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Giovanni Ribisi on Becoming a Cinematographer and Shooting the New Thriller Strange Darling

Giovanni Ribisi is concerned that I’m watching Strange Darling, his feature debut as a cinematographer, all by myself in his Atwater Village home theater. Not

Willa Fitzgerald ( The Fall of the House of Usher) takes the lead as “the Lady” fleeing “the Demon,” stoically played by Kyle Gallner ( The Passenger), relentlessly pursuing his prey through the Oregon wilderness, armed with a rifle and a desperate motivation that slowly becomes clear over the course of a 91-minute, six-chapter narrative, unfolding perfectly out of order. A movie star with over 100 credits ( The Other Sister, Boiler Room, Gone in 60 Seconds, Saving Private Ryan, Public Enemies, Avatar and Ted, to name a few), he is also a disciplined student of cinema who spent the last 15 years quietly mastering cinematography after he co-founded 3D conversion company Stereo D, which was acquired by Deluxe in 2011. While I struggle to remember the titles that streamed before my eyes last week, Strange Darling stands out: a breath of fresh air in style and substance, or maybe more accurately, a strong exhalation from a bygone era captured on Kodak — one that Ribisi inhaled on set and in theaters his entire life.

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