Everyone involved in this picture seems overqualified, from the writers (Robert Towne, with Beatty) to the cinematographer (Conrad Hall) to the production designer (the late Ferdinando Scarfiotti) to the large, pointlessly high-powered supporting cast (headed by Katharine Hepburn).
The hard-edged, almost hyperreal cinematography, by Conrad L. Hall, and the editing, by Tariq Anwar and Chris Greenbury, shift back and forth between dream and actuality with mesmerizing beauty.