Since its inception the\u00a0International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography CAMERIMAGE<\/strong>\u00a0has always focused on distinguishing those brilliant filmmakers who stayed in the shade of actors, directors or screenwriters – the cinematographers. We have shown their exceptional skills and visual sensitivity. We have acknowledged their input in the art of cinema. Together with them we observed the upcoming digital revolution.\u00a0<\/p>\n The aim of \u201cRemembering the Masters”<\/strong>\u00a0is to accentuate the craft of all those brilliant cinematographers who passed away, and to provoke a discussion about the cinematic possibilities given by the films which over the years set the standards for what we watch today. In the moment of the digital revolution, both mental and technological, it is crucial not to forget about the always-fascinating history of cinema without which such revolution wouldn’t come. We therefore invite everyone to watch the work of true masters, and by this remember every lesson they wanted to teach us.\u00a0<\/p>\n This year we will present the work of British cinematographer\u00a0John Alcott<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n JOHN ALCOTT (1931 – 1986)<\/p>\n The eminent British cinematographer is best known for the outstanding film visuals he achieved in collaboration with the visionary American film director\u00a0Stanley Kubrick<\/strong>, particularly in the sarcastic vivisection of a violence-based society in\u00a0A Clockwork Orange<\/em><\/span>\u00a0(1971) and in the period drama film\u00a0Barry Lyndon<\/em><\/span>\u00a0(1975). For\u00a0Barry Lyndon<\/em><\/span>,\u00a0Alcott<\/strong>\u00a0not only won the most prized trophy in cinema – an Oscar – but also a BAFTA and a British Society of Cinematographers (BSC) Award. For\u00a0A Clockwork Orange<\/em><\/span>,\u00a0Alcott<\/strong>\u00a0received a BAFTA nomination.\u00a0Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes<\/em><\/span>\u00a0(1984) by\u00a0Hugh Hudson<\/strong>\u00a0won him two nominations – one for a BAFTA and one for a BSC Award.\u00a0<\/p>\n John Alcott<\/strong>\u00a0was born in 1931 in Isleworth, England, to Arthur Alcott, a long-standing employee of the film production departments in Gainsborough Studios and Pinewood Studios.\u00a0Alcott<\/strong>\u00a0launched his film career at the age of 17, when he became a clapper boy. There he worked on the set of\u00a0The Million Pound Note<\/em><\/span>\u00a0(1954) by\u00a0Ronald Neame<\/strong>\u00a0as well as other productions. As time progressed, he worked his way up to a focus puller, where one of the sets he worked on was for the disaster film\u00a0A Night To Remember<\/em><\/span>\u00a0(1958) by\u00a0Roy Ward Baker<\/strong>.Geoffrey Unsworth<\/strong>\u00a0was the cinematographer for this and for a number of other films in over fifteen titles for which\u00a0Alcott<\/strong>\u00a0assisted with the camerawork, mainly as a focus puller. These include\u00a0The Main Attraction<\/em><\/span>\u00a0by\u00a0Daniel Petrie<\/strong>\u00a0(1962) and\u00a0Othello<\/em><\/span>\u00a0by\u00a0Stuart Burge<\/strong>(1965). Soon after, both of them (with\u00a0Unsworth<\/strong>\u00a0as the master cinematographer) met again – this time on the set of\u00a02001: A Space Odyssey<\/em><\/span>\u00a0by\u00a0Stanley Kubrick<\/strong>\u00a0(1968). At that time, it was regarded as the greatest ever film production and even today it is regarded as the all-time masterpiece of the sci-fi genre. This visually breathtaking and intriguing vision of space, based on a short story by\u00a0Arthur C. Clarke<\/strong>\u00a0and brought to the huge Cinerama screen thanks to the Super Panavision 70 system, turned out to be the breakthrough in\u00a0Alcott’s<\/strong>career.\u00a0<\/p>\n A cameraman, who before that would have worked in the 2nd team at best (there is only one another such case – in\u00a0Checkpoint<\/em><\/span>\u00a0by\u00a0Ralph Thomas<\/strong>\u00a0from 1956), advanced to the position of master cinematographer when\u00a0Unsworth<\/strong>, due to the prolonging production of\u00a0Odyssey<\/em><\/span>, was obliged to leave the project to meet his other professional commitments.\u00a0Alcott<\/strong>\u00a0was appointed to be\u00a0Unsworth’s<\/strong>\u00a0successor byStanley Kubrick<\/strong>\u00a0himself! It is now irrelevant that in the closing credits\u00a0Alcott<\/strong>, responsible for the cinematography in the first, prehistoric sequence of\u00a0Odyssey<\/em><\/span>, i.e.\u00a0The Dawn of Man<\/em>, done with front projection, a relatively new technique for special photographic effects, was not mentioned as the Director of Photography but as responsible for Additional Photography. What is important, however, is that a new Director-Cinematographer duo was thus born, whose works, although in terms of numbers more modest than the works of such duos asBergman-Nykvist<\/strong>,\u00a0Fellini-Rotunno<\/strong>\u00a0or\u00a0Bertolucci-Storaro<\/strong>\u00a0(Kubrick-Alcott’s<\/strong>\u00a0works included only four titles:\u00a0Odyssey<\/em><\/span>,\u00a0A Clockwork Orange<\/em><\/span>,\u00a0Barry Lyndon<\/em><\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0The Shining<\/em><\/span>\u00a0from 1980), were equally good in terms of quality as the works of the other duos. Namely, in all these films we can find either new technical solutions or already existing ones but applied so ingeniously that every single one of these films is both surprising and awe-inspiring with their visual aspect always adequate to the story on the screen.