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.