Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff (2010)
In 2001 Jack Cardiff (1914-2009) became the first director of photography in the history of the Academy Awards to win an Honorary Oscar. But the first time he clasped the famous statuette in his hand was a half-century earlier when his Technicolor camerawork was awarded for Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus. Beyond John Huston's The African Queen and King Vidor's War and Peace, the films of the British-Hungarian creative duo (The Red Shoes and A Matter of Life and Death too) guaranteed immortality for the renowned cameraman whose career spanned seventy years.
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A brilliant film that helped define a genre
There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.
This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama
For all the film buffs and film historians, this movie is a testament on cinematography. I say this precisely because it covers many years of films. From 1930's to 1990's and beyond, it shows an array of history of cinema itself.Actually titled as CAMERAMAN - THE LIFE AND WORK OF JACK CARDIFF, I put the title as simply CAMERAMAN. Jack Cardiff, is considered by many as the greatest cinematographer ever and this film, which is a documentary shows us glimpses of the work of Jack Cardiff and why is he essentially considered as great by many. Sprinkled with interviews from, Martin Scorsese, Kirk Douglas and many many varied film personalities, this documentary shows us scenes from various films. Most of the scenes are actually known to us, and here we see the work that went to make that scene. There is wonderful information in this film and also, the humility of the great man is presented wonderfully, in his own words, he seems to be lost and unrecognized for much of the time. He mentions, that in premieres, people would ask "Who's that?" and they will say "Oh, he's nobody" Many moments like this give us insights into this great man and his body of work. This is a documentary that should be watched by film buffs. Also, did I mention that he is first cinematographer to have been given an honorary Academy award. So, boy how he did all of that is worth knowing. A 4/5 for this wonderful documentary by Craig McCall. I am told, it took nearly two decades to complete this. Salute to the sheer amount of effort kept by Craig and his team.
The cinematographer Jack Cardiff might not be that well known. but he worked as director pf photography on some seminal productions, notably for Powell and Pressburger in the late 1940s. The visual style of THE RED SHOES (1948) and BLACK NARCISSUS (1947) is chiefly down to Cardiff's brilliant photography, allied to Powell's imagination. Cardiff began his career in the 1930s working on quota quickies in the British film industry, and was still working in 2007-8, when much of this documentary was filmed. In between he worked on other seminal productions, notably THE African QUEEN (1951), THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA (1954), and THE VIKINGS (1957). Cardiff comes across as a modest person with a highly developed visual intelligence. The documentary also contains reminiscences from stars who are no longer with us, such as Sir John Mills, and Kathleen Byron, as well as such luminaries as Scorsese. Definitely worth a look for anyone interested in photography in the pre-digital era.
Made shortly before his death Cameraman: the life and work of Jack Cardiff is an excellent bio on Cardiff and due to his long career the history of color film as well. Working into his nineties the highly lucid and spry octogenarian covers a lot of ground with emphasis on his collaboration with the the team of Powell and Pressburger at Archer studios which produced two of the finest color works in film history Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes. There of course were decades of others that also shined from Archer and beyond with The African Queen, Pandora and the Flyiong Dutchman, War and Peace and The Vikings and Cameraman shows healthy snippets from each.Amiable and self effacing Cardiff himself makes for a wonderful guide mixing anecdotes and methods free of ego and judgment. This doc is a must for film historians as well as anyone that has ever been under the spell of celluloid magic.
Jack Cardiff was an amazing man who had a wonderful life. He started in show-business as a child actor in a touring show working with his parents. He was still working right up until the last of his 94 years. In that time he had worked with most of the great names in the business and earned their respect and admiration.This documentary covers most of his working life with lots of examples from clips or stills and interviews with the great man himself as well as many of those whose lives he touched. The documentary was many years in the making and was fortunate enough to interview a lot of the people that Jack worked with who are no longer with us.It's not often that a feature length documentary leaves you wanting more, but this one does.When Jack discovered the world of movies as a child actor in some early silent films he decided that being a cameraman was the best job going because they got to travel to such exotic locations. He was mainly self-educated because the life of a touring theatrical didn't allow much time at any one school. But that self-education included study of the old masters in art galleries wherever he went. So when he started working as a cameraman he was able to bring his knowledge of lighting and composition.