CHRIS MENGES

#1: From interview [Camerimage, 2015]

CHRIS MENGES BSC/ASC

Born: 15 September 1940, Kington, Herefordshire, England, as Christopher J. Menges, son of Herbert Menges [1902-72], musical director of the Old Vic for 25 years and principal conductor of the Symphonic String Players [Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra] from 1925-72.

Career: 'My grandfather [George Menges] was a violin player who was born and raised in Germany. He moved to England in 1890 to teach students to play the fiddle. I was born on a farm in Herefordshire, England. My family moved to London when I was 3 years old when my father became music director at the Old Vic Theatre.' After a period working at an estate agency, he was hired as an apprentice by filmmaker Alan Forbes [1958-60]. 'I was always fascinated by cameras and photography. When I was 17 years old, I went to work for our neighbor Alan Forbes. He was an American filmmaker who made documentary films for the cinema. Alan shot documentaries all over Italy, France and Britain. I was his assistant. I also recorded sound and helped him in the cutting room. Alan was a huge inspiration for me.' In 1961 he joined Derek Knight & Partners as a trainee asst editor and worked as a c.asst with doph Brian Probyn. From 1961-62 he worked as a soundman for dir Alan King and CBC-TV in Canada.

With soundman Ivan Sharrock - "World in Action" [Vietnam, 1969]

Photo American Cinematographer Magazine & BSC

In 1963 he joined the 'World in Action'-team at Granada-tv as cameraman and worked on doc's in Cyprus (civil war), South Africa, Angola (civil war), Vietnam [3x with John Irvin, Richard Taylor & Charles Denton as dir], Algeria, Zanzibar (revolution), etc. 'I began shooting films for 'World in Action', a weekly current affairs documentary series. I draw on those experiences every time I work on a new project. I spent two years in Burma on two different trips in 1963 and 1972 during a very brutal civil war between different ethnic groups who were pushed into the Union of Burma by the British. Those types of documentaries expose you to a different world. You learn about composition, and how it affects the story, and about natural lighting. You experience those things by observing. You also learn to fit into the environment with the indigenous people and that there is no one right way to tell a story. The experience of being a fly-on-the-wall while shooting documentaries helps you develop as a filmmaker. I think everybody who wants to be a filmmaker can benefit from shooting documentaries with a handheld camera.' In 1965 he was doph in Canada on a number of doc's about European artists. In 1987 he took a nine-year hiatus from ph while dir 3 features. [Quotes from the ASC website.]

Appeared in the doc 'Shooting from the Heart – Chris Menges: Cameraman' [1985, David Turner].

Awards: As doph: BAFTA TV Technical Craft Award [1977] for 'Last Summer' & 'Chicago Streets'; BAFTA TV Technical Craft Award nom [1978] for 'The Opium Business: Opium 1 - The White Powder Opera'; BAFTA Film Award nom [1984] for 'Local Hero'; 'Oscar' AA [1985], LAFCA Award [1984], NSFC Award [1985], BSFC Award [1985], BAFTA Film Award [1985], BSC Award [1984] & NYFCC Award [1984] for 'The Killing Fields'; NSFC Award [1985] for 'Comfort and Joy'; 'Oscar' AA [1987], ASC Award nom [1987], BAFTA Film Award nom [1987] & LAFCA Award [1986] for 'The Mission'; 'Oscar' AA nom [1997], LAFCA Award [1996], BAFTA Film Award nom [1997], ASC Award nom [1997] & BSC Award nom [1997] for 'Michael Collins'; ASC Award nom [1998] for 'The Boxer'; British Independent Film Awards 'Lifetime Achievement Award' [2001]; Raindance FF 'Lifetime Achievement Award' [2001]; Madridimagen 'Best Cinematography' [2002] for 'The Good Thief'; European Film Award nom [2003] for 'Dirty Pretty Things'; Independent Spirit Award nom [2006] for 'The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada'; ASC Film Award nom [2008; shared], BAFTA Film Award nom [2008; shared] & 'Oscar' AA nom [2008; shared] for 'The Reader'; ASC International Achievement Award [2009].

