
Director Sarah Polley's feature Women Talking about a group of women in an isolated Mennonite community in 2010 who share refuge in a hayloft while weighing their colony's future has been much lauded since premiering at the 2022 Telluride Film Festival and is now nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay Oscars. Despite its intimate setting, the movie may well be the most epic collaboration to date between Polley and cinematographer Luc Montpellier, CSC, following previous partnerships that include the features Away From Her and Take This Waltz.
To bring visual form to the weight shouldered by the women onscreen, Montpellier and Polley embraced large-format cinematography, employing Panavision's 1.6x-squeeze Ultra Vista anamorphic optics and Millennium DXL2 camera, all sourced through Panavision's Toronto location. The cinematographer recently shared his insights into crafting the intimate drama's visual language.
Panavision: How did you and Sarah Polley go about defining the movie's visual style?
Luc Montpellier, CSC: We began with the premise that the women in the film are in the process of dismantling an old world and creating a new one. They are contemplating a seismic shift in both their circumstances and their interior lives as they deal with what their faith means now that the structures they have been living within have revealed themselves to be corrupted.
It was important for the imagery in the film to mirror the weight of this seemingly impossible decision. The desaturated palette and large-format anamorphic photography was intended to provide the gothic imagery necessary to support the idea of unwavering faith, and how the traditions of this colony can be suffocating yet beautiful. The shifting of daylight into dusk underscores the limited time in which their life-altering decision must be made and was intended to create visual tension as the light slowly disappears and the women could be discovered plotting at any moment.
Did you find inspiration in any particular visual references?
Montpellier: We really tried to use our instincts on what felt right for the film. It is such an emotional story, it was important to constantly check-in with ourselves and to never underestimate the value of that in our choices.
We did look at Larry Towell's Mennonite photography. Each powerful image Larry takes is full of emotion and leaves the viewer to interpret their own story.
How did you come to collaborate with Panavision for Women Talking?
Montpellier: Panavision has been an integral part of my creative process as a cinematographer since the very beginning of my career. I simply know I will find the right recipe for any given film based on the vast array of tools they offer all over the world. Their expertise and creative thinking regarding optics is unmatched anywhere else.
What drew you to the DXL2 camera and Ultra Vista lenses?
Montpellier: It was important to Sarah and me that the film feel epic in scope without the sharpness associated with digital cinematography. The Ultra Vistas provided us with an image that took advantage of the shallow depth of field of large-format photography and the legacy characteristics of Panavision anamorphics. We instantly had an emotional reaction to the lenses' soft edges and their native de-squeezed ratio of 2.76:1 on the DXL2. This aspect ratio allowed us to intimately unite the women in every frame in the loft and to capture the majestic colony exteriors that remind us of what these women are fighting for.
What sets Women Talking apart from other projects in your career?
Montpellier: Women Talking is the most important project I have ever had the privilege of photographing. I have never been part of another film that has instigated so much conversation after the credits roll. This is a rare thing and is truly addictive as a filmmaker.
What inspired you to become a cinematographer and what keeps you inspired today?
Montpellier: I always escaped to the movies as a kid; I found so much comfort in that. I was also curious about the inner working of things. It was only later, in film school, that I discovered a connection between these things and felt drawn to cinematography. I became very interested in how cinematography can serve a story in just the right way. I also discovered the films of Stanley Kubrick I could feel his mastery behind the lens.
What keeps me inspired today is a great script and a great director. Nothing beats a creatively safe environment where collaboration is celebrated.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
23/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/06/2026
LTN, a global leader in IP-based video transport and network services, today announced that PBS has selected LTN as its IP video partner to modernize and future...
23/06/2026
LiveU will introduce its Q Era to Australia and New Zealand for the first time at ABE2026 on Stand No. 25, (July 30 31). Leading the showcase is the LU900Q, a n...
23/06/2026
Miri Technologies Inc. has begun shipping its highly anticipated V410 live 4K video encoder/decoder for streaming, IP-based production workflows and AV-over-IP ...
23/06/2026
DHD audio reports the completion of an upgrade to the audio production facilities at the Galilee headquarters of Radio Tzafon. The station broadcasts two progra...
