Synopsis
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.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Jack CardiffSelf
- Martin ScorseseSelf – Interviewee
- Kirk DouglasSelf – Interviewee
- Lauren BacallSelf – Interviewee
- Charlton HestonSelf – Interviewee
- Kim HunterSelf – Interviewee
- John MillsSelf – Interviewee
- Alan ParkerSelf – Interviewee
- Thelma SchoonmakerSelf – Interviewee
- Freddie FrancisSelf – Interviewee
Recommendations
- 80
Time Out
Fantastical is what we get: Cameraman is filled with Cardiff's achingly beautiful work. - 75
The A.V. Club
Director Craig McCall approaches Cardiff with something approaching awe, though his subject views his accomplishments with the good-natured humility befitting a proper English gentleman. - 75
New York Post
Legendary is an overworked adjective, but surely it applies to Jack Cardiff, the British cinematographer whose awe-inspiring resume includes some of the most beautiful Technicolor films ever shot, among them "The Red Shoes," "Black Narcissus" and "Stairway to Heaven." - 75
Boston Globe
The movie clips are luscious, as you'd expect, and Cardiff's own "home movies," shot on various movie sets with a 16mm camera, catch the gods during downtime. - 75
San Francisco Chronicle
In Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff, we learn about the visionary filmmaker through his body of work and insightful interviews with such luminaries as Martin Scorsese and Kirk Douglas as well as Cardiff himself. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
Informative and insightful for films buffs without sacrificing accessibility to the casual fan, "Cameraman" is essential viewing for anyone interested in film history. - 70
Village Voice
Director Alan Parker (still living) nicely describes the tightrope teeter of Cardiff's hothouse imagery: "It's great art, and then it will be kitsch, and then it will be art again." Or is he summing up cinema itself? - 70
The New York Times
Interviews with Martin Scorsese, Lauren Bacall, Kim Hunter and the film editor Thelma Schoonmaker, Powell's widow, among others, are fascinating, though we learn almost nothing about Cardiff's personal life.
