Freddie Francis
Frederick William "Freddie" Francis (born December 22, 1917 in London , England , † March 17, 2007 in Isleworth , Middlesex , England) was a British cameraman and film director . Francis is considered one of the most important cameramen in film history. He won two Academy Awards for his cinematography in the films Sons and Lovers and Glory , making him one of the few cinematographers to have received awards for films in black and white and color. As a director, he mainly shot horror films for Hammer Studios and their “rival company” Amicus Productions .
Life
Francis left school at the age of 16 and did an apprenticeship with a photographer who made stills for film productions. His interest was piqued and he stuck with film. In his seven years in the army (1939-1946) he worked in a special unit that made propaganda films.
From 1946 to 1956 he worked as a camera assistant , nine times for Christopher Challis and five times for Oswald Morris . He was involved in the John Huston films Chess the Devil (1953, Beat the Devil ) and Moby Dick (1956). As head cameraman, he then worked with the leading directors of Free Cinema : Joseph Losey , Karel Reisz , Jack Cardiff and Jack Clayton . For these films he worked in a strict and high-contrast black and white style. At the time, influential film critic Pauline Kael wrote : "Every British film that came out last year that was worth watching had Francis behind the camera."
From 1962 onwards, Francis shot horror films and psychological thrillers on a low budget for the next 20 years , "no big, but always technically flawless works", in which he tried to emulate the style of James Whale . Ironically, Francis had little sympathy for the genre itself; he even said that he never watched horror films privately. Francis also made a film in the German Edgar Wallace series ( Das Verrätertor , 1964). He attributed the success of his films to the fact that they are "99% visual [...] Most of my films, these so-called psychological thrillers, depend on the director's ability to tell a story with the camera."
After 16 years, Francis returned to camera work with David Lynch's Der Elefantenmensch (1980, The Elephant Man ) . The film, shot in black and white and cinemascope, “has a particularly 'historical' look. The light and dark areas are both very extreme, the light is soft, backgrounds often disappear in a diffusely overexposed room. ”In 1984 he worked again with David Lynch on Der Wüstenplanet ( Dune ). He received his second Oscar for Glory (1989). The film set in the American Civil War is almost exclusively kept in washed-out blue and gray tones, the colors of the warring northern and southern states.
In 1991 Martin Scorsese engaged Francis for his film Cape Fear (1991, Cape Fear ). Scorsese justified his choice as follows: “The decisive factor was Freddie's understanding of the concept of the eerie atmosphere [...] He understands this typical scene of the young woman with the candle walking down a long hallway towards a door. 'Don't go through this door!' One calls to her, and she goes in! Every time she goes in! So I say to him: 'It has to look like the hallway scene' and he understands what I mean. "
A True Story - The Straight Story , his third collaboration with David Lynch , was Francis' last film. He died in 2007.
Francis was President of the British Society of Cinematographers from 2000 to 2002 . One of the three scholarships the association awards is named after him (the other two are named after Freddie Young and Oswald Morris ).
