The Best Cinematographers Today

[WiseFilms]

Looks like Ernest Day, Gerry Fisher, David Watkin, Gil Taylor, and other fine directors of photography, won't be making any more movies in their lifetimes.[list][*]However, we still have these dozen UK-born DoP's working today, which I nominate as among the most remarkable thirty or so in the world now:

1. Barry Ackroyd
2. Remi Adefarasin
3. Michael Coulter
4. Roger Deakins
5. Seamus Deasy
6. Andrew Dunn
7. Seamus McGarvey
8. Chris Menges
9. Dick Pope
10. Roger Pratt
11. Chris Seager
12. Brian Tufano

[JamesM]

Roger Pratt stands out in that list for me.

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by WiseFilms Looks like Ernest Day, Gerry Fisher, David Watkin, Gil Taylor, and other fine directors of photography, won't be making any more movies in their lifetimes.[list][*]However, we still have these dozen UK-born DoP's working today, which I nominate as among the most remarkable thirty or so in the world now: Barry Ackroyd Remi Adefarasin Michael Coulter Roger Deakins Seamus Deasy Andrew Dunn Seamus McGarvey Chris Menges Dick Pope Roger Pratt Chris Seager Brian Tufano

There's another UK born DoP that is working today that you haven't mentioned. He's won two Oscars in the 77 or so years since he first became interested in camera work. He was actually in the business for 11 years before then, appearing as a child actor in some early films as well as on stage. He's now 92 (last Monday) and is still remarkably fit and active, considering that age. He still gets involved in projects that appeal to him, usually as a consultant of some sort, but he will still pick up a camera occasionally. His last cinematographer credit was only last year. He's worked with everything from hand-cranked cameras to digital systems, and he enjoys them all.

Yes, I nominate Jack Cardiff.

Steve

[WiseFilms]

Yes, Steve, every word you type is true, and it would be wrong of me to limit the submission to feature film's alone (and most hypocritical : in the last day I began the question to name a few of member's favorite shorts). And I wonder if any of the five shorts Jack Cardiff has lensed in the past fifteen years is worthy for placement in the cannon of superior british shorts...from what the IMDb tells me, some may be. Does anyone know if Cardiff's last feature, shot in 1990 -Ronald Neame's 'The Magic Ballon, is good? It has to be better than the last one I saw, 'Cat's Eye'!

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by WiseFilms Yes, Steve, every word you type is true, and it would be wrong of me to limit the submission to feature film's alone (and most hypocritical : in the last day I began the question to name a few of member's favorite shorts). And I wonder if any of the five shorts Jack Cardiff has lensed in the past fifteen years is worthy for placement in the cannon of superior british shorts...from what the IMDb tells me, some may be. Does anyone know if Cardiff's last feature, shot in 1990 -Ronald Neame's 'The Magic Ballon, is good? It has to be better than the last one I saw, 'Cat's Eye'!

Whatever the answer to that is, he still deserves a place in any list because of the work he did on A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes, The African Queen, The Magic Box, Death on the Nile, Girl on a Motorcycle, The Prince and the Showgirl, The Barefoot Contessa and many, many more.

And not forgetting those he directed like Sons and Lovers, Girl on a Motorcycle, Young Cassidy, The Long Ships and many others.

Don't make the mistake of most lists of "the best ..." of only looking at the recent past.

Steve

[WiseFilms]

Originally Posted by Steve Crook Whatever the answer to that is, he still deserves a place in any list because of the work he did on A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes, The African Queen, The Magic Box, Death on the Nile, Girl on a Motorcycle, The Prince and the Showgirl, The Barefoot Contessa and many, many more. And not forgetting those he directed like Sons and Lovers, Girl on a Motorcycle, Young Cassidy, The Long Ships and many others. Don't make the mistake of most lists of "the best ..." of only looking at the recent past. Steve

Ah! But I never ment to slight Mr. Cardiff there, I forgot is all. Now however, I'll confess I've long prefered the work of George Perinal:

• The Private Life of Henry VIII
• Rembrandt
• The Thief of Baghdad
• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
• Nicholas Nickleby
• The Fallen Idol

...and many others. Yet I'd never claim Perinal deserved place "in any list", for this was reserved to only those active, who were born in the British Isles, and hell, it's all arbitrary definitions anyway. I wanted to celebrate the continuing achievments of those who would perhaps be name-recognizable (while fully worthy, besides) in this forum more than any place else. Maybe I was wrong.

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by WiseFilms Ah! But I never ment to slight Mr. Cardiff there, I forgot is all. Now however, I'll confess I've long prefered the work of George Perinal: The Private Life of Henry VIII Rembrandt The Thief of Baghdad The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp Nicholas Nickleby The Fallen Idol ...and many others. Yet I'd never claim Perinal deserved place "in any list", for this was reserved to only those active, who were born in the British Isles, and hell, it's all arbitrary definitions anyway. I wanted to celebrate the continuing achievments of those who would perhaps be name-recognizable (while fully worthy, besides) in this forum more than any place else. Maybe I was wrong.

Cardiff & Perinal, along with others like Erwin Hillier, Chris Challis, Freddie Francis, are more recognisable to me than most of the names you originally mentioned. But maybe that's just my age, or the age of the films I prefer :)

Quite a few of those great people are now dead, Challis & Francis are still alive but haven't worked for a while.

Steve

[Nick Dando]

As mentioned elsewhere, another great has just died - Sven Nykvist.

Nick

[John Llewellyn Moxey]

How aout Lee Garmes? He lit some great movies.

[John Llewellyn Moxey]

How about Lee Garmes? He lit some great films. Oops.

[WiseFilms]

Oops? Here goes another arbitrary definition: Lee Garmes, undoubtably one of the handfull of greatest Hollywood cinematographers has never to my knowledge made an English film, even if he did shoot 'Nightmare Alley', by the terrific Edmund Goulding. To that definition, I must also include Hollywood DoP aces -- John Seitz , Joseph August ,,Charles Lang , and, Joe MacDonald. Roger Deakins, one of the dozen I first mentioned, who has turned almost exclusively to being Joel and Ethan Coen's right hand since 1991, is well on his way to becoming the greatest cinematographer of his era. Luciano Tovoli and Mark Lee Ping-bin and William Fraker still outmatch him.

[harryfielder]

Got to work with Jack Cardiff (and his son Rodney)

Freddie Francis (and his son Kevin)

All nice people.

Aitch,

[alan gowdy]

Douglas Slocombe?

[WiseFilms]

How I could fail to recall the name of John Llewellyn Moxey, I don't know!?
When posting some of my favorite Brit.-born director's of horror and fantasy films of the 'Sixties, I could have just as well put Mr. Moxey's name there, next to Freddie Francis and Roy Ward Baker's, and been plenty as justified.

It's the problem I always have: thure's one significant one each time that escapes my memory, however indelible my experience with their films are.

Let me say that my sister's favorite movie of all time ,and the one that got me interested in such kinds of things, was J.L. Moxey's 'The Night Stalker' (1972)...
As far as his debut goes - the wonderful witchcraft hokum 'City of the Dead'...
Fine, lively direction, a splendid central performance, and some of the most glorious black-and-white photography of the genre, make it a standout.

That DoP, of CotD, was the excellent Mr. Desmond Dickinson.
He, Oswald Morris, Slocombe, Geoffrey Unsworth, Denys Coop, and so many others, could get the ball rolling if you want to continue talking about the remarkable filmmakers of that era....

[John Llewellyn Moxey]

It is nice to be remembered..Thank you.
John Llewellyn