1901–1988 · Japan · Cinematographer
Asakazu Nakai
Kurosawa's camera for rain, mud and vast colour battlefields.
Seven Samurai, 1954Source: Wikipedia
CINEMATOGRAPHER · 1915–1987 · FRANCE
Henri Decae
Sober night photography and the first New Wave realism.
- Born
- 1915
- Died
- 1987
- Country
- France
- Field
- Cinematographer
KNOWN FOR
- 1959The 400 Blows
- 1958Elevator to the Gallows
- 1967Le Samouraï
WHY THEY MATTER
Shot founding films of the French New Wave for Jean-Pierre Melville, Louis Malle, Claude Chabrol and Francois Truffaut.
THE LIFE
Decae entered film as a sound engineer and editor and served as a photojournalist in the French army during the Second World War. After the war he made documentary and industrial shorts before his first feature in 1947. He began with Jean-Pierre Melville on Le Silence de la mer and Bob le flambeur. He then shot Louis Malle's Ascenseur pour l'echafaud, Claude Chabrol's Le Beau Serge and Francois Truffaut's Les Quatre cents coups.
Also born in 1900–1929
1901–1996 · United States · Cinematographer
John Alton
Hard shadows and pools of light that defined film noir.
T-Men, 1947Source: Wikipedia
1901–1974 · United States · Cinematographer
Leon Shamroy
Bold Technicolor of the Fox studio era.
Leave Her to Heaven, 1945Source: Wikipedia
1902–1998 · United Kingdom · Cinematographer
Freddie Young
Sweeping, lush widescreen colour.
Lawrence of Arabia, 1962Source: Wikipedia
1902–2000 · Italy · Cinematographer
Otello Martelli
Neorealist grit that opened up into Fellini's nocturnal spectacle.
La Dolce Vita, 1960Source: Wikipedia
1904–1948 · United States · Cinematographer
Gregg Toland
Deep focus, with near and far planes sharp at once.
Citizen Kane, 1941Source: Wikipedia