IEC
GREAT CINEMATOGRAPHERS
#3: [Left] with dir Jules Dassin - "Up Tight!"
BORIS KAUFMAN
Born: 24 August 1906, Bialystok, Congress Poland [part of the Russian Empire], as Boris Abelevich Kaufman [Борис Абелевич Кауфман], son of Abel Kaufman, a bookshop owner, and Fejga Galpern.
Died: 24 June 1980, New York City, N.Y., USA.
Education: Sorbonne University, Paris, France.
Career: After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Poland regained its independence, and Boris, together with his parents, moved to Poland. His brothers Mikhail [birth name: Moishe] Abramovich [Михаил Абрамович Кауфман, 1897-1980] and Denis [birth name: David] Abelevich [later: Arkadievich] [Давид А́белевич Кaуфман; known as Dziga Vertov (Дзига Вертов), 1896-1954] stayed in the Soviet Union. Traveled to Germany and Belgium and arrived in Paris in 1927. Entered the film industry in 1928 in France as doph. He served in the French Army during WWII and, after the Nazi occupation began, managed to escape to Canada. After working briefly with John Grierson, for the National Film Board of Canada, he moved to the United States in 1942. The unions didn't give him permission to work in Hollywood, so he turned to ph doc's. He was ph with the US Office of War Information [OWI]. His Russian origins and avant-garde Parisian experience were increasingly a liability under McCarthyism. He was forced to renounce his brothers, stating he had no living relatives in Russia.
Retired in 1969.
Was a member of the ASC.
Boris - Moishe/Mikhail - David/Denis
Film about the 3 brothers: 'Dziga i ego bratya/Dziga and His Brothers [- A Film Family on the Cutting Edge]' [2002, Yevgeni Tsymbal; ph: Alexander Burov; 52m].
Appeared in the doc 'Operator Kaufman' [1998, Rasmus Gerlach; ph: R. Gerlach & Irina Linke; 52m].
Awards: 'Oscar' AA [1954; b&w] & Golden Globe Award [1955] for 'On the Waterfront'; 'Oscar' AA nom [1956; b&w] for 'Baby Doll'.
GO TO FILMS
#1: Accepting the 'Oscar' for "On the Waterfront"
The biggest mystery about Boris Kaufman is why he never directed a film. As a rule, any director of photography of his stature and taste for independence will, at least once in his life, wish to sit in the director's seat. Instead, that taste for independence was manifested in both frequent change of pace in his career and contract-free work on films which he obviously cared for, with directors with whom he felt at home. Vigo, Kazan, Lumet: all profited immeasurably from his work; according to Kaufman himself, his was the decision to use a hand-held camera for 'À propos de Nice'; he also convinced Kazan to make 'On the Waterfront' entirely on location. When Kaufman arrived in New York, his intention was to go to Hollywood. The unions were having none of that, however, and so his name disappeared from mainstream cinema, to resurface in the documentary tradition which was, after all, where he had started in France. It's possible that Hollywood might have tamed him, given him a contract at MGM and turned him into an unhappy technician shooting second units on Lassie films. The alternative scenario would give him the opportunity to change the cinematic look of Los Angeles in the same way he did for New York in films like 'On the Waterfront' and 'The Pawnbroker'. [Markku Salmi in 'Film Dope', #29, March 1984.]
#1: BK - Elia Kazan - Carroll Baker - Karl Malden - "Baby Doll" [1955]
#2: Marlon Brando - Joanne Woodward - Anna Magnani - Sidney Lumet - BK - "The Fugitive Kind" [1959]
In his long career, Boris Kaufman filmed newsreels, avant-garde films, documentaries, industrials, commercials, and feature films, winning an Academy Award for black-and-white cinematography in 1954 and maintaining lengthy collaborations with three notable movie directors - Jean Vigo, Elia Kazan, and Sidney Lumet.
After filming experimental films, Kaufman was invited by Jean Vigo to work with him on 'À propos de Nice', a short, shocking satire on upper- and middle-class lifestyles in that resort city. Kaufman used a Kinamo [one of the first hand-held 35mm cameras, which his brother Denis had brought him in 1927] "to get rid of the tripod, to be more flexible, and to avoid being noticed by the people we were filming."
