Meet the OTHER Irish nominee for Oscars...

IRISHMAN Robbie Ryan is one of the most in-demand cinematographers working in the business today and has just been nominated for an Oscar for the second time.

The Dubliner’s first nomination was for his work on Yorgos Lanthimos’s 2019 film The Favourite. His second nomination is also for a Lanthimos film; this time, it is Poor Things, which last week racked up 11 Oscar nominations and has already won a slew of awards.

The film is based on a book by Scottish author and artist Alasdair Gray in 1922, and follows the adventures of Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), who is revived following an attempted suicide attempt and now has the mind of a baby.

Bella doesn’t know anything about Victorian social etiquette, leading to some hilarious encounters as she discovers things like men and sex.

Bella lives with her guardian, the eccentric Dr Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), who wants to keep her at home at all times, but soon realises that he will have to let Bella experience the world for herself.

Ireland’s Element Pictures produced Poor Things, and the film is its fourth collaboration with the Greek director.

Ryan says that, despite the absurdity of the film’s plot, he never had any doubts about working on it.

“After I did The Favourite, I realised anything Yorgos does is amazing. I was at its premiere in Venice, and I said, what do you plan on doing next? Yorgos said he was making a film about a woman who wakes up with a baby’s brain, and I just thought it made sense!”

Lanthimos is a visionary director, and the film is highly stylised, with unique visuals that present a hyperreality.

Ryan’s job was to bring those visions to life through lighting, camera angles, lens choices and more - but what is it like to work with someone with a very set vision of what the film should look like?

The Irishman says it is all about collaboration.

“Yorgos is at the top of the food chain in a very collaborative way. He gives you free space to try out what you think he wants, but it all lands back on whether he likes the idea or not. When we’re filming, he’s set it all up. I’m always saying that Yorgos is a much more masterful cinematographer. His knowledge of film is unreal. He’s watched so many films, you couldn’t count them, and he’s so knowledgeable about cinema literature. You are always keeping up with him. He knows what he wants. 

Now and then, he will say something is a Robbie shot because the camera is wobbling a bit.

Ryan says that Lanthimos likes to experiment with new types of film, which makes things exciting.

“Yorgos wanted to try Ektachrome stock, which hasn’t been used in years, so it was an exciting new experiment. He pushed that, whereas other directors might not know what it is. Other directors would be told by the producers that they can’t afford it, but Yorgos says we are doing it, and the producers have full trust in him to make something of it.

“Element Pictures have been great; they trust Yorgos, and he trusts that they will facilitate him, which allows him creative freedom.”

Ryan says there was a great atmosphere on set. “Often, actors arrive the day they are going to shoot, but the cast spent about three weeks rehearsing together. They were like a family when they got to set; the jokes were flying, and they had no problem taking the mickey out of each other.

“Emma Stone is really fun to work with; it was a very enjoyable set.”

Several highly detailed sets were built for the film, making Ryan’s job much more interesting to shoot.

“Yorgos wanted to have a 360-degree set, so the production designers James Price and Shona Heath built what is known as composite sets where you can literally walk into a house, go into each of the rooms, and walk upstairs to the bedrooms so that it feels like a real house.

No matter where I pointed the camera, it looked amazing. Each set had a different angle. 

"They were a little bit skewed to give a sense of Bella’s viewpoint and how she sees the world.”

Ryan also says the film was more challenging than his previous work.

“It’s a big film; from my perspective, I’ve never done anything to that level. We filmed in big spaces, which meant a lot of lights and a lot of planning. It took about 600 lights, but when I was talking to the producers, I wasn’t sure if that was more or less than normal for something of this scale. I had no foundation in big studio work. I was in the dark.”

Ryan clearly got the light situation sorted; he is nominated for an Oscar, after all.

He says that he is enjoying the awards trail and is heading to Los Angeles a week before the Academy Awards to attend the American Society of Cinematographers Awards, for which he is also nominated for Poor Things.

Ryan says he enjoys spending time with the other nominees, including Cork actor Cillian Murphy, who is nominated for Best Actor for Oppenheimer.

“Ireland is doing so well in the film world these days, and I am so happy for Cillian. He seems like the best guy to get the Oscar because he is so quiet about it.”