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In the news
Compiled from Times wires American Beauty cinematographer diesConrad L. Hall, the cinematographer whose diverse visual vocabulary proved so enduring he won Academy Awards 30 years apart, has died. Mr. Hall, 76, died in Santa Monica, Calif., Saturday of complications from bladder cancer, said his wife, Susan Hall. Mr. Hall was nominated for an Oscar nine times. His last film was the Tom Hanks movie Road to Perdition, directed by Sam Mendes. He won Oscars for his cinematography on 1999's American Beauty, also directed by Mendes, and 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, directed by George Roy Hill. Mr. Hall showcased a wide range of timeless cinematic looks. From the sepia glow of Butch Cassidy, to the harsh black-and-white of In Cold Blood, his work defied easy categorization. Among his most memorable images is a hand-held video sequence of a plastic bag caught in a circle of wind in American Beauty. That film also won the Academy Award for best picture. Born in Tahiti, Mr. Hall was the son of Mutiny on the Bounty novelist James Norman Hall. He drifted into the University of Southern California's school of cinema and television, where, he said, he "had a love affair with the visual language and learned to tell stories like my dad." Among his survivors is a son, Conrad W. Hall. Often on his father's camera crew and now one of Hollywood's fast-rising cinematographers, Conrad W. Hall filmed Panic Room. Bond film ranklesA cinema outside Seoul has canceled showings of the latest James Bond movie, Die Another Day, which South Korean critics say unfairly depicts their communist neighbor as a diabolically evil regime. Only days after its opening, Broadway Cinema decided Friday to halt the showings because of low turnout and sour public sentiment. In the film, Bond is sent to North Korea to investigate a rogue communist officer who is planning an invasion of South Korea. On Monday, a small group of South Korean students and civic activists in Seoul called for a nationwide boycott of the film, but many South Koreans are watching the movie; local media reported Monday that it ranked fifth in audience draw.
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From the wire |
