Cinematographers as Directors

My research for this piece didn't come out quite as I'd hoped. It appears that a good number of big-time cinematographers either never directed a movie or directed a small amount of which I've never heard. Based on simple observation, it doesn't seem like they make the jump to director as much or with as much success as editors (I may dive into that subject in the near future). Of my initial list of about 15 cinematographers, I'm down to six, but instead of scrapping the topic, I still found a lot of interest in this small sample size.

Freddie Francis

Cinematographer: The Innocents, The Elephant Man, Cape Fear Remake

Director: Girly, lots of cheesy horror movies.

Freddie Francis is really the reason for writing this now. I just watched Girly and it was one of the weirdest movie watching experiences of my life. I really didn't know what to make of the film (but there will be more on that when I get to my Week in Netflix column). One can kind of see why Francis would go for the weird horror films what with his relationship with David Lynch, but his cinematography in The Innocents is the definition of classy. When I think of that or The Elephant Man in comparison to Girly, I can't believe that the same person had a hand in both (seriously, how does a DP not want to take control of the lighting when he's directing?). Francis had a 16-year gap between films he DP'd mostly through the '70s. I wonder if he returned to it because his directing career was a bit too odd.

Jack Cardiff

Cinematographer: Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes, The African Queen

Director: The Mutations

Cardiff is the reason I ever thought of this post. The projectionist at the Hollywood Theatre has a collection of 35mm trailers and The Mutations is one of them. When I saw The Mutations trailer and that Jack Cardiff was the director, I could hardly believe that the man responsible for some of the most beautiful images ever put to screen could be involved in that. But he was! I still have trouble believing it and can't imagine what drew Cardiff to the material. He's directed many other films, but I don't know anything about them. A quick survey of them makes The Mutations stand out all the more (note: The Mutations looks awesome).

Caleb Deschanel

Cinematographer: Being There, The Right Stuff, The Natural, The Passion of the Christ

Director: Twin Peaks, Law and Order: Trial by Jury, Bones

Deschanel directed to movies that I haven't seen, but his recent directorial output (and Twin Peaks is hardly recent) is all TV. This strikes me as he takes the opportunities when they come. And Bones has to be solely because his daughter is on the show. It is mildly interesting that all of the TV shows are based around criminal investigations.

(no TV show clips because they already pretty much have a look)

Janusz Kaminski

Cinematographer: pretty much everything Spielberg has made from Schindler's List on

Director: Lost Souls, The Event

Just as George-Michael is an Ann-hog, Steven Spielberg is a Janusz Kaminski-hog. I can only take solace in that fact that before Spielberg got him, Kaminski shot Cool as Ice a mere two years prior to Schindler's List, which blows my mind. I have not seen Lost Souls, but I have seen the trailer and I can't help but wonder why he would risk screwing up the Spielberg gravy train for this. Then again, I doubt that was ever a risk.

Gordon Willis

Cinematographer: The Godfather Trilogy, All the President's Men, Annie Hall

Director: Windows

He had lengthy relationships with both Francis Ford Coppola and Woody Allen, but his sole directorial effort sounds like pure exploitation (taken from IMDB): "Shire is the subject of a perverse obsession by a Lesbian neighbor, Andrea, who not only is in lust with her but hires a rapist in order to get audio tapes of her moaning. Ashley turns pepping tom and watches Shire with a telescope as she begins an affair with Det. Cortese." At least he served as his own cinematographer on this one. I can't find a clip of it, but I'm intrigued to see if it looks any good because it doesn't sound that good.

Haskell Wexler

Cinematographer: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Faces, The Conversation, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Director: Medium Cool

Wexler's directorial work has primarily been in documentary, which makes sense since Medium Cool is most famous for shooting during the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention riots (which is the only reason I can think of to watch the movie, because it's not very good (more appropriately, I don't like it). I didn't realize that Wexler had shot so many great movies until looking him up for this post.

The lesson I take from all of this? Cinematographers aren't offered many movies to direct and have to take what presents itself or develop something themselves. And possibly that cinematographers don't care much about directing.