Film-making is a collaborative business and, when it comes to the way a film looks, the critical relationship is that between the director and the cinematographer - now often called the director of photography - whose role in the enterprise is too often undervalued, if not wholly overlooked. Yet, as this book shows, the cinematographer's contribution to many great movies has been both vital and distinctive, and director-cinematographer partnerships, such as those between David Lean and Freddie Young or Ingmar Bergman and Sven Nykvist, have played a significant role in the history of the cinema. This book systematically examines and documents the technical and creative role of the cinematographer in European cinema over the past 100 years. It has been compiled under the aegis of the Association of European Cinematographers (Imago) and the contributors include many distinguished figures in European cinema history such as the director Bernardo Bertolucci, the actor Marcello Mastroianni, cinematographers Sven Nykvist, Jack Cardiff and Giuseppe Rotunno and a number of leading film historians. Individual contributions cover a wide range of themes, periods and genres and combine to provide an authoritative treatment of the subject. At the heart of the book is a section containing a film-by-film analysis of the 100 European films, which, according to a jury of contemporary cinematographers, represent the very best examples of their art and demonstrate technical or creative mastery on the part of the cinematographer concerned. Illustrated in colour throughout, "Making Pictures" contributes to the history of the European cinema, both illustrating and celebrating the work of a group of people whose contribution to the art form has been too little recognised. Filled with hundreds of stills (all in the original screen formats) from films both famous and forgotten, and a text that provides vivid reminiscences of working with some of the greatest figures in world cinema as well as insights into the history and technicalities of cinematography, this book is a major work or reference.