\u00a0<\/p>\n Vivid colours and optical deformations (9.8mm wide-angle lens) in\u00a0A Clockwork Orange<\/em><\/span>\u00a0make for the visual layer of the film, whose far-fetched eccentricity proved to be a perfect visual equivalent to the shocking descriptions of the novel by\u00a0Anthony Burgess<\/strong>. In\u00a0The Shining<\/em><\/span>, brilliant use of everyday sources of interior lighting, visible in the scenes, along with the use of the Steadicam, which in 1980 was a relative novelty, allowed the creation of an unprecedented air of horror, claustrophobia and incredibility. However,\u00a0John Alcott’s<\/strong>\u00a0ultimate masterpiece is\u00a0Barry Lyndon<\/em><\/span>, set in eighteenth-century England. It is famous for its scenes – for the first time in the history of cinema, shot exclusively in candlelight.\u00a0Kubrick<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Alcott<\/strong>\u00a0had already begun planning, right after finishing\u00a0Odyssey<\/em><\/span>, these scenes when preparing for a film about Napoleon. However, this production was never launched, and additionally\u00a0Alcott<\/strong>\u00a0couldn’t find bright enough lenses at that time.\u00a0<\/p>\n In\u00a0Barry Lyndon<\/em><\/span>\u00a0the experiment of shooting in candlelight, which this time turned out to be successful, was dictated by the period of the film and inspired by the eighteenth-century English painting (the works of Thomas Gainsborough and William Hogarth). It was realised with 50 mm, extraordinary bright f\/0.7 Planar lens. Zeiss had at that time equipped Hasselblad cameras with this lens, which were used by NASA in their manned Apollo flights to the Moon. Now, the lens had been installed in a 35mm Mitchell BNC film camera. Also, a side sight taken from an old three-tape Technicolor had been fixed, which was the only way to watch scenes barely lit by candles. In order to protect the ceilings of the historic interiors, an additional, metal, ceiling was suspended, which at the same time served as a reflector for the candlelight, directing it onto the actors’ heads and thus illuminating them. Outdoor scenes in\u00a0Barry Lyndon<\/em><\/span>\u00a0were shot without the aid of any artificial lighting (the paintings of Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot and Jean Antoine Watteau served here as the reference), whereas the lighting of day interior scenes was aided by artificial light, perfectly imitating natural lighting, such as sunlight pouring in through windows, glass doors, etc.\u00a0<\/p>\n That is how\u00a0Barry Lyndon<\/em><\/span>\u00a0was made, one of the greatest masterpieces of camerawork in the history of cinema. Then, we have\u00a0The Shining<\/em><\/span>, the last film of\u00a0Stanley Kubrick<\/strong>\u00a0made with\u00a0John Alcott<\/strong>.\u00a0Alcott<\/strong>\u00a0didn’t work on the next film,\u00a0Full Metal Jacket<\/em><\/span>\u00a0(1987), as he had to meet his other professional commitments. Among the most interesting films which were not directed by\u00a0Kubrick<\/strong>, in terms of cinematography, that\u00a0Alcott<\/strong>\u00a0shot, apart from\u00a0Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes<\/em><\/span>, there are:\u00a0March or Die<\/em><\/span>\u00a0by\u00a0Dick Richards<\/strong>\u00a0(1977),\u00a0Fort Apache, Bronx<\/em><\/span>\u00a0by\u00a0Daniel Petrie<\/strong>\u00a0(1981),\u00a0The Beastmaster<\/em><\/span>\u00a0by\u00a0Don Coscarelli<\/strong>\u00a0(1982) and\u00a0Under Fire<\/em><\/span>\u00a0by\u00a0Roger Spottiswoode<\/strong>\u00a0(1983).\u00a0<\/p>\n In 1981,\u00a0John Alcott<\/strong>\u00a0moved from England to the USA, with the hope of achieving better professional stability there. Five years later, he created the cinematography for\u00a0Roger Donaldson’s<\/strong>\u00a0thriller\u00a0No Way Out<\/em><\/span>\u00a0(which premiered in 1987), unfortunately the last film in\u00a0Alcott’s<\/strong>career.\u00a0John Alcott<\/strong>\u00a0died on 28 July 1986 in Cannes at the age of 55. The cause of his death was a massive heart attack. To commemorate this great artist, the British Society of Cinematographers founded an award named after him – the John Alcott ARRI Award.\u00a0<\/p>\n by Andrzej Bukowiecki<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since its inception the\u00a0International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography CAMERIMAGE\u00a0has always focused on distinguishing those brilliant filmmakers who…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[144],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wiadomosci-camerimage-2014"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.camerimage.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8501"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.camerimage.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.camerimage.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.camerimage.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.camerimage.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.camerimage.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.camerimage.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.camerimage.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.camerimage.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
John Alcott<\/em><\/p>\n
Still from “Barry Lyndon”<\/em><\/p>\n
Still from “The Shining”<\/em><\/p>\n