Lee Garmes
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Lee Garmes (born May 27, 1898 in Peoria , Illinois , † August 31, 1978 in Los Angeles , California ; actually Lee Dewey Garmes ) was an American cameraman , film producer and director . Garmes was nominated four times for an Oscar for best camera . He received the trophy in 1932 for his work on Josef von Sternberg's adventure film Shanghai Express .
Life
Garmes attended North Denver High School in Colorado. In 1916 he began as an assistant to the stage painter at Thomas Ince Studios. Together with Henry Hathaway he worked for about a year and a half as a camera assistant for John Leezer , mostly on short films and slapstick comedies. After joining the Warner Brothers , Garmes made his first film as a cameraman in 1924, Find Your Man , with Rin Tin Tin in one of the leading roles. In 1933 Garmes married the actress Ruth Hall , the marriage lasted until Garmes death in 1978. From 1960 to 1961 Garmes was president of the ASC and in 1972 founded the Independent Screen Producers Association with others .
After Garme's first film as a cameraman, Find Your Man , the production of The Lighthouse by the Sea followed , also for director Malcolm St. Clair . Shortly after filming began, Gamers was fired and replaced by H. Lyman Broening. Garmes moved from Warner Bros. to Harry J. Brown Productions and shot a few films there, directed by Albert S. Rogell, before returning to St. Clair and the subsequent Paramount Pictures in 1926 , producing The Grand Duchess and the Waiter worked. In order to achieve the grisaille effect desired by St. Clair , Garmes and St. Clair had the various backdrops and furniture on the set painted in different shades of gray.
After a few more films for St. Clair, The Garden of Allah followed in 1926 , directed by Rex Ingram . The film, shot in France and Africa, was the second adaptation of the novel of the same name by Robert S. Hichens. As head of the camera team, Garmes was urged by director Ingram to use the northern light effect developed by John F. Seitz during the shooting. Seitz had based himself on Rembrandt van Rijn's painting and used lighting falling onto the set from the north, creating strong contrasts and deep shadows. Garmes was convinced by Ingram and was so enthusiastic about the results that from then on the northern light effect became his trademark.
Garmes was constantly experimenting with light and shadow, using the tricks he had learned from John Leezer. For example, the camera lens was covered with gauze to hide unimportant details; in low-budget productions that were shot outdoors because there was not enough money for the lighting, reflectors were set up to catch the sunlight and thus to show the scenes illuminate. In 1927 the Panchromatic film was introduced in Hollywood Studios. This footage was sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light and enabled more realistic recordings.
Lee Garmes, together with Walter Strohm, the chief engineer of the production company Mole-Richardson Company , carried out experiments with the new film material and new headlights, the Mazda lights . The tests were successful and the Mazda lights became the standard lighting of the film studios, as they provided better illumination while at the same time reducing costs through lower power consumption and less heat generation.
After Garmes until the end of the 1920s for Alexander Korda , George Fitzmaurice and Michael Curtiz was behind the camera, he led in 1930 the camera of Josef von Sternberg's drama Morocco , Marlene Dietrich's first Hollywood film, which is also the debut of Garmes camera assistant Lucien Ballard was . The shooting took place in the San Fernando Valley of California. Garmes first tried to film Dietrich with a sidelight and quickly found out that this type of illumination was the same with which cameraman William H. Daniels filmed Greta Garbo . Garmes, aware that the production company Paramount wanted a second Garbo , decided to film Marlene Dietrich with the northern light effect. Garmes was nominated for an Oscar in 1931 for his camera work .
In 1931 Garmes used the camera in two more films by Josef von Sternberg. First in Dishonored , a melodrama with Marlene Dietrich as a spy, then in An American Tragedy , a drama based on Theodore Dreiser , with Sylvia Sidney in the lead role. Garmes worked again with von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich on the production of Shanghai Express . In addition to Dietrich, Anna May Wong played another leading role. Garmes used a low-key technique to effectively place lockpicks in the picture. Garme's camera assistant was James Wong Howe , who was not mentioned in the credits . Lee Garmes was honored with an Oscar for his performance .
For Howard Hawks , Garmes was behind the camera in 1932 in the production of Scarface , a gangster film with Paul Muni in the title role. In the mid to late 1930s, Garmes led the camera on some of Ben Hecht's films , such as Crime Without Passion , 1934 and A Charming Villain , 1935. In 1940, Garmes was a cameraman and co-director alongside Hecht, who was director and screenwriter. Director of the production of Angels over Broadway . Garmes had worked as a co-director on the German production Der träumende Mund in 1932 and on The Sky's the Limit in 1937 . In 1939 Garmes shot a part of Gone with the Wind was then replaced by David O. Selznick by Ernest Haller , who was awarded an Oscar for best camera .
In the early 1940s, Garmes was behind the camera in the film adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book , directed by Zoltan Korda . In 1944 Garmes worked with Stanley Cortez on the film adaptation of the novel When you said goodbye to Margaret Buell Wilder. The two cameramen shared an Oscar nomination for their achievements ; the trophy went to Joseph LaShelle for his work on Laura . After The Double Life of Mr. Mitty, a comedy starring Danny Kaye , Garmes directed King Vidor's Duel in the Sun and Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradin Case in 1947 .
In the 1950s, Garmes was behind the camera for William Wyler in the production of Police Station 21 . The film was based on a play by Sidney Kingsley, with Kirk Douglas and Eleanor Parker in the lead roles. Garmes also worked for Wyler in 1955 at A Day Like Any Other . Garmes had previously directed the camera at Hot West in 1953 and worked as a co-director. Hot West was one of the first 3D color films . Since the quality was not satisfactory, the film was shown again in black and white a year later. In 1959 Der Fischer von Galiläa wrote a three-hour epic about Simon Peter . Garmes received another Academy Award nomination for his performance in the first 70mm Super Panavision film.
During the 1960s Garmes made four films, with Zärtlich snaps the trap , a comedy starring Dean Martin , Garmes ended his career as a cameraman in 1968.
Filmography
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Web links
- Lee Garmes in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers p. 310
- ^ Internet Encyclopedia of Cinematographers
- ^ Mole-Richardson Inc. History
- ↑ Lee Garmes Biography
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Garmes, Lee |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Garmes, Lee Dewey (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American cinematographer, film producer and director |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 27, 1898 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Peoria , Illinois |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 31, 1978 |
| Place of death | Los Angeles , California |