It's not just the directors
that are responsible for
all the pretty pictures
on the silver screen.
There's an entirely different artist
in charge of getting the right light
through the right lens
to make the images pop.
These are our picks for
the top ten cinematographers of all time.
(Music)
In the beginning there
was no cinematographer.
Wasn't the role, wasn't the word,
wasn't the need.
Lighting came in one flavor
as much as possible, and
camerawork involved setting,
pointing and cranking.
And so the first important
cinematographers were also directors,
the "Lumiere Brothers",
"Georges Melies", "Edwin S Porter".
But as the century turned,
things began to change.
Shots began to emerge,
artificial lighting was invented and
thus the cinematographer was born.
And the best were the likes of
"Karl Struss", "Charles Rosher",
"George Barnes" and "Ernest Palmer".
However if there's one cinematographer
who looms larger than life in cinema's
infancy, it's non other
than "Billy Bitzer".
- And one day they were having lunch,
and someone didn't bring an old red
tablecloth, they brought a white one, and
as the sun moved through lunch above them.
"Griffith" called to "Billy Bitzer" and
said "Billy" come over here,
look at this,
look at their eyes look at their faces.
He said, why yes,
that's a reflected light, and
that was the beginning of
the use of reflectors.
- Gottfried Wilhelm Bitzer has
a mind boggling 1,255 credits as
a cinematography, but none more important
than his collaboration with "DW Griffith".
Where on films like 'Birth of
a Nation' and 'Intolerance',
he was part of the innovation of close
ups, fade outs, iris ins, diffusion,
reflectors, artificial only light,
and even back lighting.
Foundational aesthetic elements of cinema
that are still with us to this day.
In Bitzer's hands, for
the very first time, the camera lens and
the lighting of the scene were not
just functional, but expressive,
making him one of the first
true cinematographers.
(Sound) Fast forward a few decades and
cinema has established itself as not
only a viable art form, but
a wildly lucrative venture.
Business is booming.
Movies are being made at a record pace.
Studios more resemble an assembly
line than a creative space.
It is Hollywood's golden age.
The stars nearly glisten,
the lighting is soft and flattering.
The sets are beautiful and well lit.
Cameras are lighter and
have started to really move.
Cinematographers like "Lee Garmes,"
"Charles Lang," and especially "James
Wong Howe," shaped the black and white
films of the 20s, 30s, and early 40s.
But none had quite so dramatic an effect
as our number nine pick, "Gregg Toland".
- He did seem to have an eye for
things, and also he's very creative.
I mean, for instance we much later
started doing filming with candlelight,
for instance, or a match, and
he already did it in 'Grapes of Wrath'.
- "Toland's" legacy is one of not just
embracing technological change, but
of wielding it as a weapon at the razor's
edge of the Hollywood aesthetic.
Cinematographer on such stunning films as
'Les Miserables', 'Wuthering Heights', and
'The Grapes of Wrath,' "Toland" axed
soft fill lights in favor of deep,
black shadows.
He arranged complex frames and
dramatic tableaus.
And he combined brighter lights with
faster film stocks to stop down his lens
and trade the single, plain,
shallow-focused images of yesteryear for
tack sharp dioramas that
extend deep into the screen.
In 1941 he teamed up with an utter novice,
declaring that the only way to learn
anything is from somebody who
doesn't know a damn thing.
And together, he and
"Orson Wells" made 'Citizen Kane'.
And while his aesthetic revolution was
almost immediately rejected wholesale for
its over-severity and complexity,
within a decade's time it
had become the new normal.
(Sound) Of course, right around this time,
things are about to change for
cinematographers forever.
Slowly, we're about to
start seeing in color.
Color cinematography had actually been
around since the beginning of cinema
Itself.
Although it was little more than a novelty
until the mid 30's development of
Technicolor.
And even then the system was bulky and
unpopular despite some exceptional work by
cinematographers like "W Howard Greene",
"Ray Rennahan", and "Jack Cardiff".
