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Christopher Challis is a Actor, Director of Photography and Cinematography British born on 18 march 1919 at London (United-kingdom)
Christopher George Joseph Challis BSC, FRPS (18 March 1919 – 31 May 2012) was a British cinematographer who worked on more than 70 feature films since beginning in the industry during the 1940s.
After working as camera operator on several films for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, he made his debut as director of photography on The End of the River in 1947 one of their projects as producers. After The End of the River, Challis was camera operator under Jack Cardiff on The Red Shoes. He did not object to the demotion as he wanted to work on the film. Following this he went back to being director of photography. He was cinematographer on most of Powell and Pressburger's later films, including The Small Back Room (1949), The Elusive Pimpernel (1950), The Tales of Hoffmann (1951), Oh... Rosalinda!! (1955), The Battle of the River Plate (1956) and Ill Met by Moonlight (1957).
His expertise in colour cinematography made him a popular choice for British film makers of the 1950s, and he worked on a number of successful comedies, including Genevieve (1953), The Captain's Table (1958) and Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines (1965). He worked on projects in other genres too, such as The Spanish Gardener (1956), the war film Sink the Bismarck! (1960), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), and Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970). He was nominated for several BAFTA Awards for Best British Cinematography, including a win in 1966 for Stanley Donen's film Arabesque.
Martin Scorsese said: "It is not possible even to begin to take the full measure of the greatness of British filmmaking without thinking of Chris Challis," and: "Chris Challis brought a vibrancy to the celluloid palette that was entirely his own, and which helped make Britain a leader in that long, glorious period of classic world cinema."
His autobiography, Are They Really So Awful?: A Cameraman's Chronicle, was published by Janus Publishing Company (ISBN 1-85756-193-7) in March 1995. Challis was also an accomplished and enthusiastic still photographer. He joined The Royal Photographic Society in 1936, gaining his Associateship in 1945 and Fellowship in 1948. He remained a member until his death. He features in the book Conversations with Cinematographers by David A Ellis, published by Scarecrow Press.
(1984)
(Director of Photography)
Source : Wikidata
Christopher Challis
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Birth name Christopher George Joseph Challis
Nationality United-kingdom
Birth 18 march 1919 at London (United-kingdom)
Death 31 may 2012 (at 93 years) at Bristol (United-kingdom)
Nationality United-kingdom
Birth 18 march 1919 at London (United-kingdom)
Death 31 may 2012 (at 93 years) at Bristol (United-kingdom)
After working as camera operator on several films for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, he made his debut as director of photography on The End of the River in 1947 one of their projects as producers. After The End of the River, Challis was camera operator under Jack Cardiff on The Red Shoes. He did not object to the demotion as he wanted to work on the film. Following this he went back to being director of photography. He was cinematographer on most of Powell and Pressburger's later films, including The Small Back Room (1949), The Elusive Pimpernel (1950), The Tales of Hoffmann (1951), Oh... Rosalinda!! (1955), The Battle of the River Plate (1956) and Ill Met by Moonlight (1957).
His expertise in colour cinematography made him a popular choice for British film makers of the 1950s, and he worked on a number of successful comedies, including Genevieve (1953), The Captain's Table (1958) and Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines (1965). He worked on projects in other genres too, such as The Spanish Gardener (1956), the war film Sink the Bismarck! (1960), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), and Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970). He was nominated for several BAFTA Awards for Best British Cinematography, including a win in 1966 for Stanley Donen's film Arabesque.
Martin Scorsese said: "It is not possible even to begin to take the full measure of the greatness of British filmmaking without thinking of Chris Challis," and: "Chris Challis brought a vibrancy to the celluloid palette that was entirely his own, and which helped make Britain a leader in that long, glorious period of classic world cinema."
His autobiography, Are They Really So Awful?: A Cameraman's Chronicle, was published by Janus Publishing Company (ISBN 1-85756-193-7) in March 1995. Challis was also an accomplished and enthusiastic still photographer. He joined The Royal Photographic Society in 1936, gaining his Associateship in 1945 and Fellowship in 1948. He remained a member until his death. He features in the book Conversations with Cinematographers by David A Ellis, published by Scarecrow Press.
