AIC, 1988 - AIC Associazione Italiana Autori della Fotografia ...

AIC
movie era, written by some of its pioneers:
D.W. Griffith's ingenious partner, Billy Bitter,
tell us how "Intolerance" (19)5-16) was
conceived; H. Lyman Broening, the creator of
Mary Pickford's "look", recalls what an adventure
film-making was in 1910 and how
little inventions were thought up daily to
improve the first cameras.
Other people recount more recent events:
Ray Rennahan writes about his experiences as
cameraman on the film "Toll of the Sea"
(1922), the first film shot in two-colour
Technicolor, "La Cucaracha" (1934), the first
full-length feature film in three-colour technicolor
and "Wings of the Morning" (1937), the
first colour film shot in the U.K. Willis
O'Brien, inventor of many of the early special
effects techniques, tells us how he constructed
the animated models used in "King Kong".
Finally, cinematographers like Clyde De Vinna,
Tony Gaudio, Hal Mohr, Curt Courant,
and Virgil E. Millerdescribe themany innovations
that helped to create the big American
productions of the Thirties.
"FIVE AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAP-
HERS" by Scott Eyman, Scarecrow Press
(P.O. Box 4167, Metuchen, New Jersey
08840, U.S.A.) 1987, 201 pp., with illustrations.
The author has gathered together interviews
with five of the great American Directors
of Photography, accompanying each one
with a film biography. Karl Struts, recalls
some of the major highlights of a career that
spanned forty years (126films!): the filming of
"Sunrise" (1927), directed by Friedrich Murnau,
working with the Mary Pickford-
Douglas Fairbanks duo, and with Chaplin on
"The Great Dictator" (1940) and "Limelight"
(1952). Joseph Ruttenberg, winner of four
Oscars, re-explores the Thirties and Forties —
. the Golden Years at Metro Goldwyn Mayer —
during which he created the opulent style
which was the trademark of the films directed
by George Cukor, Victor Fleming and Vincent
Minelli. "1 don't regret having spent all those
years working for M.G.M. Everyone had their
Studios — and M.G.M. was mine" was his
comment. James Wong Howe, Chinese by
birth, recounts some amusing anectodes about
his experiences from the Twenties through to
the Sixties, confirming his reputation as a
pioneer of new techniques. Linwood Dunn, a
special optical effects wizard, explains how he
achieved the effects which made a fundamental
cintribution to "Citizen Kane" (1941), "A
Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" (1963), "Taxi
Driver" (1976) and "The Bible" (1966).
Last but not least, William H. Cbthier
recounts some of his filming adventures in the
wide, open spaces of the prairies together with
John Ford, William Well :mann, Michael Curtiz,
Raoul Walsh and Howard Hawks, creators
of the great frontier myths.
"HUNGARIAN C1NEMATOGRAPHERS"
Mafilm (Section of Cinematography, Lumumba
utca 174, H-1445 Budapest, Hungary)
1988, 90 pp., with illustrations.
Recognizing the high standards achieved by
their Directors of Photoghraphy, the Hungarian
State Cinema has published this very
useful "dictionary", which lists forty or so of
their Directors of Photography in alphabetical
order, and gives a film biography of each of
them in English. Many of them, in fact, are
already known to us for their own special
talent in the field: JaTnos Kende (MikloTs
JancsoT's right-hand) for his all-encompassing
masters: Lajos Koltai for his neoexpressionistic
use of colour; which can be
admired in the films directed by PeTter GothaTr
and IstvaTn SzaTbo; Ferenc Pap for his neorealistic
dynamism, expressed in the films
directed by PaTl Eross; JaTnos ToTth for his
baroque compositions created for the films
directed by KaTroly Makk. It is interesting to
note how, incredibly active the sons of the
famous, like MikloTs JancsoT Jr. (son of the
famous director MikloTs JancsoT, and the equally
famous, Marta MeTszaTros) are already. Abo
how often the Directors of Photography move
on the become Directors, like SaTndor SaTra, but
who aren't too proud to return to their original
profession should it be required of them. In
short, this "dictionary" with its film biographies
explains just some of the reasons why the
Hungarian Cinema continues to excel, even
though its annual production is relatively low.
