Archive for the ‘The Cinematographer’s Art’ Category
Gregg Toland and the FSA
Gregg Toland, still from The Grapes of Wrath, 1941 When you see John Ford’s 1940 film The Grapes of Wrath, you can’t miss the similarity to the Farm Security Administration photos of Dorothea Lange and others. The movie, which won Ford an Oscar for Best Director, was shot by the great, maybe the greatest, cinematographer, […]
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Tags: Dorothea Lange, Farm Security Administration, Gregg Toland Grapes of Wrath, Jean Dodge, John Ford Oscar Best Director, photography and cinema, photos of dustbowl, research library at FOX studios, still photography and movies, The Grapes of Wrath
Composing Lawrence of Arabia
Lawrence of Arabia is playing at the Astor cinema for a limited season and if you see it there you will never forget the experience. It’s probably lookimg better than on its release in 1962 because after its restoration and digital transfer this year, there are no scratches or dust or colour mis-matches. The image […]
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Tags: 70mm, cinema and abstract art, cinema and painting, cinematographer Freedie Young BSC, Composition in Lawrence of Arabia, director David Lean, film format Lawrence of Arabia, photography in Lawrence of Arabia, Super-Panavision film format, www.in70mm.com
Lawrence and Freddie
When you see the film Lawrence of Arabia on the big screen you realize how great its Director of Photography Freddie Young was. He won an Oscar for it. But I’m not just talking about Young as a cinematographer, I’m referring to the composed shots that appear on the screen as beautiful still images, as […]
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Tags: David Lean and freddie Young, desert movies, Freddie Young BSC, Lawrence of Arabia, Oscars for Lawrence of Arabia, photographs of deserts, photographs of the desert
The Limitless zoom
The amazing new movie Limitless, starring Bradley Cooper, has a lot of jaw-dropping visuals. Boiled down, the story is about the consequences of suddenly becoming very, very intelligent, through taking a pill. The feverish excitement and stimulation of this condition is brilliantly conveyed through the so-called “fractal zooms” which are seen at various points in […]
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Tags: Limitless, Limitless Bradley Cooper, Limitless fractal zoom, Look Effects Dan Schrecker
William H. Daniel’s Naked City
….…..….….….…. Click on these images to see New York in 1948. They show the city just after World War II, but just before the prosperity boom of the 1950s; it’s a hardworking city, energetic and unpretentious. The images are by William H. Daniels, whose work, you might agree, resembles that of Weegee and Berenice Abbott, […]
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Tags: Berenice Abbott, Mark Hellinger, New York 1940s, shooting on location, The Naked City, Weegee, William H. Daniels
Kane enabled
Last night I saw Citizen Kane again. Like many film lovers of my generation, it has a special place in the heart, a dream of perfect cinema. The thrill is always a little different and last night it was the electrifying originality, the daring, the showmanship that struck me. It’s a film of shocks: you […]
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Tags: Citizen Kane, deep focus cinematography, Eastman Super XX film, Gregg Toland, Patrick Ogle
Odds Against Tomorrow 3
For a Hollywood genre film Odds Against Tomorrow was experimental and arty. The opening shot was filmed in infra red film which bleached the skin of the racist character played by Robert Ryan above. Since the story hinges on the racial conflict between white man Ryan and black man Harry Belafonte, whitening Ryan’s skin in […]
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Tags: Infra Red film, Odds Against Tomorrow, Robert Ryan, Robert Wise
Odds Against Tomorrow 2
Odds Against Tomorrow was mostly shot on location in New York city and upstate New York. The locations were carefully chosen, each scene plays out in very distinctive place. It gives the film a sense of reality, as if the events could be happening right next to you. In these shots the skyscrapers are composed […]
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Tags: location photographs New York, Odds Against Tomorrow, portraits in Life Magazine, skyscrapers and actors
Odds Against Tomorrow 1
Odds Against Tomorrow is a 1959 film noir, a combination heist-movie and message-film (is that three genres?). It was directed by the great Robert Wise and starred Harry Belafonte and Robert Ryan, whose shadows you can see in these photos. The climax is a chase through an oil refinery at night. Harry Belafonte is chasing […]
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Tags: Joseph Brun cinematographer, Joseph C Brun, Odds Against Tomorrow, Robert Wise
Magnificent. Obsession.
What could be a more perfect challenge for a cinematographer than depicting blindness? In Douglas Sirk’s 1953 film Magnificent Obsession, the subjective experience of the blind Jane Wyman character is one of the main drivers of the plot. The film is a lush, over ripe melodrama where Wyman unknowingly falls in love the man who […]
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Tags: blindness & cinema, blindness & photography, Douglas Sirk, Magnificent Obsession, Russell Metty
Lullaby of Broadway
. . This arresting image (click on it) is the beginning of the Lullaby of Broadway sequence in Gold Diggers of 1935, a Busby Berkeley movie. It’s one of the grand song and dance set pieces that Berkeley is famous for; a short film in itself, lasting for 13 minutes. It starts with a distant […]
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Tags: busby berkeley, Gold Diggers of 1935, lullaby of broadway, negative space, wini shaw, Winifred Shaw
Paper Moon
Watching the 1973 movie Paper Moon is like seeing Walker Evans photographs come to life. Set in Kansas in 1935, it’s a road movie that follows its two characters across a series of marvellous landscapes and towns. It was shot by Laszlo Kovacs, a cinematographer celebrated for his location work (Easy Rider, The Last Picture […]
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Tags: deep focus, deep focus cinematography, Laszlo Kovacs, Orson Welles & Bogdanovich, Paper Moon