Their second film, 'Zéro de conduite', was shot in 16½ days - seven in a Paris studio for the interiors, then nine-and-a-half in a school in suburban St. Cloud. The shooting ratio was two or three to one, which was all they could afford. For the sound shooting Kaufman used a Debrie camera, and for more flexibility, the little Kinamo. Their final film, 'L'Atalante', was shot on a barge on the canals around Paris in late fall and winter, in bitter cold. Vigo's frail health gave out completely, just as the filming was finished; his death soon afterwards, at age 29, ended their close personal friendship, as well as the avant-garde phase of Kaufman's career. The Vigo-Kaufman collaboration lasted only five years, but was one of the most creative and memorable in film history, ranking perhaps with Griffith and Bitzer and Eisenstein and Tisse.
In the middle and late 1930s, Kaufman worked as staff cameraman at Paramount's Paris studio, where he began learning English, and on numerous European features, little known today. In the Second World War he was drafted into the army as a French citizen, and, when France fell, escaped to the United States with his wife and their son. For the remaining war years, he worked at the National Film Board of Canada in Ottawa and at the Office of War Information in New York. As documentary assignments grew scarcer and less challenging, he began shooting industrial films - and those new one-minute oddities called TV commercials. He longed to return to feature dramatic films, but Hollywood was out of the question.
When Kaufman heard that Elia Kazan was going to shoot 'On the Waterfront' in New Jersey, he wanted to show him 'L'Atalante', but could not find a print in the United States. He showed two of his American documentaries instead, and got the job anyway, beginning the second of his three important collaborations. After filming on the docks and rooftops, Kazan gave Kaufman the choice of filming the interiors in a studio or on location. Later, Kaufman said that while studio shooting would have been easier, especially in dead of winter, he preferred "the patina of reality" they found in waterfront bars and sixth-floor tenements. "I drew upon my experience. I developed ways to apply precise lighting on location, which is not easy. By precision lighting I mean lighting that has a meaning. Of course, the only meaning of lighting is to reveal the inner expression of the face or the mood of a place."
Kaufman was thought by some producers to be 'slow'. Kazan may have had this in his mind when he wrote, after Boris's death, for a tribute at the Museum of Modern Art: "Poetry, as everyone knows who's tried it, takes a little longer. He didn't hurry his pace, become careless, diminish his devotion."
Kaufman's third major collaboration was in 1956 with '12 Angry Men', Sidney Lumet's first film. They worked together off and on for some ten years. Lumet considers 'Long Day's Journey Into Night' their "closest and most successful collaboration.".
It was Kaufman's increasing burden, especially later in his career, that he often knew and cared more about the 'pictures' he worked on than their directors did. Nothing, of course, could equal the first great collaboration with Vigo, when they were young. "I had no second thoughts about risks involved," Kaufman later recalled. "When you carry a bigger responsibility in a larger picture, you have to be conscious of many things - and you discipline yourself just to survive in available conditions... This art form has to survive in very materialistic and utilitarian conditions, which is not easy." No one ever accused Boris Kaufman of taking the easy way. [From article by Cecile Starr on the encyclopedia.com website]
