1947 - BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
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- Camera and Electrical Department
Gabriel Figueroa was born on 24 April 1907 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. He was a cinematographer, known for The Pearl (1947), The Young and the Damned (1950) and Maria Candelaria (1944). He died on 27 April 1997 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
A somewhat underrated figure in cinematographic history, Australian-born Robert Krasker handled some of the most memorable films made in Britain after the Second World War. In his youth he attended art classes in Paris and studied photography at the Photohaendler Schule in Dresden. He briefly worked for Paramount in Paris before joining Alexander Korda's London Films at Denham Studios in 1932. As a camera operator, Krasker cut his teeth on Technicolor spectacles like The Four Feathers (1939) and The Thief of Bagdad (1940). From 1942, he worked as director of photography, showing his flair in all photographic media, from the softly lit, subtle black & white of Brief Encounter (1945) to the gaudy 'cartoon colour' pageantry of Henry V (1944).
He adopted a suitably harsher, almost semi-documentary look working with director Carol Reed on Odd Man Out (1947) and The Third Man (1949). Both films are characterised by expressionistic camera angles, chiaroscuro lighting and conspicuous close-ups. Krasker deservedly won an Oscar for his work on 'The Third Man' and went on to shoot the visually glorious Senso (1954) for Luchino Visconti in Italy, in turn followed by one of the best-looking epics of the 50s: El Cid (1961) -- with its famous long shot of the dead hero, riding away tied upright to his horse. Krasker's style of photography went out of fashion with the increasing popularity of the New Wave in the 1960s. Disenchantment, combining with failing health led to his retirement in 1965. One of the great cameramen of cinema's "Golden Age", he deserves to be remembered.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Director
Starting out in 1924 as a lab technician at MGM, John Alton left there for Paramount to become a cameraman. He traveled to France and then to South America, where he wrote, photographed and directed several Spanish-language films. Returning to Hollywood in 1937, he soon achieved a reputation as one of the industry's most accomplished cinematographers. In 1951, he and Alfred Gilks won an Academy Award for color photography for An American in Paris (1951).- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Director
Almost universally considered one of the greatest cinematographers of all time, Jack Cardiff was also a notable director. He described his childhood as very happy and his parents as quite loving. They performed in music hall as comedians, so he grew up with the fun that came with their theatrical life in pantomime and vaudeville. His father once worked with Charles Chaplin. His parents did occasional film appearances, and young Jack appeared in some of their films, such as My Son, My Son (1918), at the age of four. He had the lead in Billy's Rose (1922) with his parents playing his character's parents in the film. Jack was a production runner, or what he would call a "general gopher", for The Informer (1929) in which his father appeared. For one scene he was asked by the first assistant cameraman to "follow focus", which he said was his first real brush with photography of any kind, but he claimed that it was the lure of travel that led to him joining a camera department making films in a studio. He had, however, become impressed with the use of light and color in paintings by the age of seven or eight, and described how he watched art directors in theaters painting backdrops setting lights. His friend Ted Moore was also a camera assistant in this period when both worked in a camera department run by Freddie Young, who would also become a legendary cinematographer. He worked for Alfred Hitchcock during the filming of The Skin Game (1931).
By 1936 Cardiff had risen to being a camera operator at Denham Studios when the Technicolor Company hired him on the basis of what he told them in interview about the use of light by master painters. This led to his operating camera for the first Technicolor film shot in Britain, Wings of the Morning (1937). He finally was offered the full position of director of photography by Michael Powell for A Matter of Life and Death (1946), ironically working in B&W for the first time in some sequences. His next assignment was on Black Narcissus (1947), where he acknowledged the influence of painters Vermeer and Caravaggio and their use of shadow. He won the Academy Award for best color cinematography for this film. Jack certainly got to travel when it was decided to shoot The African Queen (1951) on location in the Congo. Errol Flynn offered Jack the chance to direct The Story of William Tell (1953) that would star Flynn. It would have been the second film made in CinemaScope had it been completed, but the production ran out of money part way through filming in Switzerland.
It has been said that Marilyn Monroe requested that Jack photograph The Prince and the Showgirl (1957). Although he had already directed some small productions, he had a critical breakthrough with Sons and Lovers (1960). He continued directing other films through the 1960s, including the commercial hit Dark of the Sun (1968), but for the most part returned to working for other directors as a very sought-after cinematographer in the 1970s and beyond. He continued to work into the new century, almost until his death. He was made an OBE in 2000 and received a lifetime achievement award at the 73rd Academy Awards.[LINK=tt0039192]- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Charles Lawton Jr. was born on 6 April 1904 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a cinematographer, known for The Lady from Shanghai (1947), The Gallant Blade (1948) and 3:10 to Yuma (1957). He was married to Irene Thompson. He died on 11 July 1965 in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Art Department
Italian-born Nicholas Musuraca's first job in the film business was as a chauffeur to early pioneering producer/director J. Stuart Blackton. Having a knack for photography, he worked behind the cameras in a variety of jobs before finally becoming a cinematographer (or, as they were called in those days, "lighting cameraman"). Musuraca spent most of his career at RKO Pictures, where he became known as a master of lighting--he was once admiringly described by a fellow cameraman as "a painter with light"--and was largely responsible for the gritty, moody camerawork that became that studio's signature. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on I Remember Mama (1948). After leaving RKO in the late '50s he worked for a short period at Warner Bros., but then joined Desilu Studios and spent the remainder of his career in television.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Producer
Oscar-winning director of photography William Daniels was a master of black-and-white cinematographer most famous for the 21 films he shot that starred the immortal Greta Garbo between 1926 and 1939. Among the Gabro classics he lensed were The Torrent (1924), Flesh and the Devil (1926), Love (1927) (Garbo and home studio MGM's first crack at Lev Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina"), Mata Hari (1931), Grand Hotel (1932), Queen Christina (1933), the sound remake of Anna Karenina (1935), Camille (1936), and Ninotchka (1939).
