Few losses will hit us as hard as the one announced early today with the passing of the great filmmaker Jonathan Demme. We wrote earlier about his life and career, but there are few better ways to commemorate a filmmaker than through their work, and there’s a chance to do that later tonight — an episode of “Shots Fired,” the FOX drama series, that Demme directed happens to air this evening (though it’s actually not the last thing that the helmer filmed: he’d apparently shot an episode of new Netflix series “Seven Seconds” just a few months ago).
READ MORE: R.I.P. Oscar-Winning ‘Silence Of The Lambs’ Director Jonathan Demme
But in the meantime, you can celebrate Demme with this excellent video essay by Jacob T. Swinney on his masterful use of the close-up. Few filmmakers loved and trusted actors in the way that Demme did, and this collection of his stars, from Jason Robards to Denzel Washington and Anthony Hopkins, looking down the lens is a reminder of that, and the often disarming way he would use the close-up.
Watch the video below.