Joseph C. Brun

Joseph C. Brun (born April 21, 1907 as Joseph Braun in Paris , † November 13, 1998 in Boca Raton , Florida , USA ) was a French-American cameraman .

Live and act

Born in Paris, Joseph Braun completed his photography studies at the Institute d'Optique with a diploma and initially worked as a teacher. Between 1933 and 1935 he taught at the École Technique du Cinéma. During this time he gained practical experience as a camera assistant at Paramount studios in Joinville and learned the practical side of working as a cameraman from experienced colleagues such as Harry Stradling Sr. , John Alton and Phil Tannura . During this time he was involved in several films, including " Mensch unter Menschen " (Les Misérables, 1933) and " L'escadrille de la chance " (1937).

Within a few years, Brun rose to be chief cameraman. At the side of his colleague Enzo Riccioni, he shot his first two full-length feature films in 1938 as head cameraman, but initially specialized in (documentary) shorts. On the side he shot his own documentary with “ Baléars ”. At the beginning of the Second World War, the Jew Braun managed to escape to Canada . In 1944 he began training cameramen on the National Film Board in Ottawa for the Canadian Army Film Unit . After the war, Brun settled in New York. In 1947 he became an American citizen, two years later he joined the professional organization of US cameramen, the ASC .

For a long time, Brun had to be content with smaller tasks. Most of the time he shot individual scenes, documentaries or complete documentaries. On Howard Hawks ' Africa adventure film Hatari! Brun was responsible for most of the on-site and animal-catching shots, the following year (1962) he had another animal with Flipper , this time a dolphin , as the star in front of the lens. Since 1951, Joseph Brun has also been shooting regular Hollywood feature films on his own responsibility. His personal style, the documentarist's gaze, is most effective in his black and white work. Above all, the two socially critical racial or worker and crime dramas A man conquers fear and Little Chances for Tomorrow owe a large part of their impact to Brun's unpretentious photography.

Between 1952 and 1955 he was mainly at home in European (German and French) studios. During this time he photographed in 1952 in German-American co-production a Martin Luther - film for which he 1954 an Oscar nomination should receive. Also in Germany in 1954 was the east-west comedy From Heaven, with Joseph Cotten and numerous German actors. When he was not filming a movie, Brun had also photographed television commercials. In the course of the 1970s he retired into private life, to Florida.

Filmography

• 1938: Visages de femme
• 1938: L'avion de minuit
• 1949: Congo - Flaming Wilderness ( Savage Splendor ) (documentary)
• 1951: The Whistle at Eaton Falls
• 1952: Walk East on Beacon
• 1952: Martin Luther ( Martin Luther )
• 1953: The Brown Bomber ( The Joe Louis Story )
• 1955: Fallen From Heaven ( Special Delivery )
• 1955: Impasse des vertus
• 1955: At night on Montmartre ( Les nuits de Montmartre )
• 1955: Parisian air ( Cette sacrée gamine )
• 1957: A Man Conquers Fear ( Edge of the City )
• 1957: Windjammer ( Windjammer ) (documentary)
• 1958: marsh underfoot ( Wind Across the Everglades )
• 1958: In the middle of the night ( Middle of the Night )
• 1959: Odds Against Tomorrow ( Odds Against Tomorrow )
• 1959: Thunder in Carolina
• 1960: Girls on call ( Girl of the Night )
• 1961: Hatari! ( Hatari! ) (Only documentary and additional scenes)
• 1962: pinball machine
• 1965: The Fat Spy
• 1965: Who Killed Teddy Bear?
• 1969 slaves ( slaves )
• 1969: The Blast / Explosion
• 1970: 300 Year Weekend
• 1972: trauma - chase at midnight ( Una secretaria para matar )

literature

• Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary. The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 1: A - C. Erik Aaes - Jack Carson. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 588 f.

Web links

• Joseph C. Brun in the Internet Movie Database (English)