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(1984)(Director of Photography)
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Filmography of Christopher Challis (62 films)
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, 1h26Origin United-kingdom
Genres Documentary
Themes Documentary films about business, Documentary films about the visual arts, Documentary films about the film industry, Documentaire sur une personnalité
Actors Marlene Dietrich, Jack Cardiff, Martin Scorsese, Orson Welles, Leslie Caron, Kirk Douglas
Roles Self – Interviewee
Rating75%
En 2001, Jack Cardiff (1914-2009) est devenu le premier directeur de la photographie de l'histoire des Oscars à recevoir un Oscar d'honneur. Mais la première fois qu'il a serré la célèbre statuette dans sa main, c'était un demi-siècle plus tôt, lorsque son travail de caméra en Technicolor avait été récompensé pour le Narcisse noir de Powell et Pressburger. Au-delà de The African Queen de John Huston et de War and Peace de King Vidor, les films du duo créatif britannico-hongrois (The Red Shoes et A Matter of Life and Death également) garantissent l'immortalité au célèbre caméraman dont la carrière s'étend sur soixante-dix ans.
Cameraman
Steaming (1985)
, 1h36Directed by Joseph Losey
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Comedy-drama
Actors Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, Diana Dors, Brenda Bruce, Felicity Dean
Roles Director of Photography
Rating58%
Les conversations intimes et les problèmes quotidiens d'un groupe de femmes fréquentant régulièrement un bain turc dans un quartier populaire de Londres.
Top Secret! (1984)
, 1h30Directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Action, Adventure, Spy
Themes Spy films, Films about music and musicians, Politique, Political films
Actors Val Kilmer, Lucy Gutteridge, Omar Sharif, Peter Cushing, Michael Gough, Jeremy Kemp
Roles Director of Photography
Rating71%
Nick Rivers (Kilmer), a United States rock star, has the number one song in America ("Skeet Surfing"). He travels to East Germany to perform at a cultural festival, and at a dinner, he sees the beautiful Hillary Flammond (Gutteridge), a member of the resistance movement, attempting to avoid the authorities. He pretends to be her date to get to know her, and performs an impromptu song and dance ("Tutti-Frutti") mistakenly thinking that he was asked to do so, to the delight of Hillary and the crowd but to the annoyance of the emcee who intended to introduce someone else. He later sees Hillary at a ballet, where she is trying to meet with a resistance contact, but is met by the police instead. Nick saves her and they try to escape, but Nick turns himself in so that Hillary can get away. He is taken to a prison where he is questioned and tortured, but he knows nothing and does not break. In an escape attempt, he ends up in the secret lab of Dr. Paul Flammond (Gough), a brilliant scientist developing the "Polaris naval mine", a device that can destroy the entire NATO submarine fleet; the Germans force him to work by threatening to kill his daughter Hillary. Nick is recaptured and scheduled for execution.
Evil Under the Sun (1982)
, 1h52Directed by Guy Hamilton
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Thriller, Crime
Themes Seafaring films, Transport films
Actors Peter Ustinov, James Mason, Maggie Smith, Nicholas Clay, Jane Birkin, Colin Blakely
Roles Director of Photography
Rating69%
A hiker finds a dead woman on the Yorkshire moors; the victim, who has been strangled, is identified as Alice Ruber. Shortly afterwards, Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov) examines a diamond belonging to millionaire industrialist Sir Horace Blatt (Colin Blakely), and declares it a fake. Assured that Sir Horace gave a real diamond to his mistress and she later returned the fake to him, Poirot accompanies Sir Horace to confront her at an exclusive island resort. The hotel is the former summer palace of the reigning King of Tyrania, now owned by Daphne Castle (Maggie Smith), who had received the palace "for services rendered".
S.O.S. Titanic (1980)
, 2h24Directed by William Hale
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Action, Historical
Themes La fin du monde, Seafaring films, Transport films, RMS Titanic in fiction, Disaster films, American disaster films, Films about seafaring accidents or incidents
Actors David Janssen, Cloris Leachman, Susan Saint James, David Warner, Ian Holm, Helen Mirren
Roles Director of Photography
Rating61%
Le Titanic quitte Southampton le 10 avril 1912. Le film suit différents passagers que sont, en première classe John Jacob Astor et son épouse ainsi que le couple Marvin, en voyage de noces. En deuxième, le film suit Lawrence Beesley, ensuite auteur d'un ouvrage sur le naufrage. En troisième classe, l'histoire se focalise sur un groupe d'émigrants irlandais.