As dir: Cannes FF 'Grand Prix of the Jury', 'Golden Palm' nom & 'Prize of the Ecumenical Jury' [1988], NYFCC Award Best Director [1988] & Independent Spirit Award 'Best Foreign Film' [1989] for 'A World Apart'; San Sebastián FF 'Prize of the Jury' & 'Golden Seashell' nom [1994] for 'Second Best'.

'Raid into Tibet' [tv-doc] [1964]: 'In May 1964, British journalist George Patterson - who had lived in Eastern Tibet before the Chinese invasion - bluffed his way into the remote Dzum valley in northern Nepal where a small detachment of the guerrilla force was based. Patterson was accompanied by a film crew – director Adrian Cowell and cameraman Chris Menges. They met with the leader and tried to convince him to allow them to film a raid inside Tibet. The three-man film team traveled with the guerrillas over a 20,000 foot pass into Tibet and captured dramatic footage of the subsequent attack on a Chinese military convoy. By this time, the headquarters at Mustang had been apprised of the mission and had alerted the CIA and their Indian partners in Delhi. The CIA was furious at this lapse in security and immediately sent orders to intercept Patterson and his team before they could leave Nepal and relieve them of their film footage at any cost. But Patterson was one step ahead and both his team and their precious footage were able to escape safely from Nepal.'

2006

Barry Ackroyd on Chris Menges:

The documentaries Menges shot of the opium trade in Burma [in 1963 and 1972] were amazing. When he directed a documentary in Harlem about the end route of the drug trade, he was following this young girl who was selling drugs on the street. The shot took him into a brownstone and there was no light, but the camera kept running. He was shooting nothing, and that was a miraculous image in my mind.

It's something I have tried to reproduce: in 'The Hurt Locker', there is a scene where it is written that they disappear into absolute darkness. Not a "cinematic darkness", an actual darkness. If you can make an image that is nothing, but is more powerful than something, that's something to strive towards.

Seeing his work on 'Kes', and the link he had with Ken Loach made me think I could achieve something, because I was more or less the kid from 'Kes'. I grew up in that industrial background. Later, Menges mentored me, and I remember him saying: "You don't want to have to chase the action. Get yourself in the right place and the action comes to you." [The Guardian, June 2011.]

John de Borman on Chris Menges:

As a person, he is very self-effacing and modest. His colour palette and eye are second to none. You often look at his films, on locations which are difficult to light, and you have no idea where the light comes from. There is a great deal of complexity, style and taste. He plays with silhouettes, light falling onto a person's face. He manages to create absolute beauty and that is, for any artist, the goal. He is 70 and he never stops working. He has been incredibly consistent over decades of work. Every job he does you know will look beautiful. [The Guardian, June 2011.]

FILMS

1962	The War Game [Mai Zetterling] b&w; short/15m; cph: Brian Probyn
1967	In Search of Opportunity [Mamoun Hassan] c; comm doc/23m; for Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme
1968	Beyond the Tropopause [Mamoun Hassan] c; comm doc/30m; for Plessey Co.
1968	Kes [Kenneth Loach] c
1968	Solo [Misha Donat] b&w; mus short/8m
*1968*	The Last of the Long Haired Boys [Peter Everett] c; replaced by ph Ken Hodges; unreleased commercially
1969	In Black and White/The Save the Children Fund Film [Ken Loach] c; doc/53m; prod for the charity Save the Children and London Weekend Television, but shelved for 40 years; premiered in 2011
1969	Loving Memory [Anthony (= Tony) Scott] b&w; short/52m; cph: John Metcalfe & A. Scott
1970	Black Beauty [James Hill] c; 2uc: Patrick Carey
1971	Talk About Work [Kenneth Loach] 16mm/b&w; comm doc/16m

Stephen Frears - actor Albert Finney - C. Menges - "Gumshoe"