23/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/06/2026
Multifaceted Growth Executive Brings 20+ Years of Experience Leading Organizations Across Tech and M&E
Imagine Communications today announced the appointment ...
23/06/2026
Australians in Film and Screen Australia's talent development initiative UNT...
23/06/2026
Visual Productions Unveils RdmRelay2 Four-channel Relay Control at InfoComm 2026
Brie Clayton June 22, 2026
0 Comments
New Relay Solution Combines DMX, ...
23/06/2026
SMPTE Makes Its Standards Freely Accessible, Opening Standards Library to the Gl...
23/06/2026
The RT Toy Show Appeal has raised over 31 million since its inception in 2020 ...
23/06/2026
News Highlights:
NVIDIA technology runs 81% of the TOP500 and 90% of the systems new to the list.
26 systems on the TOP500 adopted the NVIDIA Grace CPU, up ei...
23/06/2026
Companies are asking how to build specialized AI that fits with the way their workflows actually run.
The first wave of enterprise AI was about access. Compan...
23/06/2026
Newly identified molecule strengthens the eye's response to damage in retinal disease Scripps Research discovery finds that restoring the naturally occurrin...
22/06/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
22/06/2026
Cosm has announced the appointment of David Ho as Chief Legal Officer, a newly created executive role reporting to President and CEO Jeb Terry. Ho will oversee ...
22/06/2026
Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have announced the developm...
22/06/2026
Daktronics has completed an audio control system upgrade at Petco Park in San Di...
22/06/2026
Accelerate Media has named John Willi as President and announced the launch of the Accelerate Sports Network (ASN), a prep sports media and streaming platform c...
22/06/2026
All Women's Sports Network (AWSN) and 3XBA (3 3 Basketball Association) have announced live television coverage of the annual 3XBA tournament on Friday, Jun...
22/06/2026
OWL AI has announced the appointment of Jay Prasad as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors. Prasad succeeds Josh Gwyther, who has served...
22/06/2026
CP Communications delivered RF video and audio support for TNT's Inside the NBA at the 2026 NBA Finals, providing main show coverage in San Antonio and ea...
22/06/2026
Polymarket has announced a partnership with GRID, an official esports data platf...
22/06/2026
As sports venues continue to evolve into more video-centric, fan-engagement-driv...
22/06/2026
As the regional sports production scene shifts toward streaming, this Texan helps lead the engineering behind Victory+'s growing live platform...
22/06/2026
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
the memories of your elders [are] a scaffolding for you to build your identity on - and t...
22/06/2026
New hyper-resolution analyser EQ revealed
CEDAR Audio's all-new Icons plug-in series has just gained its newest member, Blade. Described by the compan...
22/06/2026
Turn any live input into a cinematic soundscape
Designed for use in the studio and on stage, Sampleson's latest creation is capable of taking any audio ...
22/06/2026
Adds guitar strings to Eurorack rigs
ADDAC System are renowned for their weird and wonderful synth designs, and their line-up includes plenty of gear that...
22/06/2026
FIFA World Cup 2026 fever grows, as more than one third of Australians tune in ...
22/06/2026
In our latest blog, Tim Pearson explores NAGRA Venturi, the new streaming security solution for the AI era from NAGRAVISION. Designed to aggregate and analyze ...
22/06/2026
Expanded integrations give advertisers access to distinct contextual signals acr...
22/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/06/2026
Xilica today announced the release of Dynamic Voice Lift, a new feature in Xilica Designer v4.12 that brings adaptive speech reinforcement to large meeting spac...
22/06/2026
Telecom operators have seen remarkable returns from using generative AI to automate network management, customer care and back-office operations. Most of that i...
22/06/2026
Monday 22 June 2026
Official trailer released for Katie Price: Nothing to Hide,...
22/06/2026
The next era of AI will not be defined by compute alone. Its growth will be dete...
22/06/2026
Mission, Vision and Veritas - new Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) supercom...
22/06/2026
At the ISC conference running in Hamburg this week, NVIDIA is introducing new so...
22/06/2026
For the past two years, the U.S. National Science Foundation's National Arti...
22/06/2026
JUPITER, Europe's first exascale supercomputer at Germany's Forschungszentrum J lich, runs on NVIDIA Grace Hopper Superchips and NVIDIA Quantum-X800 Inf...