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| Lawrence of Arabia |
First the facts, then the spurious ruminations. On January
8, the American Society of Cinematographers celebrated its 100th
anniversary. To listmakers’ delight, they issued a Top 10 list of
cinematographic achievements, as well as 90 other choices, sorted by date of
release.
ASC 100th Reel - 01:40 from American Cinematographer on Vimeo.
ASC 100th Reel - 01:40 from American Cinematographer on Vimeo.
1. Lawrence of Arabia (1962), shot by
Freddie Young, BSC (Dir. David Lean)
2. Blade Runner (1982), shot by Gordon
Cronenweth, ASC (Dir. Ridley Scott)
3. Apocalypse Now (1979), shot by Vittorio
Storaro, ASC, AIC (Dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
4. Citizen Kane (1941), shot by Gregg
Toland, ASC (Dir. Orson Welles)
5. The Godfather (1972), shot by Gordon
Willis, ASC (Dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
6. Raging Bull (1980), shot by Michael
Chapman, ASC (Dir. Martin Scorsese)
7. The Conformist (1970), shot by Vittorio
Storaro, ASC, AIC (Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci)
8. Days of Heaven (1978), shot by Nestor Almendros,
ASC (Dir. Terence Malik)
9. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), shot by
Geoffrey Unsworth, BSC w/additional photography by John Alcott, BSC (Dir.
Stanley Kubrick)
10. The French Connection (1971), shot by
Owen Roizman, ASC (Dir. William Friedkin)
Titles 11–100 (in order of
release):
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| Filming a scene in Metropolis |
Metropolis (1927), shot by Karl Freund, ASC; Günther Rittau (Dir. Fritz
Lang)
Napoleon (1927), shot by Leonce-Henri Burel, Jules Kruger,
Joseph-Louis Mundwiller (Dir. Abel Gance)
Sunrise (1927), shot by Charles
Rosher Sr., ASC; Karl Struss, ASC (Dir. F.W. Murnau)
Gone with the Wind (1939), shot by Ernest
Haller, ASC (Dir. Victor Fleming)
The Wizard of Oz (1939), shot by Harold
Rosson, ASC (Dir. Victor Fleming)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940), shot by Gregg Toland, ASC (Dir. John Ford)
How Green Was My Valley (1941), shot by Arthur C. Miller, ASC (Dir. John Ford)
Casablanca (1942), shot by Arthur Edeson, ASC (Dir. Michael Curtiz)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), shot by Stanley Cortez, ASC (Dir. Orson Welles)
Black Narcissus (1947), shot by Jack Cardiff, BSC (Dir. Michael Powell)
The Bicycle Thief (1948), shot by Carlo Montuori (Dir. Vittorio de Sica)
The Red Shoes (1948), shot by Jack Cardiff, BSC (Dir. Michael Powell)
The Third Man (1949), shot by Robert Krasker, BSC (Dir. Carol Reed)
Rashomon (1950) shot by Kazuo Miyagawa (Dir. Akira Kurosawa)
Sunset Boulevard (1950), shot by John Seitz, ASC (Dir. Billy Wilder)
On the Waterfront (1954), shot by Boris
Kaufman, ASC (Dir. Eliz Kazan)
Seven Samurai (1954), shot by Asakazu Nakai (Dir. Akira Kurosawa)
The Night of the Hunter (1955), shot by Stanley Cortez, ASC (Dir. Charles Laughton)
The Searchers (1956), shot by Winton
C. Hoch, ASC (Dir. John Ford)
Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), shot by Jack Hildyard, BSC (Dir. David Lean)
Touch of Evil (1958), shot by Russell Metty, ASC (Dir. Orson Welles)
Vertigo (1958), shot by Robert Burks, ASC (Dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
North by
Northwest (1959),
shot by Robert Burks, ASC (Dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
Breathless (1960), shot by Raoul Coutard (Dir. Jean-Luc Godard)
Last Year at Marienbad (1961), shot by Sacha Vierny (Dir. Alain Resnais)
8 ½ (1963), shot by Gianni Di
Venanzo (Dir. Federico Fellini)
Hud (1963), shot by James
Wong Howe, ASC (Dir. Martin Ritt)
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| Black Narcissus |
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned
to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), shot by Gilbert
Taylor, BSC (Dir. Stanley Kubrick)
I Am Cuba (Soy Cuba; 1964),
shot by Sergei Urusevsky (Dir. Mikhail Kalatozov)
Doctor Zhivago (1965), shot by Freddie Young, BSC (Dir. David Lean)
The Battle of Algiers (1966), shot by Marcello Gatti (Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), shot by Haskell Wexler, ASC (Dir. Mike Nichols)
Cool Hand Luke (1967), shot by Conrad Hall, ASC (Dir. Stuart Rosenberg)
The Graduate (1967), shot by Robert Surtees, ASC (Dir. Mike Nichols)
In Cold Blood (1967), shot by Conrad Hall, ASC (Dir. Richard Brooks)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), shot by Tonino Delli Colli, AIC (Dir. Sergio Leone)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), shot by Conrad Hall, ASC (Dir. George Roy Hill)
