Atonement

A screenwriting teacher once told me that flashbacks should be used sparingly, and so I ended up avoiding them altogether. I don't think she would feel the same way about the film Atonement in which flashbacks make up about 50% of the movie. Without the use of flashbacks, the final reveal at the end of the story would not be as poignant. Also, kudos to the screenwriter Christopher Hampton, for organizing them in a way that doesn't slow down the story-telling one bit. The other clever thing in this movie is how the score interlaces with the actions of the characters. For example, Keira's character plucks a piano string and creates a note that properly finishes the end of a music sequence. This type of cross-over happens several times over the film, and I think it's pure genius.

Joe Wright and the cinematographer from Atonement, Seamus McGarvey, went on to create an ad for Chanel, which featured Keira basically channelling her Atonement character as a modern-day French fashionista, and Wright channelling the sophisticated spirit of the 1940s. Several of the lighting techniques used to create the bedroom mirror scenes early in Atonement are duplicated here.



Here's a behind-the-scenes vid of the commercial, which to me feels like a bunch of gorgeous glam photos coming to life.