cameraman: the life and work of jack cardiff

Jack Cardiff on giving autographs at the 1998 Cannes film festival: "They must be wondering who is this guy? I told them I used to be a stand-in for Humphrey Bogart."

In the documentary film Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff, made when he was 91, Cardiff is proud of his many accomplishments, but somehow manages to stay modest. And he has so much to be proud of. He was one of the first camera operators in Europe to be trained in the Technicolor process, after he impressed Technicolor with his knowledge and his love of chiaroscuro, color, and light in painting. He worked on the first color film shot in Europe, as he was the only one trained in Technicolor photography at the time. Martin Scorsese, Charlton Heston, Kim Hunter, Michael Powell, Lauren Bacall, and Kirk Douglas are among the many actors and filmmakers who talk to director Craig McCall about working with Cardiff.

The child of actors, he had started as a child actor in 1918 at the age of four. As a young man he moved behind the camera, as first a "runner boy" (gofer), then a clapper boy, and eventually a camera operator, in 1936, on As You Like It, starring Laurence Olivier. He worked with all of the greats and wasn't afraid to learn from them:

"[Marlene] Dietrich put gold dust in her hair ... she would have made a great cameraman ... she was in charge of the lighting."

He didn't restrict his work to studio films, however, but also made color travel films, traveling all over the world, to India, Egypt, and even filmed an erupting Mount Vesuvius. His first feature film and big break as a director of photography came from director/producer Michael Powell, with his fantasy film A Matter of Life and Death (also known as Stairway to Heaven), starring David Niven, Raymond Massey, and Kim Hunter.

Moira Shearer in The Red Shoes

Ava Gardner, a goddess, in Pandora and the Flying Dutchman

Marilyn Monroe, in a "Renoir hat"

This led to his work on films like Powell's Black Narcissus, which, incredibly, was all shot at Pinewood Studios, despite its open vistas — all special effects done by Cardiff and his crew. He tells McCall that he was thinking of the painter Johannes Vermeer when he was lighting and shooting the film. He worked again with Powell on The Red Shoes. Scorsese sheds some insight into the film and how he was inspired to use some of Cardiff's techniques in his own films, including Raging Bull. Cardiff's love of painting comes through loud and clear throughout the 90-minute documentary, "If Turner was alive today he'd be the best cameraman that ever lived ... I learned a lot from Turner."

In many of his 1950s films he worked out innovative techniques to achieve what a director wanted. On Alfred Hitchcock's Under Capricorn they worked out the first camera running on tracks, running through different rooms, without stopping, for ten minute (or even longer) takes.

Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff also includes clips from his 16mm home movies — Sophia Loren and John Wayne during the filming of Legend of the Lost, Bogie and Hepburn on the set of The African Queen. Cardiff would also, during the lunch break on a film, take wonderful still photographs of actresses — Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, Janet Leigh, Anita Ekberg, and Marilyn Monroe. There is a extra on the DVD with a more detailed feature on his actress still photographs which includes an entertaining anecdote from when he was working with Marilyn Monroe during the filming of The Prince and the Showgirl in London. They made a date to get together on one of their days off, and he went to see her at the house where she was staying with newlywed husband Arthur Miller. He arrived at 9:30 a.m., the time of their appointment, but husband Miller informed him she was still sleeping. They had tea, played tennis, and she finally showed up at 6:30 in the evening. He had a half hour to photograph her in "Renoir hats" — he always thought she had a Renoir face.

The documentary includes some great clips from his most well-known movies as well as behind-the-scenes images, including The Vikings, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, The African Queen, and The Barefoot Contessa. He tried his hand at directing in the 1970s and his film Sons and Lovers won an Oscar for cinematography — Freddie Francis was his cinematographer on the film. He went back to cinematography in the late 70s, early 80s, working n a wide range of projects, including Death on the Nile, Rambo First Blood Part II, The Far Pavilions, and Conan the Destroyer.

The movies had changed, and he would no longer create effects as he did on The Red Shoes. Modern films would add all the special effects later. But he doesn't live in the past or feel that things are worse, "The standard of [film] photography has improved enormously." Cardiff had an amazing career. He was the first cinematographer to receive an honorary Oscar in 2001. After viewing Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff  it is impossible not to want to check out his wonderful work. I've never seen Black Narcissus, and I think it's about time that I did.

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catching an old classic — pandora and the flying dutchman

TCM recently ran an oddball classic, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, from 1951. I'm so glad that I was able to catch this strange, wonderful movie. It starred Ava Gardner at the height of her beauty as femme fatale Pandora Reynolds and James Mason, looking pretty damn beautiful himself, as Hendrik van der Zee, the legendary Flying Dutchman.

The movie had so many elements — love story, mythology, art film. Hendrik is the Flying Dutchman, a  17th c. sailor who has been cursed to roam the oceans until the end of the world. The only thing that will free him from his fate is meeting a woman willing to die for him. Pandora is the archetypal "bad woman." Every man she meets falls hopelessly in love with her, but she can care for no one. Men even die for her and she could care less. She is like the fabled Siren, craving the danger and destruction of the men she lures into her sights. Her two latest conquests leading lives of danger are race car driver Stephen Cameron (Nigel Patrick) and bullfighter Juan Montalvo (played by real-life matador Mario Cabré). Neither man is thrilled that Hendrik is also on the scene and that Pandora finds him fascinating.

The movie dives immediately and unapologetically into the supernatural when Pandora first meets Hendrick, who is on his boat painting her portrait. They've never met before (and she doesn't know that his past love was her doppelganger and the reason behind his curse — he murdered her, mistakingly believing that she was unfaithful, and denounced God, bringing the curse upon him.) Pandora and Hendrik form an instant (eternal) bond. They resist each other as long as possible, but mythic love stories can only have one ending, which is basically revealed in the film's first shot, as two drowned bodies, of a man and a woman, with hands clasped, are found in Spanish fishermen's nets.

The movie is luscious to look at, with the colors green and red everywhere. Bold compositions including classical statues and architecture and the drama of the bullring add to the overall beauty of the film. The movie is completely over-the-top, but somehow manages to avoid becoming campy. Helping in that regard is the fact that it was beautifully filmed by cinematographer Jack Cardiff, who is also famous for such films as The Red Shoes (1948), The African Queen (1951), and The Barefoot Contessa (1954). Director Albert Lewin, who in his long Hollywood career was also a producer, scriptwriter and worked with Samuel Goldwyn and Irving Thalberg, also directed The Moon and Sixpence (1942) and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945).

Pandora and the Flying Dutchman is definitely a curiosity. It's probably not a great movie, but it's a lot of fun to watch. They don't make movies like this anymore. A character like Pandora seems impossible today. She is not just beautiful but strong, with the entire world of the movie whirling around her. She is also frequently unsympathetic. And she doesn't have to wield a gun or fight (or hide from) enormous CGI robots. Can an actress in current movies even play a femme fatale? Even if some scriptwriter was brave enough to write such a part for a woman today, there are few who could convince the audience, as Ava Gardner does in Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, that "goddess" is a suitable description.