Australian Cinematographer: Robert Krasker

ROBERT KRASKER

AUSTRALIAN CINEMATOGRAPHER

Early this year when I turned 78 my friends John Ruane and Vicky Ryan brought up some gifts. One of their many gifts was a remastered Bluray of "The Third Man" which is a film I have loved since I was about 17 years of age. I already had a DVD of this great work, but the remastered Bluray is vastly superior in image quality, in fact better than any film print I have seen.

The other day I shared "The Third Man" with my friend Alexander. I have been showing this film around since I received the beautiful restored Bluray a some months ago. Surprisingly, some of my friends have never seen this masterpiece which I've seen many times since I was 17, mostly very poor copies which did not do justice to the wonderful cinematography.

Recently my friend Nigel Buesst informed me about Robert Krasker, an Australian cinematographer who made it big in world cinema from the late thirties to the sixties last century. Nigel had visited one of the sets of "Billy Budd" when he was in Enlgand in the early sixties. 

Nigel told me about a day at Shepperton Studios where he was working on a Peter Sellers film "Only Two Can Play", as Assistant Editor, and could stroll through old sets at lunchtime. There he came across the interior of a sailing ship cabin for the recently completed filming of "Billy Budd". This would have been a few weeks after the shoot.

Sixty years later, now in awe of Krasker's acheievemtns in cinematography Nigel recalls this moment as a close encounter.

                            Krasker with Peter Ustinov presumably on "Billy Budd".

I'm writing this piece to encourage others to add in what they know about Krasker, his life and his work.

This is a disclaimer: 

I only know of Krasker's work from the few fine films which are listed here. I'm sure my friend Geoff Gardner can add many more titles.  Other friends may add some items of interest. 

Films I know of which were  shot by Krasker:

The Third Man   (directed by Carol Reed)

The Fallen Idol   (directed by Carol Reed)

                            (from a Graham Greene story)

Billy Budd          (directed by Peter Ustinov)

The Collector     (directed by William Wyler)

Senso                 (directed by Luchino Visconti)

Brief Encounter (directed by David Lean)

The Criminal      (directed by Joseph Losey) 

                            (aka "The Concrete Jungle")

I deeply love some of the films listed in that set and I greatly respect the others. But I'm not talking about the films from an overall sense when I say this: Krasker gave each of these films an individual look, a "feeling" which is specific to each of those films.

I wanted to feature some single images from "Senso" but I could not find any individual shots which fitted the bill so here's a selection. This trailer for the Criterion  Collection release of "Senso"  shows a sample of the range of imagery captured by Krasker for Visconti. 

Despite my great love of the films listed above, I knew nothing about Robert Krasker until Nigel alerted me to the fact that he was an Australian cinematographer working abroad who won an Academy Award for his filming of "The Third Man".

Many thanks Nigel for keeping me up to speed.

If any of you would like to add reflections about Robert Krasker's life and work, please feel free... please add whatever you would like to this post.

PT

FROM GEOFF GARDNER

PT,  I’m not the list-maker I once was and I dont have the encyclopaedist mentality of a Barrie Pattison or David Stratton so Wikipedia is my first resort. It doesn’t have much on him, no list, but does say David Lean sacked him from Great expectations. Andrew Pike did a tribute to Krasker at a previous Canberra International Film Festival and he might have some useful info to add to the sum of knowledge.

The great critic Peter Wollen in his legendary essay on so-called post-war ‘spiv movies’ believed he had uncovered a Germanic influence on the genre and cited Krasker (mistaking him for a Kraut because of his name) as a key figure.

Thanks Geoff,

PT

Since first posting this blog I asked Andrew pike if he would like to add something.  Andrew has written things about Krasker in the past but can't immediately locate them, so he sent me these clips from:

CANBERRA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2018

26 to 28 OCTOBER 2018

at the Arc Cinema, National Film and Sound Archive, Acton.

CIFF proudly returns in 2018 with a 3-day retrospective film event featuring gems from the past, with special guests, Q&As and panels, and an emphasis on Australian cinema.  In addition, CIFF presents the Australian premiere of two outstanding new films exploring cinema history.

ENQUIRIES: contact the Festival office on 02-6248 0851 in office hours, or email admin@roninfilms.com.au

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FRIDAY 26 OCTOBER at 7.30:

THE THIRD MAN

#1 in a series of three films featuring cinematography by Australian Robert Krasker

Director: Carol Reed. 1949, UK. 104 mins. B&W. Classification: PG

With Joseph Cotton, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, Trevor Howard

Reed’s masterpiece, and a deservedly celebrated British thriller, THE THIRD MAN won Australian Robert Krasker an Oscar for Best Cinematography. Krasker’s experience in Germany studying the lighting and photography of the expressionist period, allowed him to apply an unforgettably dark and brooding atmosphere to the shadows, cobble-stone alley-ways and damaged grandeur of war-torn Vienna. The story follows a naïve American pulp-fiction novelist (Joseph Cotton) in his attempts to find an old friend who is now deeply embroiled in the post-war black-market and drug-dealing. Orson Welles revels in his scenes as the menacing Harry Lime, and the entire cast is perfect. With an original screenplay by Graham Greene, and electrifying music on the zither by Anton Karas, the whole film is “a tender/tough classic” (Time Out), which can be re-visited endlessly, especially in this new 4k restoration.

