Page 14 - Fujifilm Exposure_26 Jack Cardiff BSC_ok

PAINTING WITH LIGHT
“One of my heroes was Gregg Toland and I loved his simplicity.
I don’t think the cinema audience should be aware of any tricks or special lighting.”
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gating policemen he believes he can hear the insistent, constant, percussive heartbeat of his victim.
It’s a fascinating study in madness, from an author who is celebrated for the tone and texture of his horror stories. “Poe was riddled with demons,” explains Stephen Lord, the actor playing Jack.
“I’ve tried to touch upon that with- in my characterisation. The whole film
studio set you would have a lamp outside the window, but if you did that here you’d risk it crashing down on the street. So we’ve had to cover the windows with cloth and somehow get the effect of that exte- rior light without it coming in through the window.
“I put lamps in the windows and managed to get some shadow effects
“You could see that it was as if he was lighting his own pictures. Other painters too, Caravaggio and Vermeer, their lighting is much simpler but with Turner it was just like a movie scene. It’s fantastic.”
Asked if The Tell-Tale Heart draws particular inspiration from any artist from the past and Cardiff is typically self deprecating in his
“But in fact a lot of the heads of department I’m working with are painters. Obviously the story is the thing, and performance is what carries the story, but if beneath that you can have beauty – even sinister beauty – I think it’s wonderful.
“I love painters like Balthus, who convey the idea of something that’s beautiful but also sinister. I think beau- ty is very under-used in filmmaking; people are afraid of it or else it’s big and glossy as in some American films.
“Here we’re using a rich palette in a way that enhances emotion and story and plot. That can be incredibly effective, just as important to the piece as music can be.
“And,” said Sinclaire, “that’s real- ly one of the reasons that I love working with Jack, because he is someone who really does paint with light.” ■ ANWAR BRETT
The Tell-Tale Heart
was originated on 35mm Fujicolor F-500T 8572
Conversations with Jack Cardiff: Art, Light and Direction in the Cinema by Justin Bowyer (Batsford, £15.99)
Photos l-r: Jack Cardiff BSC on set and Stephen Lord in a scene from The Tell-Tale Heart (photos Mark Tillie)
is based on a strong narrative and a fantastic use of language. Hopefully all the threads are working throughout this film, there’s the naturalism of what’s going on but there’s also a very particular style to it.
“For me, the bottom line is that it’s good work, the writing is imperative as is the quality of the people you’re working with. It’s great to work on film, and work on features, but I don’t think you should neglect short films because these are what give people real opportunity. And of course work- ing with Jack Cardiff is just fantastic.”
Shooting on 35mm Fujicolor F- 500T 8572, Cardiff and Pinnock have to deal with all the usual constraints of a low budget short shot in a single location. The senior partner in this enterprise, far from complaining about the problems he is faced with, takes it all in his stride.
“Every picture has its problems,” Cardiff says with enviable good humour, “you just have to battle through them. We’re shooting Jack’s room upstairs here at the King’s Head, so the first thing we find is that doing sound is impossible because the traf- fic is so loud.
“I was going to have some lights coming through the windows, but that wasn’t possible either. On a
which takes careful preparation. I’m beginning to use a simpler form of lighting these days.
“One of my heroes was Gregg Toland and I loved his simplicity. I don’t think the cinema audience should be aware of any tricks or spe- cial lighting. I’ve noticed one of the things that young cameramen seem to think is that they can get a very good effect with lots of backlighting.
“You see lots of soap operas these days that might have someone stand- ing two feet away from a brick wall and still it’s back lit – so the light must have come through the wall! I think subconsciously the audience, without analysing it, understand that some- thing is off there.”
Cardiff is, famously, a DP who draws his inspiration from fine art. A long-time aficionado of art and artists from centuries past, he recalls in his book Magic Hour how he would study the effects of light coming from differ- ent sources in the paintings of the great masters.
“If anyone asked me which painter’s work to seek out I’d instantly say Turner,” he says. “It was like he lit his paintings, he always put something in the foreground like a dark shadow, and he’d put the light on the mountain or whatever.
response. “I haven’t gone back to any paintings for this,” he shrugs, “it’s early Cardiff if anything.”
In a new book* about Cardiff, he revealed how he’d been summoned to the States recently to work on Bloodhead, directed by Nicolas Cage’s brother, Christopher Coppola.
It seems that the director was a great fan of The Red Shoes. Recalled Cardiff: “When I got out there, I found I was working on stage 11 at MGM, which was where they had shot Gone With The Wind and The Magnificent Ambersons. So that alone was an amazing thing. I even had my own trailer with my name on it – quite unbelievable!”
Of course it’s no coincidence that both Cardiff and Sinclaire share a love of, and talent for, painting. So much of their shorthand, their shared sensibili- ty, comes from this common bond and the mutual ambition that they can cre- ate a beautiful image that enhances rather than distracts from the momen- tum of the narrative.
“If I have a vision, Jack can achieve it instantly,” smiles Sinclaire, “but we go back and forth with things all the time. With his unbelievable wealth of experience and his love of painting he will inevitably come up with some crazy, wonderful thing.
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