The Wild Bunch (1969), shot by Lucien
Ballard, ASC (Dir. Sam Peckinpah)
A Clockwork Orange (1971), shot by John Alcott, BSC (Dir. Stanley Kubrick)
Klute (1971), shot by Gordon
Willis, ASC (Dir. Alan J. Pakula)
The Last Picture Show (1971), shot by Robert Surtees, ASC (Dir. Peter Bogdanovich)
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), shot by Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC, HSC (Dir. Robert
Altman)
Cabaret (1972), shot by Geoffery
Unsworth, BSC (Dir. Bob Fosse)
Last Tango in Paris (1972), shot by
Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC (Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci)
The Exorcist (1973), shot by Owen Roizman, ASC (Dir. William Friedkin)
Chinatown (1974), shot by John Alonzo, ASC (Dir. Roman Polanski)
The Godfather: Part II (1974), shot by Gordon Willis, ASC (Dir. Francis Ford
Coppola)
Barry Lyndon (1975), shot by John Alcott, BSC (Dir. Stanley Kubrick)
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), shot by Haskell Wexler, ASC (Dir. Milos Forman)
All the President's Men (1976), shot by Gordon Willis, ASC (Dir. Alan J. Pakula)
Taxi Driver (1976), shot by Michael Chapman, ASC (Dir. Martin Scorsese)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), shot by Vilmos
Zsigmond, ASC, HSC (Dir. Steven Spielberg)
The Duellists (1977), shot by Frank Tidy, BSC (Dir. Ridley Scott)
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| The Duellists |
Alien (1979), shot by Derek
Vanlint, CSC (Dir. Ridley Scott)
All that Jazz (1979), shot by Giuseppe Rotunno, ASC, AIC (Dir. Bob Fosse)
Being There (1979), shot by Caleb Deschanel, ASC (Dir. Hal Ashby)
The Black Stallion (1979), shot by Caleb Deschanel, ASC (Dir. Carroll Ballard)
Manhattan (1979), shot by Gordon Willis, ASC (Dir. Woody Allen)
The Shining (1980), shot by John Alcott,
BSC (Dir. Stanley Kubrick)
Chariots of Fire (1981), shot by David
Watkin, BSC (Dir. Hugh Hudson)
Das Boot (1981), shot by Jost Vacano, ASC (Dir. Wolfgang Petersen)
Reds (1981), shot by Vittorio
Storaro, ASC, AIC (Dir. Warren Beatty)
Fanny and Alexander (1982), shot by Sven Nykvist, ASC (Dir. Ingmar Bergman)
The Right Stuff (1983), shot by Caleb Deschanel, ASC (Dir. Philip Kaufman)
Amadeus (1984), shot by Miroslav Ondricek, ASC, ACK (Dir. Milos
Forman)
The Natural (1984), shot by Caleb Deschanel, ASC (Dir. Barry Levinson)
Paris, Texas (1984), shot by Robby Müller, NSC, BVK (Dir. Wim Wenders)
Brazil (1985), shot by Roger Pratt,
BSC (Dir. Terry Gilliam)
The Mission (1986), shot by Chris Menges, ASC, BSC (Dir. Roland Joffe)
Empire of the Sun (1987), shot by Allen Daviau, ASC (Dir. Steven Spielberg)
The Last Emperor (1987), shot by Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC (Dir. Bernardo
Bertolucci)
Wings of Desire (1987), shot by Henri Alekan (Dir. Wim Wenders)
Mississippi Burning (1988), shot by Peter Biziou, BSC (Dir. Alan Parker)
JFK (1991), shot by Robert
Richardson, ASC (Dir. Oliver Stone)
Raise the Red Lantern (1991), shot by Lun Yang (Dir. Zhang Yimou)
Unforgiven (1992), shot by Jack Green, ASC (Dir. Clint Eastwood)
Baraka (1992), shot by Ron Fricke (Dir. Ron Fricke)
Schindler's List (1993), shot by Janusz Kaminski (Dir. Steven Spielberg)
Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), shot by Conrad Hall, ASC (Dir. Steven Zaillian)
Trois Coulieurs: Bleu (Three Colours: Blue; 1993), shot
by Slawomir Idziak, PSC (Dir. Krzysztof Kieslwoski)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994), shot by Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC (Dir. Frank Darabont)
Seven (1995), shot by Darius Khondji,
ASC, AFC (Dir. David Fincher)
The English Patient (1996), shot by John Seale, ASC, BSC (Dir. Anthony
Minghella)
L. A. Confidential (1997), shot by Dante Spinotti, ASC, AIC (Dir. Curtis
Hanson)
Saving Private Ryan (1998), shot by Janusz Kaminski (Dir. Steven Spielberg)
The Thin Red Line (1998), shot by John Toll, ASC (Dir. Terence Malick)
American Beauty (1999), shot by Conrad Hall, ASC (Dir. Sam Mendes)
The Matrix (1999), shot by Bill Pope,
ASC (Dir. The Wachowski siblings)
In the Mood for Love (2000), shot by Christopher Doyle, HKSC (Dir. Wong Kar-wai)
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| In the Mood for Love |
Cinematography seems a perverse and difficult art to me. It
is painting in time, constrained by the whims of fate and circumstance. If
you’re ever watched anyone make a film, you realize it’s a wonder the thing gets
made at all, let alone well. It is so very easy to do it poorly — it requires,
if not a few resources, then at least a director that wants to collaborate, not
dictate. Filmmaking is a team sport.
