Q&A: Roger Deakins on cinema’s past and future

By JAKE COYLE
AP Film Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — For decades, Roger Deakins’ eye has been one of the keenest in movies. It’s not easy to pinpoint what makes a film’s cinematography identifiably Deakins’ work, but, at the same time, it’s obvious. Deakins’ latest is Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light,” starring Olivia Colman and Michael Ward as workers at a cinema on the south of 1980s England. The film returns Deakins to the coastal setting that he knew growing up in Devon and that deeply influenced him as a cinematographer and occasional still photographer. Deakins recently published some of his early photographs in the stunning collection “Byways.” Deakins and his wife and collaborator, James Deakins, also maintain one of the most essential podcasts on moviemaking, “Team Deakins.”