I was the kid with the shortest attention span in the history of short attention spans.
So my adult incarnation is more than a bit shocked when I think about some of the films the kid version of me actually sat down and quietly watched. One of them was a black & white British comedy called “Kind Hearts and Coronets.” To be real, the reason I was drawn to the flick was because it stared Alec Guinness, aka Obie Wan Kenobie. When Star Wars was released way back in 1977, I’m pretty sure I went to see it 27 times. So I bet ya dollars to donuts the TV intro bumper for “Kind Hearts and Coronets” mentioned the Star Wars tie-in, just to hook in little bastards like me. It worked.
Still, even just to trip on seeing Obie Wan in a black and white film probably wasn’t enough to keep my attention. There had to be something to keep me tuned in, and that “something” was murder. Those of of you who have seen the film you know that “Kind Hearts” is a dark, dark, dark comedy. From IMDB…
“A distant poor relative of the Duke of D’Ascoyne plots to inherit the title by murdering the eight other heirs who stand ahead of him in the line of succession.”
All eight heirs were played by Alec Guinness. The deaths were fun, creative and hilarious. The murderer, our anti-hero, killed off each incarnation of Guinness with air of arrogance and pomposity. I loved it.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was watching the work of a man who decades later would become one of my idols, Douglas Slocombe, BSC. I’d later see his work in “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind,” (the India sequence), “Rollerball,” and finally with all three Indian Jones movies, “Raiders Of The Lost Ark,” “The Temple Of Doom,” and “Indian Jones And The Last Crusade.” The Internet Encyclopedia of Cinematographer describes his “chameleonic.” Where you might be able to spot one cinematographer’s fingerprint from film to film, Slocombe’s style was reborn with each project.
This is why the guy could jump from “Kind Hearts” to “Jesus Christ Superstart” to “The Great Gatsby” to “Rollerball,” all without missing a beat. M’ boy Bruce Lee said it best…
“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.”
Slocombe’s work is water, and not that shit from the tap.
A couple of weeks ago, I watched “Raiders of the Lost Ark” in IMAX, shot by our boy, Slocombe. It was incredible. Unfortunately the Raiders trilogy would be the last project he would shoot before being forced into retirement. The poor guy went partially blind in left eye thanks to a jeep accident. Then he he lost sight in his right eye, thanks do botched laser surgery, of all things. A cinematographer who no longer had sight, a tragic hero, indeed. “Indian Jones and the Last Crusade” would be his last film.
As of print time, Doublas lives on, 99 years young. He’s a living legend.
If the re-issue of “Raiders” is playing in your town, please go check it out. And when Douglas Slocombe’s credit fills the screen, give a little golf clap or an “atta boy,” or pour a little of your soda down on the floor for him. The dude has earned your respect. Give it to him.
Douglas Slocombe OBE, BSC, ASC.
~
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THE CHIAROSCURO LIFE 
my thesis is about to analyze chiaroscuro lighting in the film noir..so i want to ask u, whats the problem statement should be??what should i analyze chiaroscuro technique in noir film??should i said, why chiaroscuro always related to noir film or how chiaroscuro technique can deliver the emotion of narrative??..i want your oppinion about what should i analyze chiaroscuro technique in noir films??
Hi Naim,
It’s been a long time since I had to write a thesis, so I’m not sure I’d be much help. My guess the problem encountered by studios like Warner Brothers (the studio most famous for Film Noir) is figuring out which lighting style was both cost effective (because these movies had NO budget) and helped push Film Noir’s dark, cynical narrative, full of violence and sexual tension. Creative and economical. Form and Function. This chiaroscuro style of lighting is actually incredibly cost efficient, although today’s cinematographers seem to spend the film’s entire budget when lighting noir style, it really only takes a few lights to achieve the look. A high-contrast, low-key lighting could consist literally of one well placed key light, with very little fill light. A technique that very much mirrors Caravaggio’s style of lighting in his paintings. Not only did you need less lights, but you didn’t have to build extensive and expensive sets. Either part of the set was in the shadows, or a blank wall could be decorated with an interesting shadow effect, like window blinds or light banging through a cucoloris flag. Creatively it worked because dark corners and rooms simply add mystery and a sense of fear (see German Expressionism). With Caravaggio’s paintings, the darkness symbolizes a lack of hope, so the sacrifices depicted in his work seem even more heroic, because there was no evidence of an afterlife present. There’s non of “God’s light” pouring down into frame, or doves flying around, to let the viewer or the person depicted being murdered know that there will be a blessed existence in Heaven after enduring this violence. It’s more about having faith that God is there, because there absolutely is no God or goodness in the environment. This fits in perfectly with the creative narrative of Film Noir. It’s cynical. There’s no hope. There’s just a world of con artist, greed, and subtle sexual depravity. Anyway, that’s my opinion. Hope this helps. 🙂