Keeping this in mind, this is wisely a list of films, not one
of “the greatest” individual cinematographers. But if you sift the stats as if
it were a sporting competition, the clear leaders on the list are Gordon Willis
(The Godfather, Klute, The Godfather: Part II, All the President's Men, Manhattan)
and Conrad Hall (Cool Hand Luke,
In Cold Blood, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Searching for Bobby Fischer, American
Beauty) with five films each. Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now, The Conformist,
Last Tango in Paris, The Last Emperor) and Caleb Deschanel (Being There, The Black Stallion, The Right
Stuff, The Natural) follow with
four apiece.
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| Barry Lyndon |
In terms of directors whose works are cited, a quick tally
foregrounds the filmmakers whose styles (and each of them has a distinct and
imitable way of making a movie) are seen as seen as what used to be called
“painterly.” Their films are beautiful, sometimes degrading into the merely pretty.
Stanley Kubrick leads the pack with five films cited (2001: A Space Odyssey, Dr.
Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining). Second with four is Steven Spielberg (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Empire
of the Sun, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan). Three-timers are
comprised of Bernardo Bertolucci (The
Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, The Last Emperor). Orson Welles (Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons,
Touch of Evil), John Ford (The Grapes
of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, The Searchers), David Lean (Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of
Arabia, Doctor Zhivago), and Ridley Scott (The Duellists, Alien, Blade Runner).
Cinema fans think of certain directors and their directors
of photography hand-in-hand: classic match-ups such as Ingmar Bergman and Gunnar
Fischer (The Seventh Seal), then Sven
Nyquist (Fanny and Alexander), Sergei
Eisenstein and Eduard Tisse (everything from Strike to Ivan the Terrible),
Bernardo Bertolucci and Vittorio Storaro, Wim Wenders and Robby Muller, and
Jonathan Demme and Tak Fujimoto, and ongoing artistic partnerships such as
between Mike Leigh and Dick Pope, the Coen Brothers and Roger Deakins, Wes
Anderson and Robert Yeoman, Steven Spielberg and Janusz Kaminski, Guillermo del
Toro and Guillermo Navarro, Claire Denise and Agnes Godard.
Other directors went through directors of photography
prolifically: Jean Cocteau, Vincente Minelli, Josef von Sternberg, George Cukor,
Michael Curtiz, Otto Preminger, Martin Scorsese. Others just do it themselves: Robert
Rodriguez, Steven Soderbergh. The path from cinematographer to director would
seem to be a logical one, and there are a few: Ronald Neame, Zhang Yimou, Barry
Sonnenfeld, Haskell Wexler, Nicholas Roeg — but they seem to be outnumbered and
critically outgunned by the editors (David Lean, Robert Wise, Hal Ashby, John
Sturges, for example).
What else do the numbers tell us? (My subtle way of telling
you imma gonna let you know what I think they say.)
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| Apocalypse Now |
Big. Bold. Sweeping.
Movies are as close as popular
culture gets to the opera. Mainstream, non-analytical cinema aims to sweep us
up, to take us into a magical world, composed with strict attention to maintaining
internal logic that keeps us from succumbing to disbelief, that we can get lost for a while. So it’s not surprising that at least 40% of the films listed
are consciously crafted, immersive, “epic” efforts, weighted toward those who
enjoyed the advantages of a widening aspect ratio and cheaper, more responsive
color film (In 1950, Eastmancolor’s single-negative process soon supplanted
three-strip Technicolor. From 1939 to 1966, there were separate Oscar
categories for the cinematography of color and black-and-white films. After
that, shooting in black and white would be considered an aesthetic choice). If
you want to be remembered, make it big.
