American Cinematographer - December 1999 - 98

A Brief History of British Cinematography

40 WEEKS

6 ■■■(5
PERFORMERS
DIRECTED
ACTORS,1
DOG)

0 FAMILY FUNCTIONS ATTENDED

VI PRODUCTIONS

4 COMPLETED

ONE PROMISING
FUTURE

Cameraman David

Watkin, BSC (right) came to the fore in the 1970s by using a soft,
naturalistic lighting approach. He has recently collaborated on several pictures with
director Sidney Lumet (left), including Night Falls on Manhattan, Gloria and Critical
Care. Watkin earned Academy, BAFTA and BSC awards for Out of Africa, as well as
BAFTA nominations for Chariots of Fire, The Three Muskateers, Catch-22 and Help!.

'50s, when

documentary-trained

cameramen were

opportunity to shoot the occasional
feature. In 1951, Wolfgang Suschitzky,
BSC photographed No Resting Place
entirely on location in Ireland, in a
style reminiscent of the Italian neo¬
realists. Three years later, Oswald
Morris photographed Knave of
Hearts for French

production included
sequences shot on the busy streets of

school

FILM
*

a

handheld Arriflex

The immediacy of this tech¬
nique allowed the physical environ¬
ment to function as a player in the
drama rather than a flat backdrop.
Gilbert Taylor, BSC had also devel¬
oped a more naturalistic approach to
lighting on a range of low-key
contemporary dramas directed by J.
Lee Thompson, eschewing the
dramatic and glossy high-contrast

camera.

film

Film

director Rene

Clement. This
London with

Vancouver

afforded their first

Classical Animation

look of the 1940s in favor of a flatter,

3D Animation

*

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diffused

style of lighting.
breakthrough

The real

Acting for Film & Television
in

came

the

Back in
but

Anger and The Entertainer,
been blocked by his

had

financiers. The

success

of these

pictures (and of Saturday Night and
Sunday Morning, which Richardson
produced), gave him greater power.
On A Taste of Honey, Lassally
used fast Ilford film stock and light¬
weight Arriflex cameras to achieve a
poetic intimacy that was fresh and
exhilarating. The equipment also
allowed him

to

shoot

as

much

as

possible at real locations using avail¬
able light, ensuring a sustained natu¬
ralism only briefly glimpsed in
previous films. Lassally adopted a
similar approach to Richardson's
adaptation of Henry Fielding's 18thcentury novel Tom Jones. Despite the
period setting, the camerawork was
thoroughly modern. In addition to
his trademark freewheeling style,
Lassally also used a diffusion filter to
give the colors a vaguely pastel qual¬
ity. The following year, he earned an
Oscar for his work

on

the Michael

early 1960s, with Walter
Lassally, BSC's cinematography on
films such as A Taste of Honey and
The Loneliness of the Long Distance
Runner. Director Tony Richardson,
who had worked with Lassally on

Cacoyanis film Zorba the Greek, in
recognition of his revolutionary
approach to cinematography. In
moving from documentary work to
feature films, Lassally paved the way

documentaries, had wanted him to
shoot his first two feature films, Look

down the

for others

follow, helping to break
rigid demarcation that still
to

existed until the end of the '50s.
American Cinematographer - December 1999

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