There is a lot to love about the second season of American Crime Story. The performances are fantastic. It has a fun, pop soundtrack, which comments on gay culture as Judy Berman writes about for Pitchfork. It has a chilling and tragic true story of a serial killer. All of these aspects that make the show great are overshadowed by the way it is shot. How we see the story has a lot to do with how we interpret it, which could be damning for the show if not handled right.
The show flashes between the aftereffects of the killing of legendary fashion designer Gianni Versace and what came before with his killer Andrew Cunanan. Even though the scenes are dramatized in a fictional way, the underlying story is true. Andrew did kill several men before finally murdering Versace on his doorstep, and he got away with every single one. This true story is why many of us are watching the show, so it is an important element to consider when making it.
However, the style of this show doesn’t reflect the kind of filmmaking we associate with true stories. Far away from a documentary style, the show uses a style that pulls us out of the reality of the story and makes us feel like it is like any other fictional show we watch. This could benefit the entertainment aspect of the show, but when it is done in excess, it makes the show cheap.
This dramatic style of camerawork includes an overload of wide shots, overheads, dolly shots, and lens flares. Many scenes begin in overhead, birdseye views of settings or characters. Even in rather serious scenes like one where Andrew murders someone, the lens flares in the sun, giving beauty to the shot that feels out of place with the tone.
Versace was shot in Gianni’s real Florida mansion, where he was murdered. The home is enormous, and the camerawork constantly reminds you of this, panning out in large rooms or staying wide while actors are talking or giving emotional performances. There’s one way to make use of the space of a location, and then there’s letting it drown out the story.
The constant movement of the camera doesn’t just give the story a fictional feel; it takes away from the remarkable performances by an incredible cast, including Ricky Martin and Penélope Cruz. When so much of a scene is in a wide shot or panning all over the place, it’s hard to focus on the actor. Darren Criss plays Andrew Cunanan so well; it’s hard to imagine he came from a show like Glee. He’s serious, charming, emotional and in an instant, he can switch between the three. He’s a terrifying character and one that is so interesting to the viewer since this show is really about him.
Much of the season so far has been about Andrew and what he did even long before he met Versace. The main question everyone is drawn to is Why did he do this? The best way to try to understand this would be to give us a sense of Andrew’s interior. We need to be close to him, literately close to him with the camera, to appreciate the emotion coming across his face and interpret it ourselves. We hardly get this throughout the show since so much emphasis is put on the settings or ridiculous shots. A good example of the overload of movement by the camera is in the clip below.
In the scene, Andrew is about to trick the motel owner to think he’s from France and get a motel room where he makes plans to murder Versace. The shitty, run down hotel is introduced with a wide, panning shot that makes it look glamorous. The only close and static shots we get are in the brief conversation Andrew has with the owner. Not only does this scene give us a good sense of Andrew’s character, but it also sets up the most important act of the show– the murder of Versace. Instead, the focus is on the camera movement, like so much of the show.
If you think this style is familiar, you’re not mistaken. Cinematographer for the first two episodes Nelson Cragg has worked with the producer of American Crime Story Ryan Murphy one several of his projects before this. Each of Murphy’s other dramas Feud: Bette & Joan and American Horror Story employ much of the same dramatic camerawork by Cragg that is as gaudy as the plotlines. The influence is not entirely on Cragg, since he has experience that is not as overdone as his work with Murphy, including Breaking Bad and Homeland. This style is very much Murphy-esque, but it doesn’t fit with this show like his other dramas that rely heavily on cheap stories. American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson wasn’t popular for the camerawork. It was the writing and performances that won big during awards season.
This show holds the Murphy style when it shouldn’t. It needs a simple and serious tone that reflects the nature of this story. This story is about sexual repression, mental illness, and violent murders at the hands of a deeply troubled man. It’s about the loss of a true legend, by a man he may have befriended. It’s a sad story, full of gruesome violence that’s unsettling. The style of the show shouldn’t glamorize these events by focusing on the material settings and the artificial beauty of the era, but the true pain Andrew Cunanan caused so many families and himself. The show holds true potential for a successful follow-up to the first season if the rest of the season focuses on the story rather than the spectacle of cinematography.
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (10/9c, FX): OK, this may not be the happiest way to spend an hour of Valentine’s Day night, but you won’t find a series more gripping than Ryan Murphy’s disturbing psychological portrait of murderer Andrew Cunanan (a stunning Darren Criss). As the storyline continues to go back in time, this week’s episode contrasts the proud coming out of designer Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramirez) in the pages of The Advocate in 1995 with the sad history of one of Cunanan’s other victims: closeted Naval officer Jeffrey Trail (a heartbreaking Finn Wittrock).
Since the end of the last season of American Crime Story, I’m looking forward to seeing new episodes. Film producer of Nip/Tuck, Glee and American Horror Story, Ryan Murphy, had dedicated his first season to the widely publicised O.J Simpson’s murder case by exploring the racial discrimination against Afro-American people. The second season focusing on striking another American story: the assassination of Italian fashion designer, Gianni Versace, murdered in 1997 in front of his villa in Miami.