It wasn't until colors morphed from the
hypervividness of Technicolor to the more
realistic reproduction of Kodak's Eastman
Color in 1950 that color film would truly
catch on.
And it is innovating here where we find
our number eight pick, "Robert Burks".
- For color cinematography, in New York,
'To Catch a Thief', "Robert Burks".
(Applause)
- "Burks" made perhaps
the most spectacular transition to color
as "Alfred Hitchcock's" cinematographer.
And he very quickly stretched the use
of hue to a wide and varied effect,
capturing the claustrophobia and
oppressiveness of 'Rear Window' like
a humid summer day, the feeling of
a beach breeze in 'To Catch a Thief'.
A deep seduction of
obsessiveness in 'Vertigo', and
the stifling sea sickness
of captivity in 'Marney',
each making color an essential part
of its composition and design.
There is perhaps no cinematographer who so
quickly grasped the power of
cinema's new tool, which is why
he's our favorite pick of this era.
(Sound) The next tectonic
shift came in the 1960s.
When Hollywood was monopoly
busted out of its golden age,
starting competing with TVs and introduced
to cinema screens that did this.
And while we love other cinematographers
of the era like "Conrad El Hall",
"Haskell Wexler", "Robert Sortese",
we think that our number seven pick made
the very best use of cinemas new shape.
The one and only "Freddie Young".
- Well I must say,
I find dialogue a bore for the most part.
And incidentally, I think people
in the movie business are going to
concentrate more on
pictures than on dialogue.
Because fortunately, you boys have
got to sit people down like me and
have them talk and talk and talk.
Well I think we can beat
you by showing pictures.
- Best known for his eminence
collaborations with directors "David Lean"
on 'Lawrence of Arabia',
'Doctor Zhivago' and 'Ryan's Daughter',
no one has used cinema's frame quite so
incredibly as "Freddie Young".
And the images he has created are some of
the most memorable in all of film history
as a master of almost 70 millimeter
format in the harshest of environments.
There is such a devastating sense of
natural spectacle and being there in
"Freddie Young's" imagery, that is of very
little controversy that he is often and
aptly referred to as the greatest
camera man of all time.
(Sound) Beyond the 60s, cinematography
begins to take on a look that feels more
and more familiar to today.
Faster and faster film stocks allow for
lighting styles that don't look so
lit as in the work of
"Nester Al Ninjeros".
The camera was freed up too, and the
invention of the steady cam allowed it to
glide places it had never been before,
as in the work of "John Alcott".
Cinematographers like "Gordon
Willis" blazed a shadowy,
top lit path, while "Vilmos Zsigmond"
delved into low key and low contrast.
However, for our number six pick,
we think there's
nothing in the 70s and
80s quite like the work of one our
favorite cinematographers ever,
"Vittorio Storaro".
(Foreign)
- You will know "Storaro's" work for
his overwhelming single sources that
shape the tone of an entire scene, for
his always smokey beams of light and
for his emblematic use of color.
His best collaborations were those
the “Francis Ford Copella” and
“Bernardo Berdalucci” where he produced
such films as ‘Apocalypse Now’,
'The Last Emperor’, and ‘The Conformist’.
He strikes us as the cinematographer of
the era who has most clearly been inspired
by those before him.
The depth of “Toland”, the color of
“Burke”, the frames of “Young” who
synthesized all their brilliance and
pushed it onwards to the next generation.
Creating a new modern language of
images that are bold, beautiful and
full of meaning that persist to this day.
(Sound) So as you can see,
the history of cinematography isn't
limited to America and Hollywood.
The rest of the world had been
making films for just as long, too.
In Germany, "Karl Freund" and
"Fritz Wagner" took lighting and
camerawork to its most emotive
extent with expressionism.
And in France, and "Raoul Coutard"
freed up the camera in its new wave.
In Italy, "Otello Martelli" saw their
aesthetics into neo-realism and back.
While "Tonino Delli Colli"
used a wide screen just as
artfully as "Freddie Young".
