 Cinematographers
I was watching a Blu-ray double bill of The African Queen and The French Connection last night when it occurred to me, great directors that John Huston and William Friedkin are, these films would not be the Oscar-winning masterpieces they are without their cinematographers: Jack Cardiff and Owen Roizman, respectively.
Now, both films are extremely different with The African Queen made in 1951 and The French Connection being a much more recent, though now quite old, film, released in 1971. Jack Cardiff is quite rightly regarded as one of the greatest cinematographers who ever lived and who, I believe, had a say in the lengthy restoration process that The African Queen underwent. Owen Roizman is not quite as celebrated but his extraordinary work on The French Connection, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Network and The Exorcist made his relatively short career an extremely important one.
Now, back to the two Blu-ray Discs. The African Queen has a quite superlative picture which is a marked step up from the DVD and one which the late Jack Cardiff would no doubt approve. The French Connection, on the other hand, was unusual as the supervision of the colour and contrast aspect of its encoding was not supervised by Owen Roizman, but by William Friedkin. It is a long-standing tradition that the cinematographer/director of photography supervises the visual aspects of a film's release on DVD/BD as they shot the film, supervised the lighting, framing and other elements of the film shoot so know how the film looked at the time and how it should appear when viewed in someone's home.
Whilst The African Queen is faithful to its appearance on DVD, albeit with much greater definition, more vibrant and solid colours and better black levels, The French Connection is a different affair altogether. With William Friedkin overseeing the process, the film's washed out and rather grimy appearance has disappeared, with the HD picture featuring extremely bright colours, all this to the dismay and anger of Owen Roizman who is adamant the film never looked that way and he never intended to film it that way.
Although I have the greatest respect for William Friedkin as a filmmaker, I really feel that he dropped the ball on this film, which won six Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director (Owen Roizman lost out to Oswald Morris for Fiddler on the Roof). There has been much debate on these forums about Vittorio Storaro and his creation of the 2.00:1 ratio, which was the way Apocalypse Now has always been shown on DVD and the aspect ratio which Arrow Video's release of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage will be presented.
At the 2011 Oscars, I predicted a win for Roger Deakins to his incredible work on the Coen Brothers’ True Grit but wasn't particularly surprised when he lost out to Wally Pfister for his remarkable photography on Inception.
Anyway, all that being said, which cinematographers’ work do you really like, dislike with a passion and which directors wouldn't be the same wouldn't be the same without a great director of photography?
I'm going to go out on a limb and vote for Lucio Fulci because of the brilliant work by Sergio Salvati, the man who shot such films as The House by the Cemetery, City of the Living Dead, The Beyond, The Black Cat and Zombie Flesh Eaters for Fulci. They clearly had a great working relationship and I don't think Salvati would have been the same without Fulci and Fulci wouldn't have been the same without Salvati. Any other nominations?
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