Friday, February 29, 2008

David's Style was Elementary, My Dear Watkin


Cinematographer, David Watkin, best known for his Oscar-winning work on "Out of Africa," died from cancer at the age of 82. Watkin worked on over 60 full length films and was the famous penultimate run in "Chariots of Fire was guided by his hands.

“His work was the antithesis of the stuck, theatrical style,” Todd McCarthy, the chief film critic for Variety and a co-director of the 1992 documentary “Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography,” said in an interview this week. “What set Watkin apart was a natural-light look and a freewheeling style; the camera was liberated.”
You can read more about Watkin in his 1998 autobiography "Why is There Only One Word for Thesaurus?" Had Watkin only survived, we may have eventually received his sequel, "How Does the Dictionary define 'Dictionary'?"(1:58)

[NY Times]

No comments: