Chichester Cinema at New Park
Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff
A fascinating portrait of the late Jack Cardiff, the brilliant British D.O.P whose work spans 70 years of film-making.
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.
More than a decade in the making, this documentary portrait of the Technicolor master (who died last year) is composed of intriguing interviews with Cardiff himself, as well as with his colleagues and admirers (Martin Scorsese, Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, Thelma Schoonmaker, and Richard Fleischer, among many others). The amazing story of the legendary cameraman’s life and work is rounded out with numerous clips from movies that today would not be half so famous without Cardiff’s eye and creative inventiveness.
We are delighted to welcome the director Craig McCall and also hope to welcome Jack Cardif’s son Mason Cardiff (depending on work commitments) to introduce the film followed by a Q&A after the screening.
NB. We are screening Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (D.O.P Jack Cardiff) after this documentary.
UK · 2010 · Craig McCall · 85min
