruited into it, and ends up in the middle of a bunch of lunatic pilots, gun-running by his friend Gene Ryack, and opium smuggling by his own superiors.
Mountains of the Moon
Director of Photography
The story of Captain Richard Francis Burton's and Lt. John Hanning Speke's expedition to find the source of the Nile river in the name of Queen Victoria's British Empire. The film tells the story of their meeting, their friendship emerging amidst hardship, and then dissolving after their journey.
Pascali's Island
Director of Photography
1908: Pascali, a spy for the Sultan, sends reports to Istanbul that nobody reads. His suspicions are roused when a British archaeologist appears, who may not be quite what he seems.
Stormy Monday
Director of Photography
When a corrupt American businessman tries to strong arm his way into businesses in Newcastle, England, he is thwarted by a club attendant and his waitress girlfriend.
The Kitchen Toto
Director of Photography
The son of a priest slain by the Mau Mau moves in with a police officer and his wife in 1950 Kenya.
White Mischief
Director of Photography
A millionaire past his prime and his young wife arrive in Kenya circa 1940 to find that the other affluent British expatriates are living large as the homefront gears up for war. They are busy swapping partners, doing drugs, and attending lavish parties and horse races. She begins a torrid affair with one of the bon vivants, and her husband finds out and confronts them. The husband and wife decide to break up peacefully, but the bon vivant is murdered and all the evidence points to the husband.
Personal Services
Camera Operator
The story of the rise of a madame of a suburban brothel catering to older men, inspired by the real experiences of Cynthia Payne. The story follows Christine Painter as the down-at-heel waitress who, with the help of prostitute Shirley and cross-dressing Wing Commander Morten, seeks to up her earnings by turning her suburban home into a brothel. Before long she and her girls are chaining up judges, spanking Generals and attending to the needs of Honourable Members. Christine sees herself as providing a vital service to these harmless pervs and when finally the house is busted and the case comes to court, it's fair to say that the presiding judge isn't unfamiliar with her work.
Personal Services
Director of Photography
The story of the rise of a madame of a suburban brothel catering to older men, inspired by the real experiences of Cynthia Payne. The story follows Christine Painter as the down-at-heel waitress who, with the help of prostitute Shirley and cross-dressing Wing Commander Morten, seeks to up her earnings by turning her suburban home into a brothel. Before long she and her girls are chaining up judges, spanking Generals and attending to the needs of Honourable Members. Christine sees herself as providing a vital service to these harmless pervs and when finally the house is busted and the case comes to court, it's fair to say that the presiding judge isn't unfamiliar with her work.
Sid and Nancy
Director of Photography
January 1978. After their success in England, the punk rock band Sex Pistols venture out on their tour of the southern United States. Temperamental bassist Sid Vicious is forced by his band mates to travel without his troubled girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, who will meet him in New York. When the band breaks up and Sid begins his solo career in a hostile city, the turbulent couple definitely falls into the depths of drug addiction.
Defence of the Realm
Director of Photography
A reporter named Mullen 'stumbles' onto a story linking a prominent Member of Parliament to a KGB agent and a near-nuclear disaster involving a teenage runaway and a U.S. Air Force base. Has there been a Government cover-up? Mullen teams up with Vernon Bayliss, an old hack, and Nina Beckam, the MP's assistant, to find out the truth.
Shadey
Director of Photography
A young man discovers that not only does he have the ability to read minds, but that if he holds a camera next to his head he can transmit the thoughts he sees onto film.
The Innocent
Director of Photography
This densely-packed film is based on a book by Tom Hart about the struggles of a young Yorkshire boy trying to come to grips with squabbling parents, a doctor who wants to institutionalize him because of his epilepsy, and a mother who refuses to accept that he is different in any way -- and that is only the half of it. The boy, Tim (Andrew Hawley), also acts as a go-between for his friend Carns (Liam Neeson) who is having an affair with a married woman (Miranda Richardson). Eventually, things start to sort themselves out, and Tim sees life getting more interesting when he and his friend Win (Kate Foster) slowly get a relationship going.
