Cardiff Documentary Opens

Starting today, Angelenos should dance their way over to the Laemmle Sunset 5 Theatre in West Hollywood, where the new documentary Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff—a labor of love (nearly fifteen years in the making!) by Craig McCall about the legendary, Oscar-winning cinematographer of The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, and many other eye-popping color masterworks—opens. This premiere comes right on the heels of an enthusiastic reception at last week’s Telluride Film Festival. McCall’s film is a gorgeous tribute to one of the original experimenters in Technicolor, who would go on to create vivid images for not only Powell and Pressburger but also Hitchcock (Under Capricorn), Henry Hathaway (The Black Rose), John Huston (The African Queen), and King Vidor (War and Peace) . . . and yes, he even shot Rambo: First Blood Part II. Cameraman is bursting with incredible anecdotes and reveals plenty of technical tricks—one of its most luminous discoveries, though, is the trove of still photographs Cardiff took of actresses, including Marlene Dietrich, Audrey Hepburn, and many others.

Cameraman will play at the New York Film Festival (in a double feature with Powell and Pressburger’s A Matter of Life and Death) on October 8; the Hamptons Film Festival on October 10 and 11; the Mill Valley Festival at the California Film Institute on October 14; and October’s Chicago International Film Festival (schedule to be announced). Click here for more info, including showtimes in the UK.