Biography

Producers were so terrified that the opening sequence to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) would turn out badly - Mamoulian shot it all from the perspective of the protagonist - that the re-release of the film omitted the first few minutes of the film. It wasn't until the 1970s that this was added on again and Mamoulian's brilliance returned to one of his greatest films.

In the late 1920s when sound was introduced into motion pictures, beginning with The Jazz Singer (1927), many directors were left stranded, as they could no longer move the camera. The sound of the dolly or the camera itself was recorded on the soundtrack and sounded awful and distracting. Mamoulian was one of the first to introduce the blimp, a box that encased the camera and isolated the sound the camera made. He also refused to let the sound of the dolly or of the camera operators stand in his way and quite often moved the camera regardless. This was rare in the 1930s and made Mamoulian unique. He'd move the camera even if the audience would hear it on the soundtrack, arguing that they would be so engrossed in the scene they were watching that they would not notice. He was right.

Under contract to Paramount Pictures from 1929-33. Noted for his use of the subjective, 360-degree revolving camera for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932). At 20th Century-Fox from 1940-42, he excelled at costume dramas, such as The Mark of Zorro (1940) and Blood and Sand (1941).

Although he was born in Tiflis, Georgia, he was an ethnic Armenian, as was filmmaker Sergei Parajanov, also born in Tiflis.

Innovative director who was both partial to expressionism and realism in his films. He found new and interesting ways of moving the camera, not only with a dolly but also using simple pans that were not "functional" at the time - such as "space pans" - and seldom used, an industry "no, no". In the contemporary film world these kinds of pans are not only accepted but the norm.

We have forsaken the magic of the cinema. We have gotten too far away from the cinematic effects achievable by camera angles and creative editing.

The most important critic is time.

You can have all the philosophy you like: if a film doesn't come across in graphic terms, it falls short.

[on CinemaScope] The worst shape ever devised.

I visualize a whole film before I come to the set and then I try to match it.