Page 17 - Fujifilm Exposure_7 Alex Thomson BSC_ok

Photos: top left & clockwise; The Tales Of Hoffman; The Red Shoes; Chris Challis with son Drummond; Matter Of Life And Death; John Gregson in Battle Of The River Plate. (Courtesy BFI Stills & Posters)
ON A GOLDEN AGE
ON A GOLDEN AGE
hard to maintain his enthusiasm. But in time he forged new relationships with other directors, as well as earn- ing a reputation for being able to shoot water borne stories such as Sink The Bismarck! and HMS Defiant.
For the record he also made two of the best loved ‘road movies’ in British cinema, Genevieve and Two For The Road - contrasting films which reflect the changing fashions and attitudes during his time at the peak of his industry. But it is as a key collaborator with some wonderful directors that Challis will perhaps be best remembered, and among his favourites are legends Stanley Donen and Billy Wilder. Perhaps it is small wonder that Challis can look back
with such peace of mind, knowing he has worked with the best. His memo- ries of some legendary actors are less than golden however. He describes Cary Grant as “a terrible old woman” on the set of Donen’s The Grass Is Greener yet admits that he found Grant’s co-star Robert Mitchum infi- nitely more agreeable.
But then that is Chris Challis’s style, that of an imperturbable Englishman who can find a solution to any problem given time and patience. And his retirement is as ful- filled as his career, it seems. He admits he hardly ever watches new movies - he cites Four Weddings & A Funeral as one he particularly enjoyed - but is duly impressed with
the level of technology available to the modern cameraman.
“Films are different now,” he argues, “they were purely escapist back then and they always looked wonderful. They created an artificial world that the camera played a major part in achieving in the way they were lit, the angles that were shot, the lens- es they used. Now everything seems to have been shot with an extreme wide angle lens.”
The nicest thing about Challis is that you never feel he is bitter or resentful at the opportunities avail- able to contemporary filmmakers. His body of work, after all, can stand on its own merits, and in his producer son Drummond the family name con- tinues to be associated with high qual- ity filmmaking. The seafaring theme in his work was carried to a romantic conclusion when he shot The Riddle of The Sands for Tony Maylam in 1982, which was produced by his son.
But Challis does mourn the loss of skills honed by an older school of cameraman, as the pace of change inevitably means a generation of skilled technicians will see their tal- ents overtaken by new technologies.
“I should think film as we know it will all be gone in the years to come,” he sighs, “it will all simply be digital. But that takes away a lot of the creativity I think. Press material is all digital, images are sent via satellite. A chap can take pictures in Australia and they can be back in Fleet Street within five minutes.
But that still doesn’t make them as good as a Robert Capa or a Cartier Bresson, or superb photogra- phers like that, who worked simply and yet got wonderful pictures.” Just as Chris Challis and his peers did, during a wonderful period for British film. You can’t help feeling that maybe he has a point. ■ ANWAR BRETT
flashback