The Mirror Crack'd (1980)
, 1h45Directed by Guy Hamilton
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Thriller, Crime
Themes Films about films, Films about television
Actors Angela Lansbury, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Rock Hudson, Edward Fox, Geraldine Chaplin
Roles Director of Photography
Rating61%
Set in the fictional English village of St. Mary Mead, home of Miss Jane Marple (Angela Lansbury), in 1953, a big Hollywood production company arrives to film a costume movie about Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I with two famous movie stars, Marina Rudd and Lola Brewster (Elizabeth Taylor and Kim Novak, respectively). The two actresses are old rivals who despise each other. Marina, making a much heralded comeback after a prolonged "illness" and retirement (due to what was really a nervous breakdown), and her husband, Jason Rudd (Rock Hudson), who is directing the movie they are making, arrive with their entourage. When she learns that Lola will be in the movie as well, she becomes enraged and vents her anger. Lola and her husband, Marty Fenn (Tony Curtis), who is producing the movie, arrive. Excitement runs high in the village as the locals have been invited to a reception held by the movie company in a manor house, Gossington Hall, to meet the celebrities. Lola and Marina come face to face at the reception and exchange some potent and comical insults, nasty one-liners, as they smile and pose for the cameras. The two square off in a series of clever verbal cat-fights throughout the movie.
The Riddle of the Sands (1979)
, 1h39Directed by Tony Maylam
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Action
Themes Spy films, Seafaring films, Transport films
Actors Michael York, Simon MacCorkindale, Jenny Agutter, Alan Badel, Michael Sheard, Wolf Kähler
Roles Director of Photography
Rating63%
Carruthers, an official in the British Foreign Office, is invited on a yachting holiday by his old friend Arthur Davies. Davies explains he has an agenda - while boating around the Frisian Islands he came across an old sailor, Dollman, and his beautiful daughter Clara. He says he believes some men tried to kill him.
Force 10 from Navarone (1978)
, 1h58Directed by Guy Hamilton
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, War, Thriller, Action, Adventure
Themes Political films
Actors Robert Shaw, Harrison Ford, Edward Fox, Barbara Bach, Carl Weathers, Franco Nero
Roles Director of Photography
Rating63%
In 1943, after their successful mission on the Greek island of Navarone, Major Keith Mallory (Robert Shaw) and Sergeant Miller (Edward Fox) are sent to find and kill Nicolai. Originally thought to be a traitor who informed the Germans about Miller and Mallory during the Navarone mission, Nicolai is now known to be Colonel von Ingorslebon, a dedicated German spy believed to have infiltrated the Yugoslav Partisans as "Captain Lescovar" (Franco Nero).
The Deep (1977)
, 2h4Directed by Peter Yates
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Action, Adventure
Themes Seafaring films, Transport films, Underwater action films
Actors Robert Shaw, Jacqueline Bisset, Nick Nolte, Louis Gossett Jr., Eli Wallach, Robert Tessier
Roles Director of Photography
Rating61%
While scuba-diving near shipwrecks off Bermuda, vacationing couple David Sanders (Nick Nolte) and Gail Berke (Jacqueline Bisset) recover a number of artifacts, including an ampoule of amber-colored liquid and a medallion bearing the image of a woman and the letters "S.C.O.P.N." (meaning "Santa Clara, ora pro nobis" or "Saint Clara, pray for us") and a date, 1714. Sanders and Berke seek the advice of lighthouse-keeper and treasure-hunter Romer Treece (Robert Shaw) on the origin of the medallion, who identifies the item as Spanish and takes an interest in the young couple. The ampoule is noticed by the man who had rented diving equipment to Sanders and Berke, which in turn attracts the attention of Henri Cloche (Louis Gossett, Jr.), a local drug kingpin for whom the shop owner works, who unsuccessfully tries to buy the ampoule and then begins to terrorize the couple with Haitian black magic. The ampoule contains medicinal morphine from the Goliath, a ship that sank during World War II with a cargo of munitions and medical supplies. The wreck of the Goliath is considered dangerous and is posted as off-limits to divers due to the danger of explosions. Treece concludes that a recent storm has exposed her cargo of morphine and unearthed a much older wreck containing Spanish treasure.
