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Cinematographer Sam Levy crafts a modern noir rooted in the city’s streets and subway.
New York is one of the most filmed cities of all time, so how do you make a film set in the city stand out? For Levy, a New York resident but a Bostonian by birth, the solution was to shut out all the noise and concentrate on the script.
“I didn’t really think about all the great films that have been shot in New York from Manhattan to The Godfather,” he states. “I’ve worked on other films where we looked at Manhattan, but in this case, I didn’t let that enter my consciousness.”
A changing New York
When he first met Writer-Director Noah Segan at a coffee shop in the East Village to discuss making the crime thriller The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, they bonded over music.
“Noah grew up in New York, and just talking to him evokes a very specific version of the city – more like 1990s New York, a different era. That immediately felt like our direction.
“We talked a lot about French Director Robert Bresson – particularly L’Argent (1983).” They didn’t even pay special attention to Pickpocket, Bresson’s most famous film from 1959, which is superficially a more obvious reference. L’Argent, a moralistic tale about the corruption of money, “became a kind of guiding reference.”
Levy has worked with Spike Jonze, Noah Baumbach, Greta Gerwig, and Rebecca Miller. He’s even shot an Oasis video but says he is careful not to over-reference things. “Anything you reference, whether photos, paintings, films, or books, has a way of showing up on screen, so you have to be thoughtful.”
However, Segan’s script is a love letter to NYC and a city that may no longer exist. When a theft goes awry, an old-school hustler played by John Turturro is sent on a race against time through streets, subways, and boroughs to reclaim the stolen goods.
“Harry is a classic native New Yorker who has moved through life lubricating palms with pickpocket cash since the 1980s. He stays smooth, continually sharpening his skills, but times are changing. If he steals now, he’ll get trackable smartphones, credit cards, and gym bags holding cryptocurrency and guns.”
Casing the joint
It helped that both filmmakers knew the city. Locations included the Bronx neighbourhood where Segan’s grandfather lived and the block on 26th Street where Segan grew up.
A few interiors, like the police precinct and offices where Giancarlo Esposito’s character works, are built on stage. However, most of the film’s locations were scouted by Levy with Locations Manager Benjamin Gamer and First Assistant Director (AD) Laura Klein.
It’s primarily a Bronx story, but Turturro’s character constantly rides the train through Manhattan, so they shot extensively on the subway.
“We were in a scout van a lot, which can be a slog,” Levy reports. “But you program your brain not to mind it. I take photos of everything, videos too, and make detailed Dropbox folders. I also do light studies – something I learned from the great DOP Robbie Müller [who shot Paris, Texas for Wim Wenders].”
“Scouting isn’t just about finding locations,” Levy comments. “It’s about spending time there, understanding sun paths, planning when and how to shoot. For example, Harry’s apartment appears over multiple days, so we had to keep daylight consistent. We planned carefully for day-for-night [techniques] and avoided big overnight shoots.”
Getting the right equipment
In the past, Levy has shot controlled, theatrical projects, like Spanish-language comedy series Los Espookys, which was all stage work. He’s also shot the Broadway musical (Merrily We Roll Along) starring Daniel Radcliffe, which has fully theatrical lighting.
However, for Pickpocket, a small footprint was ideal. “When you’re in a small New York apartment, it’s great to work with minimal lighting and stay present with the actors and the location. That said, I don’t like being dogmatic about lighting. A lot of my work is naturalistic, but I also enjoy theatricality when the material calls for it.”
The team filmed digitally on an Arri Alexa 35 and primarily used Bausch & Lomb Super Baltar prime lenses – famously used on The Godfather. “I’ve tested them many times over the years, but I’d never found the right film for them until this one.”
“I also own a set of vintage Canon Rangefinder primes, including a beautiful 50mm ‘Dream Lens’ that opens to T1. I tested them extensively alongside the Baltars. I do very thorough testing. I’ve learned that when the right choice presents itself, it’s obvious. You don’t need to drive yourself crazy.
“We also did a lot of in-shot zooms. I tested vintage zooms, including the one used on Easy Rider, but it was mechanically unreliable. We ended up using a modern Angénieux Optimo 28–340, softened and detuned to blend with the Baltars.”
He explains: “This is a story about people the city tends to overlook – those living on the margins, trying to endure while everything around them keeps moving. It felt vital that the images acknowledge that reality without smoothing it over or slipping into sentimentality. That belief shaped every visual decision, especially our choice to shoot through imperfect glass.”
The colour of money
Levy built the film’s look with David Cole, Colourist, Fotokem. “There’s a lot of industrial lighting in the film. Fluorescent lights in subways and pawn shops. I’m heavily influenced by Robbie Müller, particularly his use of fluorescent green. Not always to the same saturation, but embracing the native colour of those lights.”
Money is a recurring visual motif in the film, and that became a kind of north star for the film’s use of dollar bill green.
Levy had a ‘colour summit’ with Production Designer Rocio Gimenez and Costume Designer Cailey Breneman. “Those conversations always show up on screen”, he emphasises. “Green became a subtle but important element appearing in the midtones and shadows.”
The film’s atmosphere also echoes film noir classics with Harry, an anti-hero pacing the mean streets of the Big Apple. In particular, the filmmakers referenced Out of the Past and The Friends of Eddie Coyle, two films from different eras starring noir legend Robert Mitchum.
“John and I talked about Mitchum and The Friends of Eddie Coyle, which I love – especially since it was shot in Boston.
“I think John channels some of Mitchum’s Eddie Coyle – older, more vulnerable – although our film is very much a modern noir. We embraced shadow, silhouette, and theatrical lighting when appropriate. There’s a test we shot of John visiting Steve Buscemi in a pawn shop. We staged the scene as a single shot, and when John stepped into silhouette, it just screamed noir. That was when we knew this film was going to be fun.”
Levy’s cinematography roots
Levy’s interest in colour and cinematography began with his father, a professional violinist in the Boston Symphony and a film fan, who showed his teenage son Bergman’s The Virgin Spring, shot by Sven Nykvist.
“We watched it on VHS on TV, and something about the contrast, the bleached whites and the inky blacks, completely struck me. It was the first time I realised films could be fundamentally different from one another,” Levy recalls.
“That led me to watch many Bergman films and then Kurosawa films. I started noticing cinematographers’ names, especially Nykvist’s. I remember seeing photos of him in books – this big, striking figure – and it stayed with me.”
After studying film at Brown University and the University of Paris-Michelet with French new wave Director Éric Rohmer, Sam Levy began his career as an apprentice to legendary Cinematographer Harris Savides. He also assisted Savides on the Turturro-directed feature Illuminata (1998).
“What truly solidified it for me was the documentary Visions of Light [a 1992 chronicle of the art of cinematography]. That was the moment I realised cinematography was what I wanted to pursue.”
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