1971	Gumshoe [Stephen Frears] c
1978	Black Jack [Kenneth Loach] c
1979	Vanessa/Vanessa Talks with Farouk Abdulaziz [Roy Battersby] 16mm/b&w (archive) & c; interview/55m; filmed 1978-79
1979	[Star Wars: Episode V:] The Empire Strikes Back [Irvin Kershner; studio 2ud: Harley Cokliss & John Barry] p/c; studio 2uc; ph: Peter Suschitzky
1980	Babylon [Franco Rosso] c
1981	Couples & Robbers [Clare Peploe] c; short/28m
1981	Battletruck/Warlords of the 21st Century [Harley Cokliss] c; 2uc: Ian Paul; add cameramen: Malcolm Ferguson & Warwick Attwell
1982	Local Hero [Bill Forsyth] c
1982	Angel/Danny Boy [Neil Jordan] c
1983	The Killing Fields [Roland Joffé] c; 2uc: Ivan Strasburg, Tony Breeze, Tom McDougal & Robbie Race; addph: Phil Méheux
1983	Comfort and Joy [Bill Forsyth] c
1985	Marie [: A True Story] [Roger Donaldson] c
1985	Fatherland/Singing the Blues in Red [Kenneth Loach] c; 3 seg: 'Actually Existing Socialism', 'Grosse Freiheit Strasse' & 'Stalinism Isn't Socialism. Capitalism Isn't Freedom'
1986	The Mission [Roland Joffé] J-D-C Scope (+ 70bu)/c; 2uc: Robin Vidgeon
1986	High Season [Clare Peploe] c
1987	Shy People [Andrei Konchalovsky] J-D-C Scope/c; 2uc: Allen S. Facemire
*1994*	Berlin Calling/Alexis Sally [Roger Christian] unrealized
1995	Michael Collins [Neil Jordan] c
1997	The Boxer [Jim Sheridan] c
*1999*	Long Walk to Freedom/Birth of a Nation [Shekhar Kapur] project; in 2007 scheduled as a project ('The Human Factor' - became 'Invictus', 2009) of dir Clint Eastwood
2000	The Pledge [Sean Penn] J-D-C Scope/c; 2uc: Paul Mitchnick
2000	Riding in Cars with Boys [Penny Marshall] c; cph: Miroslav Ondrícek
2001	The Good Thief/Double Down [Neil Jordan] c; 2uc: Philippe Houdart; remake of 'Bob le flambeur' (1955, Jean-Pierre Melville; ph: Henri Decaë)
2001	Dirty Pretty Things [Stephen Frears (replaced Damien O'Donnell)] c; addph: Ivan Strasburg
2003	Criminal [Gregory Jacobs] c; remake of 'Nueve reinas/Nine Queens' (1999, Fabián Bielinsky; ph: Marcelo Camorino)
2004	Tickets [Ermanno Olmi, Abbas Kiarostami & Ken Loach] c; 3 seg; ph seg dir by Ken Loach; other ph: Fabio Olmi & Mahmoud Kalari

With dir Tommy Lee Jones [right] - "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada"

Photo by Dawn Jones

2004	The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada [Tommy Lee Jones] s35/c; ph Mexico: Héctor Ortega; 2uc: Duane Manwiller
2005	North Country/Class Action [Niki Caro] s35/c
*2005*	Papa [Adrian Noble] announced in 2004; scheduled for June 2005 start; status unknown
2005	Notes on a Scandal [Richard Eyre] c; 2uc: Paul Bond
2006	Stop-Loss [Kimberly Peirce] c; uncred addph: Chuck Cohen; aph (New York): Hans Bjerno
2007	The Yellow Handkerchief [Udayan Prasad] scope/c; aph: Patrick Longman
2008	The Reader [Stephen Daldry] s35-to-35mm/c; ph 2nd shooting period (March-July); ph 1st shooting period (September-October 2007): Roger Deakins
2009	London Boulevard [William Monahan] s35-to-35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c
2009	Route Irish [Ken Loach] 35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c
2011	Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close [Stephen Daldry] HD (ARRI ALEXA + Phantom HD)-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: Patrick Capone & Jody Lee Lipes; uncred aph: Phil Pastuhov; replaced ph Harris Savides, who became ill several weeks before shooting started
2012	Hummingbird [Steven Knight] HD (ARRI ALEXA & M)-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c