The Little Prince (1974)
, 1h25Directed by Stanley Donen
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Science fiction, Musical theatre, Fantasy, Musical
Themes Films set in Africa, Films about children, Films about music and musicians, Transport films, Aviation films, Musical films, Children's films
Actors Richard Kiley, Bob Fosse, Gene Wilder, Donna McKechnie, Joss Ackland, Victor Spinetti
Roles Director of Photography
Rating64%
Based in the 1943 classic book of the same name by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the fable tells the story of an aviator (played by Richard Kiley) forced to make an emergency landing in the Sahara Desert. There he is befriended by a young boy, the Little Prince, who had descended to Earth from Asteroid B-612. In the days that follow, The Pilot hears about his past and various journeys throughout the solar system.
The Boy Who Turned Yellow (1972)
, 55minutesDirected by Michael Powell
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Science fiction, Adventure
Themes Children's films
Actors Robert Eddison, Brian Worth, Esmond Knight, Patrick McAlinney, Lem Dobbs
Roles Director of Photography
Rating57%
John (Mark Dightam) is a bit of a day-dreamer, always drifting off during his lessons. He is sent home for not paying attention during a lesson on electricity. But on the tube on the way home suddenly the train and everyone in it turns yellow. The doctor (Esmond Knight) declares that it's harmless and should wear off soon but that evening John hears noises from his television set and meets Nick (short for Electronic) (Robert Eddison). A strange adventure ensues which involves pet mice and John's threatened execution at the Tower of London.
Follow Me! (1972)
, 1h35Directed by Carol Reed
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Thriller, Comedy, Romance
Themes Films based on plays
Actors Mia Farrow, Chaim Topol, Michael Jayston, Margaret Rawlings, Annette Crosbie, Dudley Foster
Roles Director of Photography
Rating68%
Set in London, it is the story of a wealthy businessman (Michael Jayston), who suspects that his wife (Farrow) is having an affair. He hires a private detective (Topol) to follow her. She becomes aware that she is being followed, and the detective realises that she has found out. However rather than abandoning the case, the detective begins an elaborate game of cat and mouse with the complicity of the wife.
Catch Me a Spy (1971)
, 1h34Directed by Dick Clement
Origin France
Genres Thriller, Comedy, Action, Spy
Themes Spy films, Political films
Actors Kirk Douglas, Marlène Jobert, Trevor Howard, Tom Courtenay, Patrick Mower, Bernadette Lafont
Roles Director of Photography
Rating52%
A young British schoolteacher heads to the Eastern Bloc to try to locate her husband who has gone missing, and soon turns out to have been detained by Soviet intelligence as a spy.
Mary, Queen of Scots (1971)
, 2h8Directed by Charles Jarrott
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Biography, Historical
Themes Politique, Political films, Films about capital punishment, Films about royalty
Actors Vanessa Redgrave, Glenda Jackson, Timothy Dalton, Nigel Davenport, Patrick McGoohan, Trevor Howard
Roles Director of Photography
Rating70%
Following the death of her husband Francis II of France, Mary, Queen of Scots (Vanessa Redgrave) returns to her native land. Though fearless, unselfish, and very beautiful, the young queen faces many challenges. As in neighbouring England, the Protestant faith has been embraced by many nobles of Scotland; in addition, the Catholic Mary has to deal with her half-brother James Stewart, Lord Moray's (Patrick McGoohan) ambitions for rule. He suggests that Mary enjoy herself in Scotland, and pass the time with dancing and feasting. Moray wants to rule Scotland while the lovely but inexperienced Mary becomes a figurehead.
Villain (1971)
, 1h38Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Thriller, Crime
Themes Films about sexuality, LGBT-related films, Heist films, LGBT-related films, LGBT-related film
Actors Richard Burton, Ian McShane, T.P. McKenna, Donald Sinden, Nigel Davenport, Fiona Lewis
Roles Director of Photography
Rating64%
Ruthless East End gangster Vic Dakin has plans for an ambitious raid on the wages van of a plastics factory. This is a departure from Dakin's usual modus operandi and the job is further complicated by his having to work with fellow gangster Frank Fletcher's firm.