One also has to remember that talents like
Vilmos Zsigmond and Laszlo Kovacs left
Hungary during the years of political unrest.
"LA F1EVRE D'UN TORNAGE, 37°2
LE MATIN" by Jean-Frangois Robin. Librairie
Séguier, Paris (no address given), 1987, 86
"Il colonnello Red" di Lajos Koltai
pp., with illustrations.
"What actually remains of our work, once a
film is finished!" the director, Jean-Jacques
Beineix, asks himself in the introduction to
this book. In answer to this age-old question,
Jean-Frangois Robin, the Director of Photography
on "37°2 Le Matin" (1985), directed
by Beineix, has published the delightful diary
he kept while were working on it. The film, an
intense psychological drama, was extraordinarily
successful in France (in Italy and abroad it
was released under the title: "BETTY
BLUE"). Robin, who has also worked with
Alain Cavalier, Alain Tanner, and Andrei
Zulawski, not only gives us the low down on
the problems they experienced during the
preparatory phase, the "recces" and the first
days of shooting, describes all the confusion on
the set, and the actors' tantrums, but also tells
us about all the technical details that had to
be worked out regarding the relationship
between set, lighting and colour, right up Until
the moment they anxiously sat down to watch
the day's rushes. If only more people would
keep a diary when thay worked on a film!
"ITINERANT CAMERAMAN" by Walter
Lassalh. John Murray Publishers (50
Albemarle Street, London WLX 4BD, U.K.),
1987,258 pp., with illustrations.
An unusual autobiography in that it is
written by a Director of Photography who is
still a long way from retiring, and still
"itinerant", as the title suggest, travelling
from continent to continent. In these memoirs,
which communicate the tremendous enthusiasm
he has for his work, Walter Lassally,
bom in Berlin in 1926, recalls how he had to
flee to Englandjust before war broke out, but
how it only took him a few years to raise his
status from D.P. (Displaced Persone) to D.P.
(Director of Photography)! Then, after various
experiences in the documentary field, he worked
alonside Lindsay Anderson, to become one
of the major creative forces behind the British
Free Cinema movement of the Late Fifties. He
photographed "Wa Are the Lambeth Boys"
(1958), directed by Anderson, the, three
decidely innovative films directed and produced
by Tony Richardson for his company
WOOFALL: "A Taste of Honey" (1961),
"The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner"
(1962) and "Tom Jones" (1962) which won
so many awards!
Instead of resting on his laurels, Lassally
began his adventures in other countries, starting
with Greece where he worked with
Michael Cacoyannis and other directors; ho-
wever, he often went to the United States,
West Germany, India and Africa, to mostly
work on low budget films which offered him
considerable creative freedom (he often shoots
in 16 m/m or for T.V.) and the hundreds of
people he has met on his travels — one of the
most important being fellow "itinerant", James
Ivory, with whom he has established a
very productive and long-lasting work relationship
— make this autobiography read like a
Conrad novel!
"COLOR. DIE FARBEN DES FILMS"
by Gert Koshofer. Spiess, Haude & Spener
(Postdamer Strasse 199, 1000 Berlin 30,
West Gemany) 1988, 173 pp., with illustrations.
Published to accompany the vast retrospective
exhibition dedicated to the developments
in the use of colour in the Cinema, and
prepared by the organizers of the las'. Berlin
Film Festival, this superb "album" provides a
great deal of information, and also reflects at
length, on those same developements. It is
abundantly illustrated with colour photographs,
for the most part printed directly from
single photograms so that the nuances of
colour, luminosity and grain of the different
types of film are visible. In his historical
"excursus", Gert Koshofer points out characteristics
of the various processes and techniques,
from the French Pathecolcr used in
1910, the Lumière Cinécobr and Kodachrome
of the twenties, the German Gasparcolor of
the Thirties, to the complicated adventures
uith Technicolor, Eastman Color and Agfacolor.
