Youngest cameraman to have been made a Director of Photography on a film, Robert Krasker was responsible for lighting and photography on Odd Man Out and Henry V.
The stars of the cinema, like the stars of the firmament, are all different shapes and sizes, and scintillates in his (or her) own particular way.
Each requires a different camera or lighting treatment to bring out the individual quality of perfection.
This problem lies at the root of all my activities in my job as a camera and lighting expert.
You may quarrel with the phrase “individual quality of perfection”, but I use it purposefully.
In my mind perfection, even if one limits it only to physical beauty, can be achieved in many different ways.
Renee Asherson has a cheeky tip-tilted nose, perfect for her part in Henry V.
Kathleen Ryan’s nose is straight and classic, perfect for her restrained performance in Odd Man Out.
These are only two examples, but I hope they make my meaning clear.
It is not necessarily the duty of the cameraman to glamorize or beautify. Most of the stars nee little help in this direction, anyway.
What the cameraman must do is to study their personalities, both physical and mental, and try to put this on the screen without the loss of their innate perfection, even if this must be expressed in two dimensions instead of three.
Some ill-informed person once said that the camera cannot lie. No statement could be further from the truth.
When handled badly it can lie atrociously and completely transform the appearance and personality of the person before the lens.
The basis of good camera work, contrary to popular illusion, lies in truth; and the truth, even when it is perfection, is sometimes a little tricky to handle.
Take the late Leslie Howard, for example. He was so anxious to appear entirely natural on the screen that he refused to use any make-up whatsoever.
This little idiosyncrasy was for me a big problem, for quite often he was surrounded by other actors in the film for whom make-up was a necessity.
In short, I had to combine two lighting techniques in one shot.
Leslie Howard’s film, The Gentle Sex, also presented me with a most interesting problem. Seven actresses, all in their own way beautiful, all playing roles of equal importance, yet all with widely differing looks and personalities.
To have treated them all with the same technique would have been courting “flatness” and artistic boredom.
I had to work out a different approach for each and mould them into a cohesive and practical while.
Rosamund John has a most interesting face, almost a perfect oval with smooth and gentle contours. The trouble from my point of view with this type of face is the danger of giving a totally untrue impression of plumpness.
I, therefore, usually photographed her from slightly above eye-level, using long shadows to catch the subtle quality of feature.
Jean Gillie was comparatively easy, for she is undoubtedly one of the most lovely women on screen, but even the completely photogenic face has its pitfalls for the lighting expert, pitfalls that are the more dangerous because they are difficult to detect.
Whilst I assert that that it is essential to capture a star’s complete character in the lens, I do believe that as a general rule the more obvious characteristics should be understated, for by their very obviousness they will speak for themselves without my interference.
Joan Greenwood is an example. She has the sweetest and tenderest of expressions, but to strive always for sweetness and tenderness would merely hide the strength of character that lies behind it all.
If you were to ask me what I considered to be the most important features to be looked for in a search for a completely photogenic person, I would list them as follows in order of priority: Nose, eyes, lines of expression, chin-line, cheek-bones, teeth, hair-line and mouth.
The ideal in each of these is, of course, a matter of opinion, but as a guide to my own view, I will say quite definitely that Vivien Leigh comes nearest to my idea of camera perfection.
I first photographed her in Caesar and Cleopatra, and she is the only film star in my experience, both sides of whose face are precisely similar.
It may not be commonly know that almost everybody’s face differs slightly one side from the other, automatically making for all of us a “good” and a “bad” side.
As I say, Vivien is an exception, and it is easy to see how much simpler the director’s and my own jobs are made, if we do not have to worry which side the camera “sees”.
The reason why I put the nose so high on the list is because of shadow. An unfortunate nose shadow can literally “kill” a face’s character.
It is one of the most important things a camera-technician has to look for, but on the other hand, do not think that prominent features are always fraught with danger.
Almost all of Laurence Olivier’s features are deeply chiselled and yet he is a fine camera subject. I always concentrate on his truly magnificent eyes.
The same with James Mason and Celia Johnson, whom I photographed in Odd Man Out and Brief Encounter respectively, that their eyes are the storytellers of their personalities, and it applies to many others besides.
After all when you talk to someone, you automatically look into their eyes, thus one of the secrets of camera work is to take this human habit into account and inject it into an inanimate object, namely the camera.
I recently finished the Two Cities’ film Uncle Silas. The stars include a woman and a girl, both of whom I class amongst my most fascinating subjects.
The woman is Katina Paxinou. Although she is a mature actress, her face has all the vivacity and mobility of youth and her wonderful eyes and expressive hands vie for first place in her list of photogenic qualities.
The girl is Jean Simmons, and here again I am categorical in stating my opinion. Apart from her proven ability as an actress, she is almost perfect camera material.
Her hair, lips and eyes are outstandingly beautiful, and she achieves the one thing that I yearn for in all actors and actresses. She “forgets the camera” and, as a result, behaves perfectly naturally in front of it.
Links
- Schüren Verlag – Farbige Schatten – Der Kameramann Robert Krasker, by Falk Schwarz
The Robert Krasker Project 