Cameraman: The Life
and Work of Jack Cardiff
Director: Craig McCall
Year: 2010
Rating: 7.0
Some years ago, I watched Black Narcissus and
was astounded by the color cinematography. The deep resonant colors, the
play between light and dark, the simple beauty of it was a feast for the
eyes. I went home and looked up the cinematographer and was amazed to see
that he had also been behind the camera for The Red Shoes and Stairway to
Heaven (aka A Matter of Life and Death). Those were his first three films
in that position and all for the great Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
Not a bad start for Jack Cardiff. He is considered by many to be the greatest
Technicolor cinematographer of all time. Not all of the films were great
but they looked great - especially during the glorious years of technicolor
in the 50s and 60's. Lots of adventure films such as The Black Rose, Pandora
and the Flying Dutchman, The African Queen, The Vikings and Legend of the
Lost. Marilyn Monroe and other actresses specifically asked for him - Ava
Gardner, Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren. But perhaps most impressive is that
decades later he filmed Rambo II and Conan the Destroyer. A slight difference
from The Red Shoes.
This is a fine documentary strengthened
by the fact it was made a year after he passed away in 2009. But they interviewed
him before he did. And he was able to talk about all his films with amusing
incidents and stories about some of the personalities. I liked the story
about Marlene Dietrich on Knight with No Armour. In the film she takes a
bubble bath and everyone was expecting her to come with a bathing suit on.
She drops the towel and is completely naked. Soon the studio was full of
staff pretending that they had things to do. When she gets out of the bath,
she slips on the floor and falls down and is unable to get up. Still naked.
Wonder where that film is today. The documentary is about film as much as
it is about Cardiff. Lots of clips and talking heads - Scorsese, Bacall,
Kim Hunter, Charleton Heston. At the very beginning of the film, he is in
his studio pointing out his portraits of the actresses he has worked for
- followed by dead, dead, dead. They are all gone. But we still have their
movies when they were beautiful.