TELEVISION
1963	The Do-It-Yourself Democracy [Mai Zetterling] doc/45m; cph: Brian Probyn; for BBC-tv
1963	The Guns [exec prod: Tim Hewat] doc/45m; cph: Alan Hewison & David Samuelson; ep Granada-tv series 'World in Action'
1964	Raid into Tibet [Adrian Cowell] doc/b&w/30m/16mm; see above
1964	The Light of Asia [Adrian Cowell] 3-part (x 25m) doc series/b&w/16mm; aired in 1966
1964	The Opium Trail [Adrian Cowell] doc/b&w/50m/16mm; + sound; filmed 1964-65; aired in 1966
1964	The Unknown War/Rebel [Adrian Cowell] doc/30m/16mm; filmed 1964-65
1965	A Boy Called Donovan [Charlie Squires] mus doc/b&w/52m; cph: Tony Mander
1966	Crisis on Wheels [Kevin Brownlow] doc/b&w/60m; for Channel 4
1966	Warship Eagle [Charlie Squires[ 6-part doc series/b&w; cph: Tony Mander
1967	The Tribe That Hides from Man [Adrian Cowell] doc/67m/16mm; cph: Charles Stewart, Ernest Vincze, a.o.; filmed 1967-70; some material used in the 3-part series 'The Last of the Hiding Tribes' (1998)
1968	Abel Gance – The Charm of Dynamite! [Kevin Brownlow] doc/b&w/50m; ep BBC-tv series 'Omnibus'
1969	Assignment Vietnam [Richard Taylor] doc/65m; for BBC2-tv
1969	Wild and Free – Twice Daily [Chris Menges] doc/50m
1969	After a Lifetime [Kenneth Loach] tvm/80m
1970	The Kingdom in the Jungle [Adrian Cowell] doc/26m/16mm; cph: Charles Stewart, Ernest Vincze, a.o.
1972	The Opium Warlords [Adrian Cowell] doc/74m/16mm; filmed 1972-73; 'Menges tells the story in the flat, measured tone of one who has covered enough human disaster to know the sensational aspects are beside the point. ''We had worked out an agreement so that we could film inside the country for six months. But when we crossed the border from Thailand, we got caught in the middle of a war'' between the Shan state army and Chinese nationalists, remnants of Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang. The film makers' neutral status was soon questioned, and under pressure from the Thai Government, Burma put a price on their heads. For a year and a half, they were trapped inside the country. ''We were being hunted, actually.'' By the time Menges made it back to Bangkok, where he had left his first wife and young children, they had given him up for dead and returned to London.' [From article by Kim Heron in The New York Times, 1988.]
1974	Peshmerga - Those Who Face Death [Chris Goddard] doc/?m/16mm
1974	It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow – The Story of the 1943 Bethnal Green Tube Disaster [John Goldschmidt] tvm
1975	Chicago Streets [Harley Cokliss] doc/60m
1975	To Be Seven in Belfast [John Sheppard] doc/b&w/50m
1975	Britain on the Brink? [prod: Francis Megahy] doc/55m; cph: Nic Knowland
1976	Angola - Spring 1976 [John Sheppard] doc/?m/16mm
1976	Busker [Michel Pearce] doc/44m
1976	Beautiful, Beautiful [John Irving] ?
1977	Islay - A Personal Impression of a Hebridean Island [Lawrence Moore] doc/52m; cph: ?
1977	Last Summer [Stephen Frears] tvm
1977	Angels' Defence [John Ingram] doc/52m
1977	City of Angels [John Ingram] doc/50m
1977	Dummy [Franc Roddam] tvm
1977	The Price of Power [Alan Bell] doc/60m; cph: ?
1977	The Opium Business: Opium 1 - The White Powder Opera [Adrian Cowell] doc/16mm/52m; + co-prod
1978	The Opium Business: Opium 2 - The Warlords [Adrian Cowell] doc/16mm/52m; + co-prod; re-edited version of 'The Opium Warlords' (1972-73)
1978	The Opium Business: Opium 3 - The Politicians [Adrian Cowell] doc/16mm/52m; + co-prod
1978	The Gamekeeper [Kenneth Loach] tvm/16mm; cph: Charles Stewart
1978	Cold Harbour [Stephen Frears] tvm/60m
1978	Before the Monsoon [Michael Grigsby] 3–part doc series/16mm: 'Roots of Violence' (51m), 'State of Emergency' (53m) & 'Seeds of Democracy' (37m); cph: Jimmy Dibling; filmed October 1978 - January 1979
1979	Bloody Kids/One Joke Too Many/Red Saturday [Stephen Frears] tvm; released theatrically in 1983
1979	A Sense of Freedom [John Mackenzie] tvm
1979	Auditions [Kenneth Loach] doc/b&w/60m/16mm
1980	A Question of Leadership [Kenneth Loach & Barry Hines] doc/50m/16mm; cph: John Davey
1980	Looks and Smiles [Kenneth Loach] tvm/b&w
1981	East 103rd Street [Chris Menges] doc/70m
1982	Walter [Stephen Frears] tvm/16mm
1982	Walter & June [Stephen Frears] tvm/16mm; sequel to 'Walter'; both films screened as 'Loving Walter' (1983)
1982	Made in Britain [Alan Clarke] tvm; ep series 'Tales Out of School'
1982	R.H.I.N.O.: Really Here in Name Only [Jane Howell] tvm; ep series 'Tales Out of School'
1982	The Red and the Blue – Impressions of Two Political Conferences - Autumn 1982 [Kenneth Loach] doc/78m
1983	The Skin Horse [Nigel Evans & John Samson] doc/52m; cph: Dave Bridges, Tim Broad & John Holland
1984	Winter Flight/The Big Surprise [Roy Battersby] tvm
1984	Which Side Are You On? [Kenneth Loach] doc/50m; cph: James Dibling & Ken Morse; broadcast on 'The South Bank Show'-series was cancelled
1993	The Heroin Wars [Adrian Cowell] 3-part series/b&w-c/151m: 'The Opium Convoys' (51m), 'Smack City' (50m) & 'The Kings of Opium' (50m); filmed between 1964-92; released 1996 (re-edited + new material); in 1997 shown as 'The Opium Kings' (re-edited + new footage ph by Ned Johnston, a.o.) in the WGBH-tv series 'Frontline'
2002	Concert for George [David Leland] concert film/146m/HD; doph; cameramen: Roger Pratt, Nic Knowland, Barry Ackroyd, Joan Churchill, a.o.