Quotes from Freddie Francis
“I enjoy working as a cameraman, but directing is obviously more interesting. One disadvantage of working as a cameraman in the UK is the pay, which means you have to work all the time and often with people who, to be honest, don't exactly excite you. When I got the chance to direct, I decided to give it a try, and if I didn't like it, well, that would be my own problem and nobody else's. But basically, I love making films. "
“I still shoot in black and white, but of course the film becomes colored when I use color film. I know that sounds like a joke [...] but I prefer to think in terms of light and shape rather than color. "
“Anyone can take a picture of a movie - you just turn on the lights and record. I want the challenge of creating a certain atmosphere for the director and finding the right excerpt. "
Awards
- 1960: Sons and Lovers ( Sons and Lovers ): Price of the British Society of Cinematographers ; Oscar for sons and lovers
- 1973: Tales from the Crypt ( Tales from the Crypt ): British Fantasy Award for Best Film
- 1980: The Elephant Man ( The Elephant Man ): nomination for the British Academy Film Awards , the price of the British Society of Cinematographers and London Critics Circle Film Award
- 1981: The French Lieutenant's Woman ( The French Lieutenant's Woman ): Price of the British Society of Cinematographers; Nomination for the British Academy Film Award
- 1988: International Achievement Award from the American Society of Cinematographers
- 1989: Glory : nominations for the British Academy Film Award, the British Society of Cinematographers Prize; Oscar
- 1993: Cape Fear ( Cape Fear ): Nomination for the British Academy Film Award
- 1993: Special Achievement Award from the London Critics Circle Film Awards
- 1997: Lifetime Achievement Awards from the British Society of Cinematographers and the Empire Awards
- 1999: A True Story - The Straight Story : Nomination for the Camerimage Prize; New York Film Critics Circle Award
- 2000: Lifetime Achievement Award from the Evening Standard British Film Awards
- 2002: Camerimage Lifetime Achievement Award
Filmography (selection)
camera
- 1947: The affair Macomber (The Macomber Affair)
- 1956: On the front lines (A Hill in Korea)
- 1957: In the Last Hour (Time Without Pity)
- 1958: The Way Up (Room at the Top)
- 1960: Sons and Lovers (Sons and Lovers)
- 1960: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Saturday Night and Sunday Morning)
- 1961: Castle of Secrets (The Innocents)
- 1980: The Elephant Man (The Elephant Man)
- 1981: The French Lieutenant's Woman (The French Lieutenant's Woman)
- 1984: The Desert Planet (Dune)
- 1984: Memed, mein Falke (Memed My Hawk)
- 1989: Glory
- 1989: Nina's Alibi (Her Alibi)
- 1990: Stauffenberg - Conspiracy against Hitler (The Plot to Kill Hitler)
- 1991: The Man in the Moon (The Man in the Moon)
- 1991: Cape Fear (Cape Fear)
- 1994: Princess Caraboo (Princess Caraboo)
- 1999: A True Story - The Straight Story (The Straight Story)
Director
- 1962: A dead man seeks his killer (The Brain)
- 1963: House of Horror (Paranoiac)
- 1964: Satan with Long Eyelashes (Nightmare)
- 1964: The Traitor's Gate
- 1964: Frankenstein's Monsters (The Evil of Frankenstein)
- 1965: The death cards of Dr. Schreck (Dr. Terror's House of Horrors)
- 1965: Hysteria
- 1965: The Skull of the Marquis de Sade (The Skull)
- 1966: The Puppet Killer (The Psychopath)
- 1966: The Deadly Bees (The Deadly Bees)
- 1967: The torture garden of Dr. Diabolo (Torture Garden)
- 1967: They Came from Beyond Space
- 1968: Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (Dracula Has Risen from the Grave)
- 1969: The Monster (The Trog)
- 1970: Bites only take place at night - the vampire happening
- 1971: Homicide (Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny & Girly)
- 1972: Tales from the Crypt (Tales from the Crypt)
- 1973: The Night When the Skeleton Wakes (The Creeping Flesh)
- 1974: Demon of Horror (Craze)
- 1974: Son of Dracula
- 1975: The Ghoul
- 1975: Legend of the Werewolf
- 1985: The Doctor and the Devils
- 1989: Skyscraper of Terror (Dark Tower)
- 1996: Tales from the Crypt
literature
- Peter M. Gaschler: Freddie and the fans. Freddie Francis (1917-2007). In: Sascha Mamczak , Wolfgang Jeschke (ed.): Das Science Fiction Jahr 2008. Heyne, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-453-52436-1 , pp. 1036-1048.
Web links
- Freddie Francis in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Report on film.guardian.co.uk.
- ↑ a b Jürgen Müller: The best films of the 80s. Cologne 2005. p. 29.
- ^ John Brosnan: The Horror People. 1976.
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Francis, Freddie |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Francis, Frederick William (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British cameraman, twice Oscar |
DATE OF BIRTH | December 22, 1917 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | London , England |
DATE OF DEATH | March 17, 2007 |
Place of death | Isleworth , Middlesex , England |