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Jack Cardiff

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Jack Cardiff
Jack Cardiff, film-maker

Jack Cardiff (born 18 September 1914) is an Academy Award-winning British cinematographer, director and photographer.

His career spans the development of cinema, from silent film, through early experiments in Technicolor (and, less successfully, Smell-o-vision), to filmmaking in the 21st century. He is best known for his influential cinematography for directors such as Powell, Huston and Hitchcock.

In 2000 he was awarded an OBE. In 2001 he was awarded an Honorary Oscar for his contribution to the cinema.

Born in Yarmouth, Norfolk, Cardiff's parents were music hall entertainers. He worked as an actor from an early age, both in the music hall and in a number of silent films: My Son, My Son (1918), Billy's Rose (1922), The Loves of Mary, Queen of Scots (1923) and Tiptoes (1927). At 15 he began working as a camera assistant, clapper boy and production runner for British International Pictures, including Hitchcock's The Skin Game (1931).

Cinematography

In 1935 Cardiff graduated to camera operator and occasional cinematographer, working mostly for London Films. He was the first to shoot a film in the UK in Technicolor: Wings of the Morning (1937). When the war began he worked as a cinematographer on public information films.

The turning point in his career was as a 2nd unit cameraman on Powell & Pressburger's The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943); they were impressed enough to hire Cardiff as cinematographer on their post-war Technicolor masterpiece A Matter of Life and Death (1946). Their collaboration continued with Black Narcissus (1947), which won Cardiff an Oscar and a Golden Globe, and The Red Shoes (1948). These films put Cardiff's talents in high demand, and a string of big-budget films followed. After concentrating on direction in the 1960s, he returned to cinematography in the 1970s and 1980s.

Notable films as cinematographer include:

Directorial work

In the late 1950s Cardiff began to direct, with two modest successes in Intent to Kill (1958) and Beyond This Place (1959). In 1960 his adaptation of D. H. Lawrence's novel Sons and Lovers, starring Trevor Howard, Wendy Hiller and Dean Stockwell, was a successful hit. It earned seven Oscar nominations and won Freddie Francis Best Black-and-White Cinematography. Cardiff received a Golden Globe for direction.

After the high water mark of Sons and Lovers, he directed a unusual mix of films, including:

References

  • Cardiff's autobiography Magic Hour (ISBN 0-571-19274-2)
  • Conversations with Jack Cardiff: Art, Light and Direction in Cinema by Justin Bowyer (ISBN 0-7134-8855-7)
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