From the very beginning, the series is taking us under the Florida sun of 1997 and gives a glimpse into the fashion designer’s world. Murphy, who directed the first episode, gives a special attention to the aesthetic, through the spectacular villa’s corridor, from his meticulously embroidered slippers and his pink dressing gown to the Miami beach, his murderer’s place of distress.
Just like the first season, the second one explores one hot topic in our society. Through Andrew Cunanan -played by Darren Criss-, the director and producer is showing us the portrait of a young criminal full of hatred, ate up by internalized homophobia. With his Patrick Bateman’s look (American Psycho), Darren Criss’ acting is surprising: we see him screaming, laughing and crying in the same scene. In this first episode, we feel compassion for this despised character, who didn’t succeed in the fashion’s world.
In this series, based on Maureen Orth’s book -reporter at Vanity Fair- VulgarFavors, Murphy coincides the themes of homophobia -a matter close to his heart-, with the prejudices and the incompetence of the American police force at the time.
In a very caricatural role, Penelope Cruz plays a dominatrix and matriarchal Donatella, who mourns her brother in front of the camera and is eager to take his business back behind the scene. Edgar Ramirez’s resemblance with his character (Gianni Versace) is just bluffing and by playing a selfish and greedy character, we can see that Murphy doesn’t hold the Versace family in his heart.
Despite the Versace family disagreements, Ryan Murphy mixed his taste for excess and his love for famous stories to give his point of view on the story. The fashion designer’s family denied the facts related and refused that the brand would be associated with the series. Gianni Versace’s ex-partner, Antonio D’Amico (Ricky Martin on screen), is unhappy with his on-screen representation, and said the facts were only fictional. Nevertheless, the producers defend themselves by saying that it is not a historical documentary but a free adaptation of a book.
In each season of the true crime anthology series, “American Crime Story,” Ryan Murphy aims to revisit iconic, infamous acts of injustice that exposed our nation’s deepest-rooted social problems and called into question our sense of morality. For the multi-award winning first season, “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” Murphy used the O.J. Simpson trial to show the bigotry of America’s judicial system. The second season, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” focuses on the 1997 murder of fashion-design legend Gianni Versace and how homophobia let the killer, Andrew Cunanan, run free for so long.
“The Assassination of Gianni Versace” really earns its TV-MA rating. The violence can be so cruel and graphic that it would be understandable if viewers found themselves screaming in rage at their screens. Yet what keeps the viewer watching through such stomach-dropping moments is an incessant curiosity about where each character came from and where they’re headed next. The viewer cares enough about all of them, even the despicable murderer Cunanan, that they’ll take the tragic moments en route to the beautiful moments. However, the nine-episode season’s middle act lacks the latter, focusing exclusively on Cunanan’s killing spree before he went after Versace. While the beginning of the season presented both Cunanan and Versace’s storylines, the middle of the season threatens to turn into an emotionally draining Cunanan showcase through its omission of Versace’s storylines.
When it comes to casting, Murphy knows how to challenge our perceptions of what our favorite actors, established or on the rise, are capable of. In the hands of Penelope Cruz, Versace’s sister, Donatella, comes across as a kind of Jackie Kennedy figure. After her brother’s murder, the fiercely protective Donatella arms herself with a plan to preserve his public image and to create a legacy that will keep his memory and fashion empire alive. Edgar Ramirez’s depiction of Versace as a life-affirming man often makes the tears flow, especially given how cruelly Versace’s time on earth ended. A creative genius that believes in indulging in every day’s little wonders, Versace wishes more people could see the world in the same happy way he does. “I want my models to look like they enjoy life,” he tells Donatella before a runway show, adding, “Life is precious. Life is special.”
Though Versace is the title role, the most captivating performance comes from Darren Criss as Andrew Cunanan. In a complete 180-degree turn from his light-hearted breakout role on Murphy’s own “Glee,” Criss is so unnerving that one soon forgets how sweet his personality is in real life. A scary bright young man with a twisted sense of drive, Cunanan’s tool bag of charm and manipulation is bottomless, his emotions (and backstories) able to turn on a dime in pursuit of what he wants— love and success. Yet what’s most disturbing about Cunanan is how familiar the roots of his evil feel to the audience. As Criss finds this common ground, the character becomes someone the viewer begs to deviate from his rotten path, hates when he won’t and sympathizes with when he talks about his dreams.
According to Nina Jacobson, one of the show’s executive producers, the question every season aims to ask about its central scandal is: “What makes this a crime America is guilty of?” The three-month search for Andrew Cunanan is considered to be the FBI’s largest failed manhunt. While Cunanan’s spooky ability to stay multiple steps ahead of everyone helped him avoid capture for so long, the decade’s homophobia hindered local and national law enforcement from taking his violence seriously, and it cost the lives of five innocent men trying to make some vibrant memories out of their limited days.
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