He won fame for his lensing of Garbo, but to those who claimed that he was essential to his success, Daniels replied, "I didn't create a 'Garbo face.' I just did portraits of her I would have done for any star. My lighting of her was determined by the requirements of a scene. I didn't, as some say I did, keep one side of her face light and the other dark. But I did always try to make the camera peer into the eyes, to see what was there."
Though he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for the 1930 English-language version of Anna Christie (1930) (he also shot the 1931 German-language version Anna Christie (1930)), ironically, it was his only nomination for a Garbo film. He won his Oscar in 1949 for his brilliant B+W cinematography on the classic film noir The Naked City (1948).
Daniels received two other Oscar nominations. He was President of the American Society of Cinematographers from 1961 to 1963.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
One of the outstanding cinematographers of Hollywood's Golden Age, Lang spent most of his career at Paramount (1929-1952), where he contributed to the studio's well-earned reputation for visual style. Lang was educated at Lincoln High School in L.A., then proceeded to the University of Southern California to study law. He quickly changed his career plans, however, and joined his father, the photographic technician Charles Bryant Lang Sr, at the small Realart Studio. He served a lengthy apprenticeship as a laboratory assistant and still photographer, before advancing to assistant cameraman, working with pioneering cinematographers H. Kinley Martin and L. Guy Wilky. Lang left Realart in 1922, had a stint with the Preferred Picture Corporation, then joined Paramount which had, by then, absorbed Realart at the end of the decade. In 1929, he became a full director of photography.
During the 1930's, Lang was one of a formidable team of cinematographers working at Paramount, including such illustrious craftsmen as Lee Garmes, Karl Struss and Victor Milner. At this time, the studio dominated the Academy Awards for cinematography, particularly in the field of black & white romantic and period film. Lang excelled in the use of chiaroscuro, light and shade, and was adept at creating the mood for every genre and style, from the sombre Peter Ibbetson (1935) to the glamour of Desire (1936) and the Parisian chic of Midnight (1939). Lang was an innovator in the use of long tracking shots. He was also liked by many female stars, such as Helen Hayes and Marlene Dietrich (and, later, Audrey Hepburn, because of his uncanny ability to photograph them to their best advantage, often using subdued lighting and diffusion techniques. Though nominated eighteen times for Academy Awards, he won just once, for A Farewell to Arms (1932). Among his many outstanding films of the 30's and 40's, are the lavishly photographed Bob Hope comedy/thriller The Cat and the Canary (1939) and the romantic, atmospheric The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947).
Lang's work with chiaroscuro lighting adapted itself perfectly to the expressionist neo-realism of films noir in the 1950's, most noteworthy examples being Ace in the Hole (1951) and The Big Heat (1953). He was at his best working with the directors Billy Wilder and Fritz Lang. The success of films like Sabrina (1954), Separate Tables (1958) and Some Like It Hot (1959) - all Oscar nominees for Lang's cinematography - owed much to his excellent camera work. Though he preferred the medium of black & white, he became equally proficient in the use of colour photography, working with different processes (Cinerama, VistaVision, etc.) on expansive, richly-textured and sweeping outdoor westerns like The Magnificent Seven (1960) and How the West Was Won (1962), as well as romantic thrillers like Charade (1963) and How to Steal a Million (1966). In 1990, Lang received a Special Eastman Kodak Award for colour cinematography.
Lang was known in the industry as one of the 'best-dressed men' behind the cameras, modest, yet a perfectionist and a consummate professional. He lived to the ripe old age of 96, dying in Santa Monica, California, in April 1998.- Cinematographer
- Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
Karol Szczecinski was born on 14 October 1911 in Lódz, Poland, Russian Empire [now Lódz, Lódzkie, Poland]. He was a cinematographer and actor, known for Ostatni po Bogu (1968), Wyscig Pokoju 1952. Warszawa-Berlin-Praga (1952) and Peace Will Win (1951). He died on 9 June 1995 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland.- Cinematographer
- Director
- Writer
Wladyslaw Forbert was born on 26 May 1915 in Warsaw, Poland, Russian Empire [now Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland]. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Kara ciezsza niz kara (1966), Jeg vil bo i Danmark (1971) and Trudna milosc (1954). He died on 7 February 2001 in Copenhagen, Denmark.