Farciot Edouart

Farciot Alexander Edouart (born November 5, 1894 in California , † March 17, 1980 in Kenwood , California) was an American film technician who is one of the few filmmakers who received more Oscars than nominations. It has been nominated eight times for the Oscar for the best special effects , but has not only received it twice, but also six times the Oscar for technical achievement ( Technical Achievement Award ), three times the Oscar for science and development ( Scientific and Engineering Award ) and an honorary Oscar .

Life

Farciot Edouart began working in the Hollywood film industry in 1926 as a specialist in special effects and visual effects as well as a photographer at Paramount Pictures . After Old Ironsides (1926), he was involved in the creation of more than 300 films over the course of his career.

At the Academy Awards in 1938 he received the Scientific and Engineering Award for the first time "for the development of the dual image transparency camera structure at Paramount Pictures".

In 1939 he and the film crew for special and sound effects received the honorary Oscar "for outstanding services in the development of special photographic and sound effects in the Paramount Pictures-produced film Predator in Alaska (Spawn of the North, 1938)". Those honored included Gordon Jennings , Jan Domela , Devereaux Jennings , Irmin Roberts , Art Smith , Loyal Griggs , Loren L. Ryder , Harry D. Mills , Louis Mesenkop and Walter Oberst .

1940 was not only nominated together with G. Jennings and LL Ryder for the Oscar for the best special effects in The Woman Is Mine (Union Pacific, 1939), but also received the Oscar for technical merits for the first time with Joseph E. Robbins and William Rudolph " for the design and manufacture of a silent, portable treadmill ”. At the Academy Awards in 1941 he was nominated twice for the Oscar in the best special effects category: on the one hand, together with G. Jennings and LL Ryder for The Hell of the South Seas (1940) and, on the other hand, with G. Jennings for Dr. Cyclops (1940).

In 1942 he not only won the Oscar for the best special effects for I Wanted Wings (1941) together with G. Jennings and L. Mesenkop , but was also nominated with the two in the category for the film Aloma, the daughter of the South Seas . At the Academy Awards in 1943 he won his second Oscar for the best special effects for pirates in the Caribbean Sea (1942) together with G. Jennings, William L. Pereira and L. Mesenkop .

In 1944 he was not only nominated with G. Jennings and George Dutton for the Oscar in the category best special effects in Courageous Women (1943), but also received another Technical Achievement Award “for an automatic electrical and transparent deployment indicator”. In addition, with Earle Morgan and Barton Thompson he received another Science and Development Oscar “for the development and practical application of a method for duplicating and enlarging natural color photographs in film production, as well as the transfer of image colors onto glass plates and the projection of these transparencies through a specially designed slide projector equipment ”.

For the film Dr. Wassell's Escape from Java (1944) was nominated again with G. Jennings and G. Dutton in 1945 for an Oscar for the best special effects as well as in 1948 with D. Jennings, G. Jennings, W. Wallace Kelley , Paul K. Lerpae and G. Dutton for The Undefeated (1947). In addition, in 1948, together with Charles R. Daily , Hal Corl and HG Cartwright , he was awarded another Oscar for Technology Merit “for the first application of a special anti-solar glass for high-intensity backgrounds and spot-arc projectors”.

Most recently he received an Oscar for technical merit with H. Corl "for testing a selectable background slide projector" and another Oscar for science and technology with H. Corl "for the invention and development of a double-framed, three-headed background projector" at the 1956 Academy Awards. .

Other well-known films on which he worked as a film technician were Der unheimliche Gast (1944), Here Come the Waves (1944), A Medal for Benny (1945), Incendiary Blonde (1945), Boulevard der Dämmerung (1950), The Last Train from Gun Hill (1958), Reporter's Love (1958), Vertigo - From the Realm of the Dead (1958), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) and Rosemary's Baby (1968).

During his film production career, he has worked with directors such as Henry Hathaway , Cecil B. DeMille , Louis King , Ernest B. Schoedsack , Alfred Santell , Mitchell Leisen , Mark Sandrich , John Sturges , George Seaton , Billy Wilder , Alfred Hitchcock , Blake Edwards and Roman Polański .

Web links

• Farciot edouart in the Internet Movie Database (English)