Oswald Morris

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Oswald Morris , OBE (born November 22, 1915 in Hillingdon , Middlesex , † March 17, 2014 in Dorset ) was a British cameraman . Morris was considered one of the most important cameramen in English cinema. He won an Oscar and three consecutive British film awards for his work.

Life

Even as a schoolboy, Morris was a film fool and worked as a projectionist during his holidays. At 16 he dropped out of school to enter the film business as an unpaid “girl for everything”. He was particularly interested in the work of the camera team and worked as a camera assistant from 1935. During World War II he served as a bomber pilot in the Royal Air Force . In 1946 he began working as a cameraman for independent productions at Pinewood Studios . There he was camera assistant on David Lean's Oliver Twist film adaptation of 1948, while 20 years later he worked on Carol Reed's musical adaptation of Oliver! was hired as chief cameraman and received an Oscar nomination for it.

From 1949 to 1979 he worked as head cameraman for a number of well-known and very different films, from thrillers to musicals. 1980 and 1981, he returned to The Great Muppet Caper (The Great Muppet Caper) and The Dark Crystal (The Dark Crystal) once again behind the camera. Best known are his work with directors Carol Reed, Sidney Lumet , Tony Richardson and above all John Huston , with whom he made a total of eight films.

Morris was an honorary member of the British Society of Cinematographers and was its president from 1960 to 1962. He received the Order of the British Empire in 1998 . His memoir is ironically titled Huston, We Have a Problem .

style

Morris is recognized as one of the most innovative of all cameramen, especially for his specially created color styles:

  • Moulin Rouge is reminiscent of the posters by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in terms of image composition and color scheme. Morris photographed through artificial fog and smoke, using extreme colors for lighting and costumes.
  • Moby Dick is reminiscent of the faded pastel tones of 19th century copperplate engravings. To achieve this effect, Morris removed color from the film during the development process using matrices in black and white and an additional silver alloy.
  • In The Taming of the Shrew (The Taming of the Shrew) the set was so illuminated that the images Renaissance -Painting equalized.
  • In the original version of Spiegelbild im goldennen Augen (Reflections in a Golden Eye) , all persons and objects in all scenes are immersed in gold with one exception each (for example a rose). This version confused the test audience and the film was released in a plain color version.
  • Morris photographed the entire film Anatevka (Fiddler on the Roof) with a gauze stocking over the lens to create the shimmering effect of the images. The musical number Tevjes Traum is kept entirely in sepia tones .
  • The Wiz - The Wizard of Oz (The Wiz) is one of the most contrasty and brillantesten color films ever. The effects were achieved partly through frontal lighting and partly through reflective costumes.

Filmography (selection)

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ RIP cinematographer Oswald Morris
personal data
SURNAME Morris, Oswald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British cameraman
DATE OF BIRTH November 22, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Hillingdon , Middlesex
DATE OF DEATH 17th March 2014
Place of death Dorset