Contemporary motion picture photography is, as a rule, wildly overrated
by long-winded critics with very short memories. They have much, much
to learn.
In almost any country one could name, the period between 1935-1965
produced some of the finest motion picture camera work one is likely
ever to see on the screen. Perhaps only the great silent period, from
1909-1928, was its equal. For whatever reasons of past culture or artistry
or pioneering efforts in the field England was especially blessed with
a large collection of first-class cinematographers whose efforts have,
with only a few exceptions, largely gone unnoticed. It will be this
writer's attempt to acquaint readers with the other fine craftsmen in
this area of British film-making, and it is only fitting that we begin
with one of the greatest of them all, Robert Krasker.
We've all seen, of course, his most famous film work, Brief Encounter
and The Third Man, two films that seem to turn up on everyone's "top
movies" lists. In those two works, directed by David Lean and Carol
Reed respectively, Krasker reached the apogee of his craft even though
there were (some may be surprised to learn) other masterpieces to follow.
Let us get a little taste of this remarkable man's achievements. Bob Krasker was Australian by birth, born in Perth on August 21, 1913.
He was in France when he began his career as a camera assistant, a country
that did not find it difficult to produce cameramen of brilliance. But
it was not long after that he began work at the studios of Sir Alexander
Korda in Britain, and it was that studio that would see the first flowering
of his talent.
The Korda studio was the great training ground that gave to the cinema
a number of gifted film creators. Brilliant designers like Lazare Meerson,
William Cameron Menzies and Vincent Korda, brought to England by Korda,
would create beautiful sets and while doing so would be training Britain's
future top film designers, among them John Bryan. Korda imported from
France, Germany and the US a stable of top cameramen like Georges Perinal
and James Wong Howe, and it was under such people that great cinematographers
like Krasker, Osmond Borrodaile and Wilkie Cooper first learned their
craft. Krasker and Cooper in particular seemed to have been the most
influenced by Perinal as was evident in all their future work. The two
of them cut their teeth on Korda's exquisitely beautiful 1936 film Rembrandt,
photographed by Perinal and designed by Vincent Korda, still one of
the great visual marvels in cinema.
He continued his career as an operator on other Korda films, among them
the 1939 epic The Four Feathers, photographed by Perinal (interiors)
and Osmond Borrodaile (exteriors) but twenty-four months later he moved
up to the next rung on the ladder. In 1941, Robert Krasker was entrusted with one of his first jobs as
lighting cameraman, for a low-budget RKO thriller called The Saint Meets
The Tiger, an enjoyable mystery starring Hugh Sinclair in the role of
Leslie Charteris' super-sleuth. The film that really started Krasker's
career off and running was Leslie Howard's propaganda drama, The Gentle
Sex, directed by that tireless veteran of British movie-making, Maurice
Elvey. Howard produced the film with fellow actor Derrick de Marney
and it was such a success and so vividly shot that Krasker was asked
by Laurence Olivier to photograph, along with another notable photographer,
Jack Hildyard, his triumphant hit Henry V. The acclaim won by that film
propelled Krasker instantly into the big budget, important film milieu
where he would remain virtually for the rest of his career.
Eccentric producer Gabriel Pascal assigned Krasker to shoot some scenes
for his big Shaw extravaganza, Caesar and Cleopatra, starring Vivien
Leigh and Claude Rains. This troubled, expensive production was a notable
failure at the box office, even though the battery of first-class cinematographers
all acquitted themselves rather well under the circumstances. But Krasker's
next assignment brought him great personal acclaim and would place him
forever among the most respected cameramen in cinema: David Lean would
choose him as director of photography for his production of Noel Coward's
Brief Encounter. The acting and the directing of Brief Encounter is so striking that
one can easily overlook the contributions made by the editor, art director
and camera department. And, perhaps, it is not really necessary to analyze
in too great a detail the achievements of these people. But there is
a distinctive "look" to that picture which is just as memorable
as the sensitivity of the performances. Krasker really warmed to the
subject and it shows. One need not dig deeply into the ways and means
by which this excellent film was brought into being; one needs only
to see it know that it was made by thoughtful minds. Perhaps the simplest
measure to use by which to gauge the increase in stature that Brief
Encounter enjoys with each passing year is to compare it with the 2001
Australian-made film, Innocence, which achieved acclaim in some quarters.
An appallingly bad film, dripping with sloppy sentimentality, the embarrassing
spectacle of seventy-something's doing nude scenes and speaking soap
opera dialog, Innocence did everything wrong that could possibly be
done wrong. It was the antithesis of Brief Encounter in every possible
way (apparently by design) and along with the poor 1970s remake of the
Lean film is the best example extant of why Lean's and Cowards' way
of making this kind of story is the only way. (That rubbish like Innocence
has found favour in certain circles says more about modern audiences
and critics than about the makers of the film. Aside from its other
faults the camerawork and directing are equally amateurish, and about
the only notable thing about it is how an actor of skill and sensitivity
like Charles Tingwell should have allowed himself to be talked into
playing in it.)
With praise cascading upon him from every quarter after the huge critical
and commercial success of Brief Encounter, David Lean began work on
the first of his two superb Dickens adaptations, Great Expectations,
and he asked Robert Krasker back to photograph it. Perhaps because it
was Lean's first film away from the Noel Coward "fold", or
perhaps for other reasons we can only guess at, Lean was not entirely
sure of himself when shooting began on the picture. After only a week
or two of shooting David Lean, in an interesting example of misjudgement
on his part, fired Robert Krasker and replaced him with Guy Green. The
reason he gave was that Krasker had been giving him photography that
was "too polite" when what he wanted was something "harder".
The whole episode remains somewhat inexplicable. Krasker had shot the
striking opening sequence in the graveyard and if it was on the basis
of his work on that sequence that Lean sacked him then the incident
takes on a decidedly peculiar air. Lean later admitted that after he
saw The Third Man he began to think he had made a mistake in firing
Krasker. (This in no way detracts from the splendid job Guy Green did
on the film, which even he surpassed on Lean's next film, Oliver Twist)
The incident, however, left Krasker devastated. But his talent was too
obvious and would not lay dormant for long. Carol Reed wanted him to
do his moving film Odd Man Out with James Mason and Robert Newton and
with that assignment Krasker bounced back if anything stronger than
ever.
