Robert Krasker(1913-1981)
- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
A somewhat underrated figure in cinematographic history,
Australian-born Robert Krasker handled some of the most memorable films
made in Britain after the Second World War. In his youth he attended
art classes in Paris and studied photography at the Photohaendler
Schule in Dresden. He briefly worked for Paramount in Paris before
joining Alexander Korda's London
Films at Denham Studios in 1932. As a camera operator, Krasker cut his
teeth on Technicolor spectacles like
The Four Feathers (1939) and
The Thief of Bagdad (1940).
From 1942, he worked as director of photography, showing his flair in
all photographic media, from the softly lit, subtle black & white of
Brief Encounter (1945) to the
gaudy 'cartoon colour' pageantry of
Henry V (1944).
He adopted a suitably harsher, almost semi-documentary look working with director Carol Reed on Odd Man Out (1947) and The Third Man (1949). Both films are characterised by expressionistic camera angles, chiaroscuro lighting and conspicuous close-ups. Krasker deservedly won an Oscar for his work on 'The Third Man' and went on to shoot the visually glorious Senso (1954) for Luchino Visconti in Italy, in turn followed by one of the best-looking epics of the 50s: El Cid (1961) -- with its famous long shot of the dead hero, riding away tied upright to his horse. Krasker's style of photography went out of fashion with the increasing popularity of the New Wave in the 1960s. Disenchantment, combining with failing health led to his retirement in 1965. One of the great cameramen of cinema's "Golden Age", he deserves to be remembered.
He adopted a suitably harsher, almost semi-documentary look working with director Carol Reed on Odd Man Out (1947) and The Third Man (1949). Both films are characterised by expressionistic camera angles, chiaroscuro lighting and conspicuous close-ups. Krasker deservedly won an Oscar for his work on 'The Third Man' and went on to shoot the visually glorious Senso (1954) for Luchino Visconti in Italy, in turn followed by one of the best-looking epics of the 50s: El Cid (1961) -- with its famous long shot of the dead hero, riding away tied upright to his horse. Krasker's style of photography went out of fashion with the increasing popularity of the New Wave in the 1960s. Disenchantment, combining with failing health led to his retirement in 1965. One of the great cameramen of cinema's "Golden Age", he deserves to be remembered.
