Oscars 2011:'Black Swan'cinematographer Matthew Libatique gave Natalie Portman film feminine feel

Director of photographyMatthew Libatique—Oscar-nominatedthis year for Best Cinematography for"Black Swan"— says he prefers photographing urban settings over anything else.

"It's what you attach to your own humanity, and what I am is an urban person,"says Libatique, who was born inElmhurst, Queens, before his family moved toHell's Kitchenin the late 1970s."The humanity I'm after happens when people exist together in the ebb and flow of a city, where some people are going somewhere and others are coming back from someplace, all at the same time."

Libatique's visuals have given varied identities to all areas ofNew York. In"Requiem for a Dream,"also directed by"Black Swan's"Darren Aronofsky, the gritty lives of drug addicts revolve around a desolateConey Islandneighborhood. In"Phone Booth,"a soulless PR man is trapped in the titular glass box smack in the middle of midtown. In"Inside Man,"aWall Streetbank robbery is captured in a gunmetal-gray visual scheme.

Libatique, 42, faced new challenges in"Black Swan,"his fourth collaboration with Aronofsky. The film is up for five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Natalie Portman) and Best Director.

Matthew Libatique wanted a feminine palette for 'Black Swan' so he chose 'white, magenta pink, soft greens, those kinds of colors.' (AP)

For the story of a ballet dancer's spiral into madness while rehearsing"Swan Lake"atLincoln Centerand dealing with her manipulative mother in a cramped upper West Side apartment, Libatique needed to bridge several worlds at once.

"As much as it was about ballet, we were also trying to honor a genre, because we were making a horror-like thriller,"he says."So that was really the biggest challenge: How do we not make a schlocky thriller? Darren and Natalie worked hard on her character, and her performance is so full of nuance and subtle shifts.

"We knew the visual language would need to mimic classical music, with the ups and the downs,"he continues."I also wanted to create a very feminine atmosphere. To get inspiration, I looked at atmospheric photography that was photojournalistic at the same time. I watchedKrzysztof Kieslowski's‘The Double Life of Veronique' and ‘Red.' And we gave the movie's palette a feminine feel, using white, magenta pink, soft greens, those kinds of colors."

Libatique's father worked as a film processor and was an amateur photographer who taught his son to appreciate cityscapes ("Some dads wake up early to go fishing— mine would get up early to photograph theGeorge Washington Bridge"). When Libatique was 8, the family moved fromQueens Blvd. in Elmhurst to 57th St. and 11th Ave. inManhattan, near the GM dealership where his mom worked.

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