For his new feature Bugonia, Yórgos Lánthimos didn’t just shift narrative register. In collaboration with his cinematographer Robbie Ryan, BSC, ISC, he made a radical technical choice that will be remembered: shooting almost the entirety of a grimy chamber piece in the most noble and expensive 35mm format. An analysis of an extreme visual approach where film texture becomes the third character.
The “Large Format” Film Choice
While Bugonia’s story — a paranoid kidnapping in a basement — seemed to call for a raw aesthetic like 16mm or Super 35, the Lánthimos/Ryan duo completely subverted expectations. The conference confirmed a major technical detail: the film was shot “on 35mm 8-perforation film with VistaVision cameras.”
For cinematographers, this detail is crucial. VistaVision, a horizontal format offering an immense negative surface (equivalent to Full Frame in digital, but with film’s organic texture), has historically been reserved for sweeping landscapes or special effects (before digital). Robbie Ryan estimates that “approximately 95% of the film was shot in VistaVision,” a technical feat meaning the production “used this format more than any film since One-Eyed Jacks in 1961.”
This choice implies heavy logistics (the noise of modified Beaumont or ARRI cameras, doubled magazine consumption), but promises exceptional sharpness and grain fineness, creating a fascinating visual dissonance with the main set’s grime.
Texture and Matter: Filming the Organic
The 8-perf contribution makes complete sense when examining the texture work described during the presentation. The film is an organic chamber piece. Emma Stone’s character undergoes violent physical transformation: she “shaved her head for the role” and spends much of the film with “her body covered in antihistamine cream.”
VistaVision, with its shallow depth of field and massive resolution, allows scrutiny of these details — irritated skin, cream texture, bare scalp — with almost clinical surgical precision. Here lies the cinematographic interest: treating a B-movie subject (an alien in a basement) with the majesty of a visual epic.
Managing Locations: From Dark Basement to Greece’s Blinding Light
The film’s cinematography seems built on violent contrast rupture. Most of the film unfolds in Teddy’s basement’s confined darkness. However, the finale imposed a radical natural light challenge.
Lánthimos initially wanted to shoot the final sequence at the Acropolis, but “the Central Archaeological Council of Greece rejected his request.” The crew had to pivot to “Sarakiniko Beach on the Greek island of Milos.”
For a cinematographer, this location is an exposure challenge: it’s a lunar landscape of white volcanic rock, acting as a giant reflector under Mediterranean sun. The transition from dark cave to this immaculate whiteness for the scene where Michelle “bursts a transparent dome… instantly killing all humans” promises a striking tonal and luminous break.
A Budget Serving the Image
VistaVision’s demands come at a cost, and Bugonia doesn’t hide it. It was revealed the film “cost $55 million, making it Lánthimos’s most expensive film.”
This budget secured the film stock necessary for 8-perf shooting, but also managed complex shoots “in High Wycombe, England, and Atlanta, Georgia,” before departing for Greece. It’s a rare demonstration, in the digital era, that a modern production can still invest a significant portion of its budget in the capture medium itself to serve the artistic vision.