Where’s Billy Bitzer?
Oh, I’m a grumpy old cuss, but I
have my favorites, including D.W. Griffith’s favorite cameraman, the former
electrician Billy Bitzer (Intolerance).
I search the list in vain for Joe August (Gunga
Din), though other stalwarts such as James Wong Howe (Yankee Doodle Dandy, but gets in for Hud?), Arthur Edeson (Casablanca,
but many more as part of Warner Brothers), and Arthur C. Miller (How Green Was My Valley; a whiz for Fox)
crept onto the list. Only 24% of the films on the list were made before 1960,
my conceptual halfway point in movie history. It seems to me that a few
foundational figures, their efforts not seen as especially flashy today,
deserve a space. Names such as Charles Lang (Some Like It Hot), George Folsey (Forbidden Planet), John Alton (An
American in Paris), Floyd Crosby (High
Noon), William H. Daniels (The Naked
City), Gabriel Figueroa (The
Exterminating Angel), Freddie Francis (The
Innocents), Joe McDonald (My Darling
Clementine), Rudy Mate (The Passion
of Joan of Arc), Oswald Morris (The
Man Who Would Be King), Sol Polito (The
Adventures of Robin Hood), Eugen Schufftan (People on Sunday), and Joseph Walker (Only Angels Have Wings) all need love too.
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| Billy Bitzer at camera as D.W. Girffith. |
And of course, we all have our
little favorites. Where is Douglas Slocombe (Raiders of the Lost Ark)? Where are my French homme-ies? Armand Thirard (The
Wages of Fear), Roger Hubert (Children
of Paradise), Henri Decae (The 400
Blows)? Up there in Movie Heaven, is Laszlo Kovacs (Easy Rider) upset that Vilmos Zsigmond got three mentions and he got
none? And I know Robert Surtees is in there twice already, but couldn’t we
squeeze in his work on Ben-Hur? He
really conquered the challenges of widescreen, producing beautiful and balanced
compositions while juggling huge logistical problems and brand-new hardware.
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| Saving Privaate Ryan -- dudes filming dudes doing dude things. |
Sausage party
No women on the list. A function of
sexism (in the early film industry women were allowed to be editors, as the
idea was that putting a film together was something akin to knitting . . . but
camerawork? Never) means that the first century of films made are centered
unequivocally in the male gaze. Only time will redress that imbalance. There
are top-notch female cinematographers out there, but you have to look out for
their work and see it when you can. Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Rachel Morrison (Black Panther), Maryse Alberti (The Wrestler), and Mandy Walker (Hidden Figures) are just a few examples.
This is not to say that there is a
distinct female visual sensibility. There ain’t. (At least, not in a negative
sense. I know that when I watch any films made by my quartet of favorite female
filmmakers — Agnes Varda, Lina Wertmuller, Jane Campion, and Andrea Arnold — I
feel like I’m receiving a more complete set of data, somehow, as though the
imperatives of manly filmmaking — conflict, action, decision, assertion —
blocks out a lot.)
Does it matter if it’s real?
Once Russell Carpenter won the
Oscar in 1997 for best cinematography for his work on James Cameron’s CGI-heavy
Titanic, the race has been on. Now
that computer-generated imagery is here, it can create not only fantasy
environments (more superhero movies, anyone?) but replicate the backdrops for
historical epics and the like, previously prohibitively expensive. The
cinematographer no longer has to manipulate reality to get the look he wants —
he can create it himself. Is this a help or a hindrance?
The ASC list stops at the year
2000, and includes only one significantly digital entry, Bill Pope’s work in The Matrix (1999). So far, it looks as
though the DPs and not the production designers are still in primary charge of
the visual. Cinematographers to date are simply adding that set of digital
tools to their kits and using them with discretion. Audiences have seen enough
bad digital filmmaking to keep the filmmakers honest; there is nothing more unsettling
than these cinematic trips into uncanny valleys where everything doesn’t quite
look right.
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| The Sharknado series -- how not to use CGI. |
Moving on . . .
Other, current cinematographic
names to conjure with — Wally Pfister (Inception),
Emmanuel Lubezki (legendary work on Children
of Men), Rodrigo Prieto (Amores
Perros), Robert Elswit (There Will Be
Blood), Hoyte van Hoytema (Dunkirk),
Robbie Ryan (The Favourite). The
dedicated moviegoer will find themselves looking for these names as well when
new films emerge. We can bookmark these names and follow their work just as we
do that of our favorite actors and directors. A list like this piques interest
and gets the conversation going.
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