FILMS & TELEVISION AS DIRECTOR
1969	Wild and Free – Twice Daily [+ ph] see Television
1971	A Completely Different Way of Life? [tv-doc/b&w/50m; + prod] ph: James Dibling & Ray Orton
1973	Radical Lawyer [tv-doc]
1975	A Family Doctor [tv-doc]
1978	Fly on the Wall [tv-doc/53m] doc on a young English missionary, Jackie Pullinger, who tries to help addicts get off drugs in Hong Kong and start a new life through Christianity
1981	East 103rd Street [+ co-prod/ph] see Television

With actress Jodhi May - "A World Apart"

1987	A World Apart [feature] ph: Peter Biziou
1990	CrissCross/Alone Together [feature] ph: Ivan Strasburg
*1992*	The Life and Death of Chico Mendes [feature; prod cancelled] eventually made in 1993-94 as the tvm 'The Burning Season' dir by John Frankenheimer & ph by John R. Leonetti
1993	Second Best [feature] ph: Ashley Rowe
1998	The Lost Son [feature] ph: Barry Ackroyd

MISCELLANEOUS
1958	March to Aldermaston [group doc (16mm/b&w/30m) with Lindsay Anderson, Karel Reisz, a.o.] co-prod assistance; ph: Wolfgang Suschitzky, Peter Jessop, a.o.; a shorter version was called 'Deadly Harvest'
*1958*	No Governors [Alan Forbes; unfinished doc] c.asst; ph: ?
1959	The Visit [Jack Gold; short] co-c.asst; ph: Alan Forbes
1959	The House of Street Urchins/Padre Borelli [Alan Forbes; tvm] c.asst (+ co-scrpl); ph: ?
1959	No Place to Hide [Alan Forbes & Derrick Knight; doc/b&w/10m] c.asst; ph: ?
1961	Manolis [Paul Crosfield; short/56m] prod runner; ph: Harry Orchard
1962	The Saturday Men [John Fletcher; 'Free Cinema' doc] c.asst; ph: Brian Probyn
1967	Poor Cow/No Tears for Joy [Kenneth Loach] c.op; ph: Brian Probyn
1968	If… [Lindsay Anderson] c.asst (+ co-c.op); ph: Miroslav Ondrícek
1981	Before and After the Monsoon [Ian Christie, Keith Griffiths & John Stewart] interview with dir Michael Grigsby about 'Before the Monsoon' (1978) illustrated with footage ph by C. Menges