JACK CARDIFF — LUCY OLIVER

The 18th of September is my birthday and I share it with the great Jack Cardiff, filmmaker and a cinematography legend. He is best known for his work on the two great Powell and Pressburger films The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus. He used an unnatural, vivid colour palette for Black Narcissus in particular, created by chiaroscuro lighting (he had studied how Rembrandt had used light), and colour filters, both to great effect. The colour red was particularly enhanced as the characters in the two films descend into madness. He said: “I looked at each frame as a painting and then the camera became my paintbrush”. A true artist.

The image shows Kathleen Byron as Sister Ruth in Black Narcissus