A Changing Visual Landscape: British Cinematography in the 1960s

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
Beteiligte: Petrie, Duncan
In: Journal of British Cinema and Television, 15, 2018, 2, S. 204-227
veröffentlicht:
Edinburgh University Press
Medientyp: Artikel, E-Artikel

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Umfang: 204-227
ISSN: 1743-4521
1755-1714
DOI: 10.3366/jbctv.2018.0415
veröffentlicht in: Journal of British Cinema and Television
Sprache: Englisch
Schlagwörter:
Kollektion: Edinburgh University Press (CrossRef)
Inhaltsangabe

<jats:p>British cinema of the 1960s offers a productive terrain for the consideration of the significance and contribution of the cinematographer, a rather neglected and marginalised figure in British cinema studies. The work of British practitioners certainly achieved new levels of international recognition during this period, with the award of five Oscars for Best Cinematography between 1960 and 1969, equalling the total from the previous twenty years. A survey of the films made in Britain during the decade also reveals a gradual transformation in visual style: from a predominance of black and white to the ubiquity of colour; from hard-edged, high-contrast lighting to a softer, more diffused use of illumination; from carefully composed images and minimal camera movement to a much freer, more mobile and spontaneous visual register; from the aesthetics of classicism to a much more self-conscious use of form appropriate to a decade associated with a new emphasis on spectacle and sensation. This article will examine major achievements in 1960s British cinematography, focusing on the factors noted above and giving particular consideration to the contribution of a small number of key practitioners including Walter Lassally, David Watkin, Nicolas Roeg and Freddie Young, who individually and collectively helped to affirm the 1960s as a particularly creative period in British cinema.</jats:p>