THE ONLY LIVING PICKPOCKET IN NEW YORK PRODUCTION
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Early in his career, Levy was mentored by renowned cinematographer Harris Savides ASC, who photographed Turturro’s 1998 film Illuminata , which he directed and starred in. “John and I talked about Harris and his family,” Levy says. “Harris’ wife, Medine, and daughter, Sophie, visited our Pickpocket set, which was fun and also emotional. So, John and I had that connection even though we had never worked together before.” Levy and Turturro also bonded over their shared love of cinema. Levy now proudly displays a framed poster of Robert Bresson’s L’Argent , a gift from Turturro. “John is a big cinephile and a collector of movie posters. During prep,
Noah, John and I looked at L’Argent , which is one of my favourite films. We looked at it for the atmosphere, but also very technically. Bresson uses a lot of what we might now call insert shots. Close-ups of objects that, conventionally, you’d use simply to clarify a plot point. A hand holding a banknote, fingers typing, someone reading a newspaper.“ But Bresson, Levy tells me, holds on these images much longer than we’re accustomed to. A shot might begin as a close-up of an object and then widen, pan or track with someone as they move, and suddenly what began as a functional insert transforms into something else entirely. The image is
no longer just conveying information; it becomes a cinematic moment in itself. There’s something transcendent about the way he allows those details to linger. The technique was adopted for Pickpocket , with the crew referring to them as ‘Bresson Inserts’. “I’d line up over John’s shoulder,” Levy adds. “Then I would give him a monitor and he would really get into the specificity of his positioning and blocking of these tight, Bressonian moments.” Segan and Levy also discussed Ulu Grosbard’s film Straight Time , Robert Mitchum’s films The Friends of Eddie Coyle and Out of the Past , and The Godfather . That led Levy to Bausch
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