| FILMS | |
|---|---|
|
1927 |
Les Halles centrales [Boris Kaufman] b&w; doc/7m |
|
1928 |
Champs-Élysées [Jean Lods] b&w; doc/?m |
|
1928 |
La marche des machines [Eugène Deslaw] b&w; exp short/9m |
|
1928 |
24 heures en 30 minutes [Jean Lods] b&w; doc/?m |
|
1929 |
À propos de Nice/Nizza/On the Subject of Nice [Jean Vigo] b&w; doc/23m |
|
1929 |
Halles/Paris Markets [André Galitzine & Boris Kaufman] b&w; doc/23m |
|
1930 |
L'équipe/L'étoile du nord [Jean Lods] b&w |
|
1931 |
La natation par Jean Taris, champion de France/Taris, champion de natation/Taris, roi de l'eau [Jean Vigo] b&w; doc/10m |
|
1931 |
La vie d'un fleuve: La Seine [Jean Lods] b&w; doc/25m |
|
1932 |
Le mile [de Jules Ladoumègue] [Jean Lods] b&w; doc/41m |
|
1932 |
Travaux du tunnel sous l'Escaut [Henri Storck] b&w; doc/20m; cph: Michel Kelber & Louis Berger; film is lost |
|
1933 |
Zéro de conduite [: Jeunes diables au collège]/Zero for Conduct [Jean Vigo] b&w; short/41m |
|
1933 |
Le client du numéro 16 [Jean Mamy] b&w; short/47m; ep series 'Une heure d'angoisse' |
|
1933 |
Une vilaine histoire [Christian-Jaque] b&w; short/44m; ep series 'Une heure d'angoisse' |
|
1933 |
Le chemin du bonheur [Jean Mamy] b&w |
|
1933 |
L'Atalante/Le chaland qui passe [Jean Vigo] b&w; cph: Louis Berger; restored in 1990 |
|
1934 |
Le Père Lampion [Christian-Jaque] b&w |
|
1934 |
Zouzou/Zou Zou [Marc Allégret] b&w; cph (?): Michel Kelber, Jacques Mercanton & Louis Née |
|
1934 |
Perfidie [Roger Capellani] b&w; short/39m; ep series 'Une heure d'angoisse' |
|
1934 |
Torture [Roger Capellani] b&w; short/39m; ep series 'Une heure d'angoisse' |
|
1934 |
Lui.. ou.. elle [Roger Capellani] b&w; short/45m; ep series 'Une heure d'angoisse' |
|
1935 |
Lucrèce Borgia/Lucrezia Borgia [Abel Gance] b&w; cph: Roger Hubert |
|
1935 |
Les berceaux [Dimitri Kirsanoff] b&w; exp mus short/5m; a 'Cinéphonie' d'Émile Vuillermoz |
|
1935 |
La fontaine d'Aréthuse [Dimitri Kirsanoff] b&w; exp mus short/6m; a 'Cinéphonie' d'Émile Vuillermoz |
|
1935 |
Jeune fille au jardin [Dimitri Kirsanoff] b&w; exp mus short/4m; a 'Cinéphonie' d'Émile Vuillermoz |
|
1935 |
Quand minuit sonnera [Léo Joannon] b&w; cph: André Bac |
|
1936 |
Klokslag twaalf [Léo Joannon] b&w; cph: André Bac; Dutch-language version of 'Quand minuit sonnera' |
|
1936 |
Le petit chemin [D.B. Maurice (= Maurice Diamant-Berger)] b&w; short/29m |
|
1936 |
L'homme sans coeur [Léo Joannon] b&w |
|
1936 |
De man zonder hart [Léo Joannon] b&w; Dutch-language version of 'L'homme sans coeur' |
|
1936 |
Oeil-de-Lynx, détective [Pierre-Jean Ducis] b&w |
|
1936 |
On ne roule pas Antoinette/You Can't Fool Antoinette [Paul Madeux] b&w |
|
1937 |
Cinderella [Pierre Caron] b&w |
|
1937 |
Êtes-vous jalouse? [Henri Chomette] b&w |
|
1937 |
Les hommes sans nom [Jean Vallée] b&w; int ph; ext ph: Georges Million & Raymond Clunie |
|
1938 |
Fort Dolorès [René Le Hénaff] b&w |
|
1938 |
Les gaietés de l'exposition [Ernest Hajos] b&w |
|
1938 |
A l'ombre d'une femme [Raymond Goupillières] unfinished |
|
1938 |
Le veau gras [Serge de Poligny] b&w; cph: Philippe Agostini |
|
1939 |
Sérénade/Schubert's Serenade [Jean Boyer] b&w; cph: Claude Renoir & Louisette Hautecoeur |
|
1943 |
Why We Fight [uncred] b&w; uncred; 7-part doc series, 1942-45; prod War Department |
|
1943 |
[Toscanini,] Hymn of the Nations [Alexander Hammid & Irving Lerner] b&w; mus perf/28m; co-contributing ph; ph: Peter Glushanok; prod OWI |
