23/04/2009

Legendary British cinematographer and director Jack Cardiff has passed away, aged 94, at his home in Ely, England.

Cardiff led an extraordinary rich and full life dedicated to cinema. He began his career as a child actor in the 1918 silent film My Son, My Son. His long, pioneering journey as a cinematographer took off when he shot Wings Of The Morning (1947), Britain’s first film in colour. His long association with iconic British directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger began with A Matter of Life and Death (1946) and continued with Black Narcissus (1947), for which Cardiff was awarded an Oscar and a Golden Globe, and the landmark The Red Shoes (1948). Indeed, Powell has described Cardiff as “the greatest colour cameraman in the world.”

Cardiff has also worked with other all time greats of cinema such as Alfred Hitchcock (Under Capricorn, 1949), John Huston (The African Queen, 1951) and Laurence Olivier (The Prince and the Showgirl, 1957). A true renaissance man, Cardiff also excelled in direction, making 15 films including the DH Lawrence adaptation Sons and Lovers (1960) for which he won the Best Director Golden Globe and the cult film The Girl on a Motorcycle (1968). In 1994, the British Society of Cinematographers conferred upon him their Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2001 he was given an honorary Oscar.

Craig McCall who made the documentary Persistence of Vision: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff said, “Jack was a great ambassador to film. He loved it; it was his entire life and almost all the great people that we can mention crossed paths with him. He literally almost worked for 90 years, which is quite extraordinary in an industry that is just over a hundred years old.”