However for our number five pick,
we're looking to Sweden for
the timeless work of "Sven Nykvist".
- When you talk about "Ingmar's" genius
and "Ingmar's" enormous importance for
film, I don't think you can do that
without talking about "Sven Nykvist".
- "Sven Nykvist" is a cinematography god.
Best known for his work with
"Ingmar Bergman" in the prime of
both their careers, they pushed each
other to new aesthetic heights.
His look evolved from high key TV style
fluff to high contrast, moody and
graphical to soft,
simple and naturalistic.
His is a lighting that
is naturally sourced,
that achingly reveals
the truth in the eyes.
Where "Storaro" brilliantly lit sets like
no other, there's nobody who can light
the face like "Sven Nykvist",
light it in a million different ways.
Boldly or softly or harshly or
sweetly or romantically or severely.
One need look no further
than 'Persona' for
the ultimate cinematographic
statement on the human visage.
(Sound) Of course, Europe isn't
the entire rest of the world, either.
Russia has treated us to the revolutionary
lensing of "Sergei Urusevsky" and
"Vadim Yusov".
India gave us the work of geniuses from
"Subrata Mitra" to "Santosh Sivan".
China has given us "Gu Changwei" and
"Zhao Xiaoding".
While Hong Kong's best comes from the
likes of "Arthur Wong", "Peter Pau" and
Australian "Christopher Doyle".
South America has donated Hollywood
some of its finest cinematographers
like "Rodrigo Prieto" and
"Emmanuel Lubezki".
And Japan shook the world in the 50s
when it debuted on the grand stage with
the work of "Kazuo Miyagawa".
(Foreign)
- Much of this list has been occupied by
cinematographers whose career was defined
by a single directorial collaboration.
But "Kasuo Miyagawa's" is more defined by
how few Japanese directors he didn't work
with at their best.
Lensing "Kurosawa's"
revolutionary 'Rashomon',
"Ozu's" poetic 'Floating Weeds',
"Mizugushi's" painterly 'Ugetsu'.
He trained first as an artist,
transposing his framing aesthetic from
the Japanese ink painting art of Suomi Ie.
His compositions are astonishing for
their asymmetrical balance.
His black and
white work dripping with the texture and
shades of all the different grays, and
his camera movement is electrifying for
its brush stroke-like touch.
His work is inseparable from the greatest
films of the Japanese golden age in
the same way that he too is inseparable
from the legacy of Japanese cinema.
(Sound) Back in Hollywood-land,
cinematography continues to
charge towards the modern.
The 80s and 90s see their best DPs
push color even more expressively.
As in "Jordan Cronenweth's"
work on 'Bladerunner' and
"Darius Khondji's" work on
'Delicatessen' and 'Se7en'.
And they see "Robert Richardson's"
immense visual zing and
experimentation with "Oliver Stone",
and then "Quentin Tarantino".
We love "John Toll", "Tak Fujimoto" and
"Sławomir Idziak" in this era, but
no one shown in the end of the last
millennium more than "Janusz Kaminski".
- Cinematography's one of those
professions that allows you to tell
the world who you are.
because you're working with light,
you're working with darkness,
you're working with composition.
And all that comes from learning,
but also comes from inside.
And I don't know,
maybe I'm just waxing too much,
but If you want to know something
about me, watch my movies.
- You know "Janusz Kaminski's" work from
his decades long relationship with "Steven
Spielberg", and together their
images practically defined this era.
His camera work is symphonic.
Working with "Spielberg" to orchestrate
long take masters that perfectly cover
an entire scene.
His lighting is massive, famous for
throwing entire trucks worth of kit
at a set to get the look right.
Eschewing naturalism to
instead paint impressionistic
interpretations of the mood.
It is backlight heavy, glamorous, and it
screams Hollywood in such a way that it is
his touch that most of us think of when
we think of blockbuster cinematography.
(Sound) If you've been counting, you may
have noticed there's something all our
pics so far have had in common,
their gender.
