The Men Behind the Cameras

December is obviously the month of directors and cinematographers. Take a peek at the "Birthdays of the week" list in the right column, and you will notice directors Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise), Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Manhattan), Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless, Band of Outsiders, Crazy Pete), Otto Preminger (Laura, Anatomy of a Murder), Walt Disney and Fritz Lang (Metropolis, M, Dr. Mabuse's Testament).
Quite a few birthday children! I will therefore close the month of November on Lolita's Classics with a little tribute to the men behind the cameras, and I plan to do it with some cool pictures that [metaphorically] gather dust on my hard drive. My favorite? A certain Austrian-Hungarian with a monocle and a cigarette holder.

Lo and behold! Feast yours eyes on these marvelous photographs!

Ridley Scott.

Woody Allen.

Fritz Lang.

Walt Disney.

Jean-Luc Godard and cinematographer Raoul Coutard on the set of Crazy Pete (Pierrot le fou, 1965).

Otto Preminger.

Jean-Luc Godard and his then-wife and muse Anna Karina.

Woody Allen and his then-lover and muse Mia Farrow.

There are also two other important behind-the-camera men named in the birthday list, the first of those being Swedish cinematographer Sven Nykvist. Considered by many to be the world's greatest at his work, he worked frequently with director Ingmar Bergman and also with previously mentioned Woody Allen.

Ingmar Bergman and Sven Nykvist.

Sven Nykvist and Ingmar Bergman.

Sven Nykvist and Woody Allen.

Sven Nykvist and Woody Allen.

Among Sven Nykvist's (1922-2006) works we find Ingmar Bergman's most praised cinematic wonders, like The Virgin Spring (1960), Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Winter Light (1962) Persona (1966), Cries and Whispers (1972), Scenes from a Marriage (1973) and Fanny and Alexander (1982).
Nykvist co-operated with Woody Allen in Another Woman (1988), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) and the "Oedipus Wrecks" segment of New York Stories (1989), and with Swedish director Lasse Hallström in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) and was also the cinematographer for Sleepless in Seattle from the same year.
With a repertoire like that, it's impossible not to be amazed. Sven Nykvist worked with interpreting directors visions into film for no less than 57 years.

Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan, 1960).

Through a Glass Darkly (Såsom i en spegel, 1961).

Winter Light (Nattvardsgästerna, 1962).

Persona (1966).

Cries and Whispers (Viskningar och rop, 1972).

Scenes from a Marriage (Scener ur ett äktenskap, 1973).

Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander, 1982).

Another Woman (1988).

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).

What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993).

Sleepless in Seattle (1993).

The second cinematographer who celebrates his birthday this week is a man called William H. Daniels (1901-1970), a man who intimately captured Hollywood's most glamorous actresses (working several times with Greta Garbo and Norma Shearer) for an amazed audience to view on a big silver screen.

William H. Daniels.

William H. Daniels on the set of Love (1927), directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Greta Garbo and John Gilbert.

William H. Daniels on the set of Grand Hotel (1932), with director Edmund Goulding and actors Wallace Beery and Joan Crawford.

On the set (behind camera) of Queen Christina (1933) with director Rouben Mamoulian and actors Greta Garbo and John Gilbert.

Just like Sven Nykvist, Daniels worked for many, many years. His first project as a cinematographer was for a not totally insignificant Erich von Stroheim picture called Foolish Wives (1922), and then he continued his beloved work until the year of his death, 1970.

Foolish Wives (1922).

The Temptress (1926).

Flesh and the Devil (1926).

A Lady of Chance (1928).

A Woman of Affairs (1928).

Anna Christie (1930).

A Free Soul (1931).

Mata Hari (1931).

Dinner at Eight (1933).

Anna Karenina (1935).

Romeo and Juliet (1936).

Camille (1936).

For Me and My Gal (1942).

Harvey (1950).

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958).

Ocean's Eleven (1960).

Valley of the Dolls (1967).

Three Little Pigs (1933)

Notice the portrait of their father hanging on the wall?

Disney's 8 minute animated version of Three Little Pigs was released on this day, May 27, 1933. The audiences loved the cartoon, and theatres actually continued running it several months after its release. (Some theatre owners even draw beards on the posters of the cartoon, to mock the fact that they were still running it.) It's hit song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" immediately stuck. (Try listen to it and not sing it for the rest of the day... I failed, epically.) The song reflected and encouraged the people's attitude to the Great Depression as "the Big Bad Wolf", and even transcended into representing Hitler during WWII.

According to IMDb, Walt Disney himself actually has one of the voices to the Practical Pig. (For some reason there are two people doing his voice.)

The cartoon actually had to be cencored, believe it or not. Originally the Big Bad Wolf dressed up as a caricature of a Jewish peddler (!), but was changed to a Fuller Brush man instead (still having a Yiddish accent, though).

I read some interesting trivia about schools in England actually modified the classic tale to "Three Little Puppies" in 2007, "to avoid offending Muslim families". A man called Ibrahim Mogra from the Muslim Council of Britain made the statement "bizarre" about that move, and the tale was changed back to its original form. Jeez...

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf - big bad wolf - big bad wolf? Who's afraid of the bid bad wolf? Lalalalala...