Everyone likes a good Villain, and Maleficent, from the 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty, is perhaps the Walt Disney Co.'s most iconic. Feared and reviled in equal measure, the self-declared Mistress of All Evil is finally having her side of the story told in the live-action film directed by Robert Stromberg and starring Angelina Jolie in the title role.
Before she began covering herself head-to-toe in black, Maleficent was a winged fairy living in an idyllic natural world. Her peace was shattered when an invading army of humans threatened her home. Rising to the land's defense cost Maleficent both her powerful wings and her happiness. Afterward, corrupted by the desire for revenge, she places the well-known curse on Princess Aurora (played as a toddler by Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, and as a young woman by Elle Fanning). While biding her time until the curse takes effect on Aurora's 16th birthday, Maleficent begins to suspect that the young woman may be capable of bringing peace to the kingdom.
Cinematographer Dean Semler ASC, ACS accompanied Stromberg for the director's first feature. Asked if be particularly enjoys working with first-time directors, Semler responds, "I just enjoy working! It is always the director's film and I love being able to offer as many ideas as I can. Perhaps that occurs more often with first-time directors, but it's their vision that is up on the screen. The director os the one only captain of the ship; cinematographers just man the oars to keep smooth sailing."
[…]
