I just finished watching Sin City. It’s taken me ages to watch this, despite the fact that everyone was raving about how awesome it was. I did enjoy it. It was over the top and outrageous, and attention-grabbing in a very loud and American way. The mini-stories were a bit ridiculous, but fun to watch, especially at the points in which they interlinked with each other. What was most entertaining to me was the production design and cinematography though. It was film noire and graphic novels on steroids.

Contrast was the name of the game for Sin City’s cinematography, and everything from costume design to set design and lighting contributed to meeting that goal. It really was a feast for the eyes, and accomplished impressively in (mostly) black and white. Photographically, I found it very inspiring. I find selective desaturation a bit of a cheap trick, but as for the depth and tonality of the images, I’m really impressed. I’m going to take a lot of these ideas with me and see what I can do with them…