Fatal Attraction (1987) – Cinematography by Howard Atherton

Soft light, deep shadows and the polish of British advertising: Howard Atherton brings a seductive, heightened naturalism to Adrian Lyne’s thriller.

The Film

Adapted by James Dearden from his own short film “Diversion” (1980), “Fatal Attraction” has a premise that needs little introduction. Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas), a married lawyer with a young daughter, spends a weekend with Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) while his wife, Beth (Anne Archer), and their child are away. For him, it is a brief affair. Alex sees it differently: she becomes obsessed with him and refuses to accept that their relationship is over.

Reportedly turned down by John Carpenter and Brian De Palma before reaching British director Adrian Lyne, “Fatal Attraction” became one of the most controversial and commercially successful films of its time. Lyne was already known for his advertising work and the success of “Flashdance” (1983) and “9½ Weeks” (1986), but this film brought him his greatest critical recognition. The film received six Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, acting nominations for Close and Archer, Adapted Screenplay for Dearden, and Film Editing for Michael Kahn and Peter E. Berger. Close’s Alex can be read as victim or villain, depending on your point of view.

The Cinematographer

British cinematographer Howard Atherton, BSC, came to “Fatal Attraction” with extensive experience in commercials but only one previous feature to his name. Born in 1947 and now retired, he made surprisingly few features for a cinematographer of his ability. He would work with Lyne again on “Indecent Proposal” (1993) and “Lolita” (1997); his other best-known credits include Michael Bay’s feature debut, “Bad Boys” (1995), and “Deep Rising” (Stephen Sommers, 1998).

It is a shame he did not shoot more features, because his advertising-honed style was so compelling. After “Fatal Attraction,” he seemed poised to become one of the industry’s leading cinematographers, but his career took a different course. Ridley Scott hired him for “Black Rain” (1989), which Atherton left during the demanding Japanese location shoot, reportedly for personal reasons. Jan de Bont took over and received the sole director of photography credit, while Atherton was credited with additional photography.

Visual Style Analysis

“Fatal Attraction” looks spectacular, and much of that starts with Mel Bourne’s production design. One of the outstanding designers of the period, Bourne was a key collaborator on Woody Allen’s films with Gordon Willis. His credits included “Annie Hall” (1977), as well as “The Natural” (Barry Levinson, 1984) and “The Fisher King” (1991). Bourne gives the film a sumptuous visual setting, from the Gallaghers’ apartment, with its echoes of Allen’s New York, to Alex’s loft.

Atherton’s lighting owes much to Lyne’s background in advertising and belongs to the same tradition as the work of Michael Seresin, Peter Biziou and Donald Peterman. He often lights faces from the side, with the source at roughly eye level, allowing much of the face to fall into shadow. At other times, the actors are silhouetted against brighter backgrounds. It is a kind of “idealized naturalism”: the look of natural light, carefully recreated at its most beautiful and photogenic.

There is nothing accidental about that natural-looking light. The silky softness that does so much for Close and Douglas suggests large sources working through carefully arranged diffusion and bounce. Working this way involves substantial light loss, so the fixtures themselves would need to be powerful. We cannot identify the exact setup from the finished images, but the effect points to far more light than the apparent naturalism might suggest.

The interiors follow the same principle. The lighting is motivated by practical lamps, with larger, softer sources just out of frame apparently carrying their glow across the actors and the room. The impression is that the lamps we see are doing the work. The softness and carefully controlled contrast, however, suggest a much more elaborate setup, with light passed through silks or bounced into the scene.

The contrast is strong, yet the transitions into shadow are gentle. That softness comes from the diffusion of the sources, perhaps helped in places by a little atmospheric haze. The long-lens framing, often achieved with zooms, is just as much a part of the film’s visual language.

ON FILM & DIGITAL
© Ignacio Aguilar, 2020. Revised in 2026.

This article is part of ON FILM & DIGITAL’s English-language cinematography reviews and essays.

These texts are not plot summaries or general film reviews, but cinematography-focused essays written from the perspective of a working cinematographer.

The Author

Ignacio Aguilar, AEC is a cinematographer / director of photography based in Madrid, Spain. His work spans feature films, television, commercials and technical writing on cinematography, with experience in digital cinema, 16mm and 35mm film, anamorphic lenses, large-format digital capture, lens testing and film-based workflows.

He is a member of the Spanish Society of Cinematographers (AEC) and the Spanish Academy of Cinema, a Sony I.C.E. Certified Expert and a Cooke SP3 ambassador. His writing has appeared in American Cinematographer and Camera & Light, and ON FILM & DIGITAL gathers his bilingual essays, technical guides and cinematography reviews.

For professional work, collaborations, lectures, workshops or cinematography consulting, visit his professional biography, selected works or contact page.

The Spanish-language archive is available at ON FILM & DIGITAL.