Preceded by: NED WETHERED (1984, 11 mins) an award-winning short animation by Festival Guest Lee Whitmore recording memories of her childhood and a visitor who often called on the family. The minutiae of suburban lives is poignantly detailed.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

SATURDAY 27 OCTOBER at 11.00am:

CINEMA: A PUBLIC AFFAIR

CIFF keynote film – Australian premiere, presented in association with the Friends of the NFSA

Director: Tatania Brandrup. 2015, Germany. 104 mins.

Classification: unclassified (CIFF recommends for General Exhibition)

This riveting documentary by Russian-German director, Tatania Brandrup, focuses on the progressive depredations inflicted on the world-renowned Moscow Film Museum (the Musey Kino) by a succession of Russian bureaucracies. The film also details the heroic fight-back by the remaining staff and former staff to keep the flame alive. The Musey Kino was founded by the film historian Naum Kleiman in 1989: it had enormous importance in Moscow during the Glasnost years and for a new generation of Russian filmmakers. In 2005, the museum was evicted from its building in central Moscow and began a struggle to survive in makeshift temporary buildings, while Kleiman and his staff maintained a “Cinema in Exile” program of almost daily screenings in cinemas and museums across Moscow.

“A contemporary horror story – how a flourishing, idealistic, socially essential entity can be crushed by invisible official forces. … as the story goes on, we have a sense of celebration and the indispensible role of cinema in civilized society. If this is tragedy, the catharsis is supreme. Venceremos!” - program note, Pordenone Silent Film Festival.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

SATURDAY 27 OCTOBER at 1.30:

THE CRIMINAL (aka THE CONCRETE JUNGLE)

#2 in our series of three films featuring cinematography by Robert Krasker

Director: Joseph Losey. 1960, UK. 86 mins. B&W.

Classification: unclassified (CIFF recommends M)

With Stanley Baker, Sam Wanamaker, Margit Saad, Patrick Magee

Re-building his career after being blacklisted in Hollywood during the McCarthy witch-hunts, Joseph Losey found a wealth of support in England. He took a commission from producer Nat Cohen to make a crime movie about an old-fashioned lone-wolf criminal trying to outwit a large crime syndicate. Losey transformed the project into an exercise in existential angst, with the best of collaborators: actor Stanley Baker, hiding his anguish beneath a severe, tight-lipped exterior; emerging playwright Alun Owen (his first feature, soon to be followed by A HARD DAY’S NIGHT) who crafted terse, percussive dialogues; and above all, Robert Krasker, whose willingness to play with light and camera angles gave Losey perfect expression for his intense, baroque vision. John Dankworth’s moody jazz score adds to the mix, especially with Cleo Laine singing the haunting, recurring, theme song.

SUNDAY 28 OCTOBER at 4pm:

EL CID

#3 in our series of three films featuring cinematography by Robert Krasker

Director: Anthony Mann. 1963, USA/Spain. 182 mins. Colour. Classification G.

With Charlton Heston, Sophia Loren, Raf Vallone, Genevieve Page and Australia’s own Frank Thring.

Described by Martin Scorsese as "one of the greatest epic films ever made" this cast-of-thousands big-screen movie depicted episodes in the life of the 11^th century Spanish hero who fought to defend his country from invading Moors. Krasker shifts effortlessly from his dark b&w thrillers to a rich palette of bold colours, magnificent wide-screen compositions, and a camera that swoops and glides and encircles the characters. The climactic siege of Valencia is one of Krasker’s finest hours, and he thoroughly deserved an award from the British Society of Cinematographers. Director Anthony Mann was best known for his tough gutsy Westerns and is in top form, as is Miklos Rozsa with a full-blooded music score. Of all the epics that Samuel Bronston produced in the 1960s, this one, according to Geoff Andrew in Time Out, was “one of the very finest … genuinely stirring … and equally impressive in terms of script (by Philip Yordan) and spectacle.”

Andrew also sent me these notes of research on Krasker 

by 

Tony Martin-Jones:

Krasker – research by Tony Martin-Jones

The BFI bought Krasker’s collection of photos:\

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article118131755

---------------------------------------------

His family history is interesting. His father was a pearl buyer / merchant and had one leg; and the circumstances of his death were repeated in many papers. As for his brother and 3 sisters, there is a good chance Robert has nephews or nieces alive today.

--------------------------------------------

Just found a niece - but she died in May 2016. There were children named in her death notice.

Also another niece and a nephew - still looking.

Many thanks Andrew, 

Anyone else wishing to add something to this blog email me:

ptammer65@gmail.com

pt