“If you crossed Vertigo (1958) with Clueless (1995) then you’d begin to get an idea of what cinematographer Benjamin Kračun’s job entailed on Emerald Fennel’s directorial debut, Promising Young Woman…. Whilst directors Alfred Hitchcock and Cher Horowitz seem an unlikely pair, their preferences for colors, scores and tension throughout both films were what Kračun and Fennel connected on.”
Source: Valentina Valentini, British Cinematographer
AT A GLANCE:
In Promising Young Woman, Cassie (Carey Mulligan) is a traumatized medical-school dropout reduced to living with her parents while seeking vengeance against a male classmate who brutalized her best friend. The genre-blending film plays in turns like a dark comedy and psychological thriller that dovetails neatly with the #MeToo era. It’s written and directed by Emerald Fennel, the Emmy-nominated TV writer and showrunner of Killing Eve who is also known for her roles in Call The Midwife and The Crown.
Featuring pastel hues and a candy-drenched aesthetic, the visuals were captured by cinematographer Benjamin Kračun (Beast, Beats, Monsoon) using Arri Alexa Mini cameras paired with Panavision G-series anamorphic lenses. Kračun details the production in an interview with Valentina Valentini for British Cinematographer. “It’s hard to describe what this movie is,” Kračun told Valentini. “I sum it up as a romantic, revenge, rom-com thriller.”
Carey Mulligan stars as Cassandra in director Emerald Fennell’s PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. Cr: Focus Features 
Carey Mulligan stars as Cassandra in director Emerald Fennell’s PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. Cr: Focus Features 
Carey Mulligan stars as Cassandra in director Emerald Fennell’s PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. Cr: Merie Weismiller Wallace/Focus Features 
Carey Mulligan stars as Cassandra in director Emerald Fennell’s PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. Cr: Focus Features 
Carey Mulligan stars as Cassandra in director Emerald Fennell’s PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. Cr: Focus Features 
(L to R) Actor Carey Mulligan, writer/director Emerald Fennell and actor Laverne Cox on the set of PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. Cr: Merie Weismiller Wallace/Focus Features 
(L to R) Actor Carey Mulligan, writer/director Emerald Fennell, actor Laverne Cox, and actor Bo Burnham on the set of PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. Cr: Merie Weismiller Wallace/Focus Features 
Max Greenfield stars as Joe in director Emerald Fennell’s PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. Cr: Focus Features 
Christopher Lowell stars as Al Monroe in director Emerald Fennell’s PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. Cr: Merie Weismiller Wallace/Focus Features 
Clancy Brown (left) stars as Stanley and Jennifer Coolidge (right) stars as Susan in director Emerald Fennell’s PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, a Focus Features release. Cr: Focus Features 
Alison Brie stars as Madison in director Emerald Fennell’s PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, a Focus Features release. Cr: Focus Features 
Laverne Cox stars as Gail in director Emerald Fennell’s PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. Cr: Merie Weismiller Wallace/Focus Features 
Bo Burnham stars as Ryan in director Emerald Fennell’s PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. Cr: Focus Features 
Carey Mulligan (left) stars as Cassandra and Samuel Richardson (right) stars as Paul in director Emerald Fennell’s PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. Cr: Merie Weismiller Wallace/Focus Features 
Carey Mulligan (left) stars as Cassandra and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (right) stars as Neil in director Emerald Fennell’s PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. Cr: Focus Features 
Carey Mulligan (left) stars as Cassandra and Connie Britton (right) stars as Dean Walker in director Emerald Fennell’s PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. Cr: Focus Features 
Carey Mulligan (front) stars as Cassandra and Bo Burnham (back) stars as Ryan in director Emerald Fennell’s PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. Cr: Merie Weismiller Wallace/Focus Features
Kračun sought to have the camera circle the action in predatory fashion, a visual idea that increases as the film’s action heightens. He also wanted to include subtle visual clues about Cassie’s role as an avenging angel:
“A lot of the beginning of the film is visually quite static with some pretty oblique framing. Whilst the character of Cassie is in a stasis of sorts until her mission becomes clear — the morph into the avenging angel, if you will — gives her the power which she uses to start her path towards revenge. That’s when the camera starts moving more and I incorporated shafts of light and very formal framing to reinforce Cassie as this biblical martyr.”
To develop the color palette for the film, Kračun and Fennel compiled look books filled with references like Nicole Kidman in To Die For, Julianne Moore in Todd Haynes’ Safe, and artist Cindy Sherman’s The Centerfolds from 1981:
“With my DIT Chase Abrams I built a LUT that was influenced by those soft, ‘90’s aesthetics to help bring out the pastels. What was in front of the camera was strong and pronounced and quite clear the colors we were going for. They were all there in Cassie’s manicure — a rainbow of turquoise, teal, yellow, light pink and fuchsia.”
READ MORE: CRIME & PUNISHMENT: Benjamin Kračun / Promising Young Woman (British Cinematographer)
The Behind the Slate Screening Series featured Kračun as part of a roundtable discussion with the production and sound teams from Promising Young Woman — watch it in the player below:
Want more? Head over to the American Cinematographer website and watch interviewer Seamus McGarvey, ASC, BSC in discussion with Kračun in “Clubhouse Conversations — Promising Young Woman.”