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Freddie Francis
Life Time
22 December 1917 - 17 March 2007
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He was born on December 22, 1917 in Islington, London. He came to cinema as a teenager in the thirties. He went from a boy with a cracker on the set to an assistant cameraman. He worked at Gaumont British Studios. After World War II, during which he served in a special army film division, he collaborated with British Lyon Film Studios. In the mid-fifties, under the guidance of an experienced professional, cameraman Oswald Morris, he took part in the creation of the films of American director John
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He was born on December 22, 1917 in Islington, London. He came to cinema as a teenager in the thirties. He went from a boy with a cracker on the set to an assistant cameraman. He worked at Gaumont British Studios. After World War II, during which he served in a special army film division, he collaborated with British Lyon Film Studios. In the mid-fifties, under the guidance of an experienced professional, cameraman Oswald Morris, he took part in the creation of the films of American director John Huston “Moulin Rouge” (1952), “Bat the devil” (1953) and “Moby Dick” (1956). Beginning in 1956, he worked as chief cinematographer, among the most famous films - "The Room upstairs" (Director Jack Clayton), "Saturday Night, Sunday Morning" (Director Karel Reish, 1960) and won him an Oscar in 1961 for best cinematography drama "Sons and Lovers" (1960, Dir. Jack Cardiff). In 1962, Francis made his debut as a director. Despite the fact that his first film "Two plus two equals six", was sustained in the genre of romantic comedy, he was later known as the creator of horror films and thrillers, such as "Paranoid" (1963), "Nightmare" (1964), "Evil Frankenstein" (1964), "House of horrors of Dr. Terror" (1965), "Skull" (1965), "Tales from the crypt" (1972), etc. Later works of Francis, made in this genre, were not successful.
In the eighties, after a long break, Francis returned to camera work and later collaborated with such recognized masters as Karel Reisch in the film “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” (1981); David Lynch – “The Elephant Man” (1980), “Dune” (1984), “A Simple Story” (1991) and Martin Scorzese – “Cape of Fear” (1991). He returned to directing only twice, shooting The Doctor and the Devil (1985, based on the works of Dylan Thomas) and The Dark Tower (1987, under the pseudonym Ken Barnett, together with dir. Ken Wiederhorn. In 1990, for the film by American director Edvar Zwick "Glory" (1989), he was awarded the second Oscar in his life.
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