And it's not just our pics,
we have yet to so
much as mention a female
cinematographer's name on this list.
There is a lot of talk about
a lack of female directors and
screenwriters in film making today, but
cinematography is dramatically worse.
Best Cinematography remains
the only Oscar category to
have never even nominate a woman.
The good news is that it's changing fast,
and
the new millenium is bringing us a new
class of cinematographers of all genders.
Some of our favorite female
cinematographers are "Mandy Walker",
"Charlotte Bruus Christensen",
and "Ellen Kuras".
However, for our number two pick,
we're most excited about
the work of "Maryse Alberti".
- This is nothing like documentary
film making, absolutely nothing.
- Well this is life,
right, this is our life.
- No, this is not life.
This is constructed life,
- The dirth of female cinematographers
thus far in cinema's history does
have one positive side effect.
Kept on the fringes, female
cinematographers have tended to develop
a more independent
alternate cinema aesthetic.
And "Maryse Alberti" is
a great example of this.
A French indie cinematographer with
a penchant for the hand held and realism.
You've seen her work in 'Happiness',
'The Wrestler', and 'Tape' and
it draws more from the documentary and
French New Wave aesthetics than
that of traditional Hollywood.
But her work on 'Creed' shows
us what happens when that look
gets a bigger budget, and it is gorgeous.
We're excited to see how
it evolves as she and
her contemporaries push
farther into the mainstream.
And we're confident that
given the opportunities,
she will bring us even
more of the extraordinary.
(Sound) And finally, finishing off
our cinematography tour of the ages,
we come to those figures defining
mainstream imagery today.
The new millennium saw new technology
shift the role of the DP more dramatically
than it had since
the introduction of color.
Digital intermediates allowed for
further control of the image's development
in post through the use of the colorist.
Digital image capture has all but
rendered celluloid extinct, replacing
natural grain with new color science,
as pioneered in the work of "Jeff
Cronenweth" and "Steven Soderbergh".
Lighting got softer,
as with the work of "Robert Yeoman".
VFX is everywhere,
as with "Claudio Miranda".
Cameras got smaller and even more mobile,
as with "Shane Hurlbut".
And the resurgence of the CinemaScope
aspect ratio has blown our
minds in the work of "Robert Elswit" and
"Hoyte Van Hoytema" and
"Wally Pfister" and
again "Emmanuel Lubezki".
But no one has been on the front line of
all of these revolutions while producing
one of the most consistently
incredible bodies of work
quite like the inimitable "Roger Deakins".
- He's just the coolest dude.
He's like a member of the Rolling Stones.
We all wish we could be him.
He doesn't even give much either.
You're dealing with a director who
was effusive and passionate, so
"Denny" would be like, "Roger", I love
this shot, it’s incredible, I love it.
And “Roger” would be like yeah, it’s good.
- “Roger Deakins” is the closest thing
in the typically arcane profession of
cinematography has to a household name.
And that's mostly because he seems to be
medically allergic to only ordinarily
beautiful shots.
But he’s also been on the bleeding edge
of today’s technological innovations,
most importantly as the first
cinematographer to finish
the look of a film digitally in the color
grade with ' Brother, Where Art Thou'.
"Deakins'" wide-screen frames
are evocative of the stunning tableaus of
"Freddy Young", his bold colors of
"Storaro", his naturalistic lighting of
"Nykvist", and his patient but
methodical camera movement of "Toland".
His style is easily
the most emulated of today,
which will no doubt have an immense
effect on the look of the era.
But most importantly,
the Deak has done something that no other
cinematographer on this list can claim,
he has watched our movie lists.
That's right, he checked out our
'Brilliant Moments' segment about his work
on 'No Country for Old Men' and
wrote that we mostly got it right,
which is the only reason we think he's one
of the best cinematographers of all time.
Just kidding, it's this.
(Music)
So what do you think?
Do you disagree with any of our picks?
Did we leave out any of your
favorite directors of photography?
Let us know in the comments below and
be sure to subscribe for
more Cinefix movie lists.