|
1944 |
A Better Tomorrow [Alexander Hammid] b&w; doc/24m; prod OWI |
|
1945 |
Capital Story [Henwar Rodakiewicz] b&w; doc/20m; prod OWI |
|
1945 |
Land of Enchantment. Southwest U.S.A./The Southwest [Henwar Rodakiewicz] b&w; doc/10m; as Boris Kaufmann; prod United States Information Service |
|
1946 |
Journey Into Medicine [Willard Van Dyke] b&w; comm doc/39m; prod U.S. Dept of State |
|
1948 |
Terribly Talented [Alexander Hammid & Willard Van Dyke] b&w; mus doc/?m |
|
1948 |
Osmosis [Willard Van Dyke] b&w; doc/19m |
|
1949 |
The Lambertville Story [Justin Herman] b&w; mus doc/10m; ep 'Paramount Pacemaker'-series |
|
1949 |
The Football Fan [Justin Herman] b&w; short/11m; ep 'Paramount Pacemaker'-series |
|
1950 |
Preface to a Life [William S. Resnick] b&w; short/28m |
|
1950 |
The Tanglewood Story/Tanglewood, Music School and Music Festival [Larry Madison] b&w; mus doc/20m; prod U.S. Dept of State |
|
1951 |
The Gentleman in Room 6 [Alexander Hammid] b&w; short/11m; an experiment in subjective camera |
|
1952 |
Leonardo da Vinci [Luciano Emmer & Enrico Gras] sepia-c; doc/45m; ph extra footage US version; ph: Mario Craveri, Antonio Harispe & André Thomas |
|
1952 |
And the Earth Shall Give Back Life [Victor Jurgens] b&w; doc/25m |
[Right] with actor Marlon Brando - "On the Waterfront"
|
1953 |
On the Waterfront [Elia Kazan] b&w; uncred ph last seq: James Wong Howe; filmed 1953-54 |
|
1954 |
East of Eden [Elia Kazan] ph (in b&w) screen-tests with James Dean and Paul Newman; film was ph (in cs/c) by Ted McCord |
|
1954 |
Garden of Eden [Max Nosseck] c; 67m |
|
1954 |
Within Man's Power [Nicholas Webster] 16mm/b&w; comm doc/29m; for National Tuberculosis Association |
|
1954 |
Amazing What Color Can Do [?] 16mm/c; comm doc/14m; for James Lees & Sons Co. |
|
1954 |
Singing in the Dark [Max Nosseck] b&w; loc ph: Arndt von Rautenfeld |
|
1954 |
Crowded Paradise [Fred Pressburger & Ben Gradus (loc seq New York & Puerto Rico)] b&w |
|
1955 |
Patterns/Patterns of Power [Fielder Cook] b&w |
|
1955 |
Baby Doll [Elia Kazan] b&w; 2uc: Arthur Steckler |
[Left] with dir Sidney Lumet and actor John Fiedler - "12 Angry Men"
|
1956 |
12 Angry Men [Sidney Lumet] b&w |
|
1958 |
Home Again [Irving Jacoby] b&w; comm doc/35m; prod for the Division of Chronic Illness Control of the New Jersey Dept. of Health and the American Heart Association |
|
1958 |
That Kind of Woman [Sidney Lumet] b&w; process ph: Farciot Edouart |
|
1959 |
The Fugitive Kind [Sidney Lumet] b&w |
|
1960 |
Splendor in the Grass [Elia Kazan] c; addph: Frank J. Calabria |
|
1962 |
Long Day's Journey Into Night [Sidney Lumet] b&w; 136m & 180m |
|
1963 |
Gone Are the Days!/Purlie Victorious/The Man from C.O.T.T.O.N. [Nicholas Webster] b&w; 2uc: Fred Bornet |
|
1963 |
All the Way Home [Alex Segal] b&w |
|
1963 |
The World of Henry Orient [George Roy Hill] p/c; cph: Arthur J. Ornitz; started by B. Kaufman who quit to start work on 'The Pawnbroker' |
|
1963 |
The Pawnbroker [Sidney Lumet] b&w |
|
1964 |
[Samuel Beckett's] Film [Alan Schneider] b&w; short/24m; Arthur Ornitz and Haskell Wexler were also considered as doph |
|
1965 |
The Group [Sidney Lumet] c |
|
1967 |
Bye Bye Braverman [Sidney Lumet] c |
|
1968 |
The Brotherhood [Martin Ritt] c |
|
1968 |
Up Tight! [Jules Dassin] c |
With dir Otto Preminger [left]
"Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon"
|
1969 |
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon [Otto Preminger] c; title seq ph: Stanley Cortez |
