In the latest episode of our exclusive video podcast series, TDC2C (Terre di Cinema To Camera), Vincenzo Condorelli AIC sits down for an intimate, deeply technical, and philosophical conversation with two-time Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Seamus McGarvey BSC, ASC.

Spanning from his legendary collaborations with Joe Wright to his recent groundbreaking work, McGarvey deep-dives into the bold visual architecture of Lynne Ramsay’s highly acclaimed feature, Die My Love, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson.

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The Alchemy of Ektachrome: Colors “Ripe to the Point of Rotten”

The visual backbone of Die My Love stems from an uncompromising creative decision made during McGarvey’s very first meeting with director Lynne Ramsay—who initially trained as a cinematographer herself. Seeking a look that could externalize a deeply psychological landscape, they bypassed traditional negative film stocks in favor of Kodak Ektachrome 100D reversal film .

“I wanted a different type of color… something that would almost be saccharine, and ripe to the point of rotten,” McGarvey notes . “Ektachrome doesn’t depict the real; it is very much of its own photographic personality.”

Shooting a modern feature film on reversal stock introduced massive workflow risks. Operating on location in Calgary, Canada, the production had no local facilities capable of processing the Ektachrome stock. Every single roll of rushes had to be shipped across the Atlantic to CineLab in London.

With a daunting 4-to-5-day turnaround delay before receiving laboratory clearance, the crew had to abandon the clinical safety nets of modern video villages. They had to embrace total faith in the photochemical medium, letting the intrinsic discipline of film guide their daily takes.

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Tactical Craft: Candle Smoke and Swirling Portraiture

True to the tactile philosophy we champion at Terre di Cinema, McGarvey’s approach to Die My Love was remarkably hands-on . To circumvent the budget constraints of lighting massive outdoor fields for brief summer nights, Ramsay and McGarvey opted to shoot Day-for-Night .

Instead of relying solely on digital post-production tricks, McGarvey literally hand-painted optical flat glass filters using real candle smoke . By physically burning soot onto the glass and creating intricate patches of clarity, he “burnt” a nightmarish, ritualistic atmosphere directly onto the celluloid frame .

On the technical front, McGarvey balanced this extreme texture by pairing the Ektachrome stock with a tightly curated set of five Panavision P-Vintage lenses, celebrating their otherworldly, pearlescent highlights under heavy key lights . Furthermore, for intimate character close-ups, he deployed his personal 58mm and 85mm Petzval lenses wide open . The resulting swirling, out-of-focus bokeh beautifully visualized the complex, unravelling interior world of Jennifer Lawrence’s character.

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A Manifesto for Imperfection: The Myth of “Creativity Without Limits”

Beyond the specific mechanics of Die My Love, the conversation between Condorelli and McGarvey serves as a profound manifesto for the future of cinematography. Addressing the modern industry hype surrounding ultra-sharp formats like IMAX, McGarvey shares a surprisingly candid critique:

“I found it really cumbersome… I didn’t like the look of the clarity, the sharpness. It felt like I was watching a huge video. It didn’t have the gauze of strained perception that I love when I look at cinema—like I’m waking up in the middle of a dream.”

As the industry wrestles with the sterile perfection of digital sensors and the rise of AI-generated imagery, McGarvey reminds us that true cinematic art lives in the anomalies. It lives in the physical hum of the camera shutter, the pointillism of organic film grain, and the “beautiful fuck-ups” born from human happenstance .

When we divest images of limitations and accidents, we risk losing the visible hand of the artist . As Condorelli emphasizes, “There can’t be creativity if there are no limits.”

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Preserving the Gauze of Perception at Terre di Cinema

This exact ethos is what drives our annual mission in Sicily. Every summer, Terre di Cinema welcomes a new generation of directors and directors of photography, pushing them to step away from touchless digital tools and physically handle 35mm and Super 16mm workflows. By navigating the initial anxiety, the agonizing wait for laboratory rushes, and ultimate enchantment of the latent image, young filmmakers rediscover the sacred discipline of the craft .

We want to extend our deepest gratitude to Seamus McGarvey for sharing his incredible wisdom with the Italian Society of Cinematographers (AIC) and our global community at Terre di Cinema.

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An Italian transcript of this interview is be featured in the last issue of the AIC Bulletin, launching a permanent new section dedicated exclusively to the art and survival of celluloid filmmaking . You can download it for free at: http://www.aiccine.com/pubblicazioni

• Die My Love is currently available to stream internationally on MUBI.