Jack Cardiff
The British cinematographer who lit up the big screen
The British cinematographer who lit up the big screen
1914–2009
Jack Cardiff was such a skilled cinematographer that Marilyn Monroe once wrote to him, “Dear Jack, If only I could be the way you have created me!” Cardiff, who subtly conveyed human emotion through his deft use of light and color, worked on such landmark films as The African Queen, War and Peace, and The Barefoot Contessa. He won an Oscar for Black Narcissus (1947), illuminating the sexually charged story of a group of nuns in the Himalayas with stunning contrasts of red and green that he said were inspired by van Gogh.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Cardiff’s parents were English music-hall performers, said The New York Times, and he made his acting debut at 4, appearing in a series of silent films. “His education was spotty, as his family moved every week or so. But he began visiting art museums when he was around 9 and was first captivated by Rembrandt, then Caravaggio, then the impressionists, whose love affair with light entranced him.” Cardiff became a film “gofer” and graduated to camera duties under such directors as Alfred Hitchcock and Zoltan Korda. In the mid-1930s, when Technicolor was recruiting cameramen, Cardiff overcame his meager technical knowledge during his interview by discussing Rembrandt’s techniques. “He was chosen by Technicolor as the first technician to shoot a British film in the new medium, Wings of the Morning (1937), starring Henry Fonda.”
Cardiff was a daring innovator, said the London Independent. For A Matter of Life and Death (1946), he shot scenes set in heaven “on Technicolor stock which, when processed as though it were black-and-white, gave them an eerie, shimmering quality.” In the dance drama The Red Shoes (1948), he delighted in “speeding up the camera to slow the action and make a ballerina seem to hover in midair, or doing the opposite to turn her into a blur of whirling pirouettes.” He also worked closely with his stars. Ava Gardner told him, “Jack, you must light me carefully when I’m having my period.” By contrast, Humphrey Bogart “sternly instructed him not to try to conceal the maze of wrinkles on his face.”
Cardiff, who won an honorary Oscar in 2001, directed 15 films himself, including the critically acclaimed 1960 adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers. He also directed a novelty called Scent of a Mystery (1960). It was the only movie ever to employ “Smell-o-Vision,” which pumped 30 different scents into the theater in sync with cues in the soundtrack. When Cardiff died last week at 94, the hearse bearing his body pulled away from his house at 4:30 a.m., just as dawn was breaking. It was, his widow Niki said, “the perfect Hollywood ending.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
5 sleeper hit cartoons about Trump's struggles to stay awake in court
Cartoons Artists take on courtroom tranquility, war on wokeness, and more
By The Week US Published
-
The true story of Feud: Capote vs. The Swans
In depth The writer's fall from grace with his high-flying socialite friends in 1960s Manhattan is captured in a new Disney+ series
By Adrienne Wyper, The Week UK Published
-
Scottie Scheffler: victory for the 'pre-eminent golfer of this era'
Why Everyone's Talking About Masters victory is Scheffler's second in three years
By The Week Staff Published
-
Benjamin Zephaniah: trailblazing writer who 'took poetry everywhere'
Why Everyone's Talking About Remembering the 'radical' wordsmith's 'wit and sense of mischief'
By The Week UK Published
-
Shane MacGowan: the unruly former punk with a literary soul
Why Everyone's Talking About The Pogues frontman died aged 65
By The Week UK Published
-
'Euphoria' star Angus Cloud dies at 25
Speed Read
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
Legendary jazz and pop singer Tony Bennett dies at 96
Speed Read
By Devika Rao Published
-
Martin Amis: literary wunderkind who ‘blazed like a rocket’
feature Famed author, essayist and screenwriter died this week aged 73
By The Week Staff Published
-
Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian folk legend, is dead at 84
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Barry Humphries obituary: cerebral satirist who created Dame Edna Everage
feature Actor and comedian was best known as the monstrous Melbourne housewife and Sir Les Patterson
By The Week Staff Published
-
Mary Quant obituary: pioneering designer who created the 1960s look
feature One of the most influential fashion designers of the 20th century remembered as the mother of the miniskirt
By The Week Staff Published