Jack Cardiff was a master cinematographer who became inspired through the Powell & Pressburger partnership with films such as Life and death of Colonel Blimp, A Matter of Life and Death, The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus which bagged him an Oscar for best colour cinematography.
Cardiff in interviews filmed over several years comes off as modest, engaging, enthusiastic and knowledgeable.
We see the influence of paintings from the masters in his work as well as problem solving with the challenges he faced in the still early days of cinema, now it is the special effects people who take care of it all.
As well as numerous clips of films he had worked on, collaborators we have super fans such as Martin Scorsese who has previously expressed his admiration of the films of Powell & Pressburger.
It would had been nice to have heard from Francis Coppola another fan and some more British directors.
Cardiff later moved into directing and was Oscar nominated for Best Director for Sons and Lovers but when the directing work dried up he moved back into cinematography, even lighting Rambo: First Blood Part 2 a film I have in the past complained about not being able to see anything as all the action took place in the dark.
Cardiff in interviews filmed over several years comes off as modest, engaging, enthusiastic and knowledgeable.
We see the influence of paintings from the masters in his work as well as problem solving with the challenges he faced in the still early days of cinema, now it is the special effects people who take care of it all.
As well as numerous clips of films he had worked on, collaborators we have super fans such as Martin Scorsese who has previously expressed his admiration of the films of Powell & Pressburger.
It would had been nice to have heard from Francis Coppola another fan and some more British directors.
Cardiff later moved into directing and was Oscar nominated for Best Director for Sons and Lovers but when the directing work dried up he moved back into cinematography, even lighting Rambo: First Blood Part 2 a film I have in the past complained about not being able to see anything as all the action took place in the dark.