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Camera Operator
George Orwell's novel of a totalitarian future society in which a man whose daily work is rewriting history tries to rebel by falling in love.
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Director of Photography
George Orwell's novel of a totalitarian future society in which a man whose daily work is rewriting history tries to rebel by falling in love.
Return to Waterloo
Director of Photography
A man taking the train to work one morning is overcome by melancholy memories and morbid fantasies.
The House
Director of Photography
Set in 1884, and based on the assumption that Britain is one of the Baltic states between Russia and Latvia, making it part of Europe instead of an off-shore island. It is winter 1884. To gain access to the sea, England has declared war on Latvia and believes herself to be winning. But Russia has sided with Latvia and England is doomed. The action takes place on New Year’s Eve in a country house on the Anglo-Latvian border. The guests are a cross section of the ruling classes.
The Cinema of Stephen Dwoskin
Director of Photography
A exploration of the origin, theory, philosophy and themes of Stephen Dwoskin's films from 1963 to 1984.
Another Time, Another Place
Director of Photography
Set in 1943 in Scotland during World War II. Janie is a young housewife married to a man named Dougal, 15 years her senior. As part of a war rehabilitation program, Janie and Dougal welcome three Italian POWs to work on their farm. Soon, Janie falls in love with one of them...
Alan Bush: A Life
Cinematography
About the life and work of the composer, which includes an interview in which he discusses his musical ideas and important events in his life. Excerpts from a number of key compositions dating from 1925 to 1977 including the choral 'Africa is my name' and Lidice, Five pieces for violin, viola, cello, horn and clarinet' and Dialectic' are used to illustrate the development of his music.
Of Muppets & Men
Camera Operator
Documentary about the work of puppeteer Jim Henson and his team in creating The Muppet Show
Towers of Babel
Camera Operator
A BAFTA award nominated black comedy about life and death in a London tower block.
Van Morrison in Ireland
Director of Photography
The first official video by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, showing footage of the band whilst touring in Ireland and images of Belfast, including Hyndford Street and Cyprus Avenue.
Box On
Director of Photography
This is a movie about the alternate boxing circuit. Fighters who have lost their licences to box professionally mainly through injury carry on fighting illegally in big underground tournaments
Blue Suede Shoes
Director of Photography
Steppin' Out
Director of Photography
Short documentary film on the fashionable nightclubs and the trendy pop culture scenes that were famous in London on the late 70's. Released as a support feature to the first Alien (1979) movie.
Around the World with Ridgway
Camera Operator
Documentary film of a British yachtsman John Ridgway's 57-foot ketch, English Rose VI, in the 1977-78 Whitbread Round the World Race. It captures the lives and growing tensions between several of the sailing boat's crewmen.
Before Hindsight
Director of Photography
Newsreels from the '30s constitute the bulk of this fascinating documentary, clearly illustrating that the public was fed an extremely biased view of events: straight propaganda, the stricture to provide entertainment, and the attempt to be objective all contributing to this. Lewis and producer Elizabeth Taylor-Mead have constructed their argument well, but it is Jonathan Dimbleby's brief comments towards the end that contain the crucial lesson: forty years on, the same forces work to distort our view of Northern Ireland. The film only indicates this to be the case, but it is precise and coherent enough to make the point with considerable force.
Marquis de Sade’s: Justine
Director of Photography
Justine is a nubile young virgin cast out of a French orphanage and thrust into a depraved world of prostitution, predatory lesbians, a fugitive murderess, bondage, branding, and one supremely sadistic monk. It's a twisted tale of strange desires, perverse pleasures and the ultimate corruption of innocence as told by the Marquis de Sade.
Empty Hand
Director of Photography
Financed by Paul McCartney, showcasing Wings' drummer Geoff Briton karate skills.
Chimurenga - The War in Zimbabwe
Cinematography
Documentary lensed by Roger Deakins
Esther's Choice
Thanks
Esther, a film composer going through a dry spell, moves in with her boyfriend Michael only to find out that he still keeps his Ex-girlfriend's belongings in his closet. What follows is an emotional roller coaster of a film exploring the great lengths an artist chooses to go to for the sake of inspiration.