The "album" is completed by a summary
of the main developments in chronological
order, and a useful glossary listing the various
types of film and technical terms used in
connection with colour.
"WRITERS AND PRODUCTION AR-
TISTS. THE INTERNATIONAL DICTIO-
NARY OF FILMS AND FILM-MAKERS:
VOLUME IV" compiled by James Vinson,
Greg S. Failer, St. James' Press (3 Percy Street,
London WIP 9FA, U.K.) 1987,484 pp.
In this fourth volume of the "INTERNA-
TIONAL DICTIONARY OF FILMS AND
FILM-MAKERS", which follows "FILMS"
(Vol 1), "DIRECTORS AND FILM-
MAKERS" (Vol II) and "ACTORS AND
ACTRESSES" (Vol. Ill), and precedes a monumental
fifth volume (in which an index of all
titles listed in the 2.000 pages of the complete
encyclopedia is incorporated) the editorial
staff comprised of cinétia experts from various
countries, offer us a guide to the most important
Directors of Photography, Scriptwriters,
Set Designers, Producers, Animators, Special
Effects men and Composer in the film world.
Many Italian are listed, among whom are Age
and Scarpelli, Bruno Bozzetto, Franco Cristaldi,
Suso Cecchi D Amico, Dino De Laurentiis,
Tonino Delli Colli, Gianni Di Venanzo, Pino
Donaggio, Danilo Donati, Ennio Flaiano,
Piero Gherardi, Tonino Guerra, Ennio Morricone,
Carlo Ponti, Vittorio Storaro and Cesare
Zavattini. What sets this "dictionary" apart
from the rest, is that for each person there is a
brief biography, complete film bibliography
and, finally, a signed, and detailed, critical
analysis. While more monumental encyclopedic
works have already been dedicated to
Directors, Actors and even films, I think, if I
am not mistaken, that this is the first attempt
to "catalogue" the work of the entire group of
production artists (apart from the Italian
"FILMLEXICON" which need bringing up
to date and re-doing).
"MASTERS OF STARLIGHT. PHOTO-
GRAPHERS IN HOLLYWOOD" edited by
David Fahey and Linda Rich. Los Angeles
Country Museum of Art (5905 Wilshire
Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90036,
US.A) 1987, 287 pp., uith illustrations.
An enormous exhibition, dedicated to the
still photographers and portrait artists who
worked in the various Hollywood studios, is
currently doing the rounds of the museums in
America, and this admirable catalogue which
accompanies it examines the work of fortyfour
photographers who worked in Hollywood
from the time it was founded, right up to the
Seventies. The editors provide a short biography
and discuss the multiple activities of the
photographers (many of whom have either
been forgotten or become a part of history)
accompanying this with pertinent photographs,
all of which have been printed directly
either from the negative or original plate, thus
obtaining the tones and colours of the particular
period. In this way, we discover that the
famous ethnologist, Edward S. Curtis, took
the photographs (some of them handcolouredjfor
the Cecil B. De Mille epics; that
Karl Struss prior to becoming one of the great
Directors of Photography, worked as a still
photographer on a number of silent films, and
then on "BEN HUR" (1924) which was shot
in Rome; that Eliot Elisofon also worked as a
special consultant to John Huston on "Moulin
Rouge" (1952) to help him achieve a Lautrec
feel in the images; and also that many of the
photographers actually had a direct influence
on the photography in many Hollywood
films.
The exhibition and catalogue were coordinated
by the Hollywood Photographers Archives,
an association founded some years ago
uith the aim of studying, ccmsening and
exhibiting the incomparable work of these
Hollywood photographers.