Chris Menges

Last updated

Chris Menges
Born (1940-09-15) 15 September 1940 (age 83)
Occupation(s)Cinematographer and film director
Parent

Chris Menges BSC, ASC (born 15 September 1940) is a British cinematographer and film director. He is a member of both the American and British Societies of Cinematographers.

Contents

Life and career

Menges was born in Kington, Herefordshire, the son of the composer and conductor Herbert Menges. [1] He began his career in the 1960s as camera operator for documentaries by Adrian Cowell and for films including Poor Cow by Ken Loach and If.... by Lindsay Anderson. Kes , directed by Ken Loach, was his first film as cinematographer. He was also behind the camera on Stephen Frears' first feature film Gumshoe in 1971.

After several documentaries and feature films such as Black Beauty (1971), Bloody Kids (1978), The Game Keeper (1980), Babylon (1980) and Angel (1982), Menges became notable for more ambitious works, for which he was critically acclaimed.

In 1983, he received his first BAFTA nomination for the Bill Forsyth film Local Hero and only a year later won his first Academy Award for the film The Killing Fields about the genocide in Cambodia. He continued his work with helmer Roland Joffe and Menges won his second Oscar in 1986 with the historical drama The Mission . He also shot a television play titled Made in Britain, starring Tim Roth in 1983.

In 1988, Menges made his directorial debut with A World Apart . This film was celebrated at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival and won three major awards. [2]

His second film as director, CrissCross with Goldie Hawn, received critical acclaim but was a box-office flop. In 1996 he moved back behind the camera to shoot the award-winning films The Boxer (directed by Jim Sheridan) and Michael Collins . For the latter, he received his third Academy Award nomination in 1997.

Menges also made documentaries. In the early 1970s, he went to Burma with British film maker Adrian Cowell to shoot The Opium Warlords, a film about the drug trade. After the release of the documentary in 1974, the Burmese government was said to have put a price on their heads. Menges is mentioned in the book Conversations with Cinematographers by David A. Ellis, published by Scarecrow Press.

Filmography

As cinematographer

YearTitleDirectorNotes
1969 Kes Ken Loach
1971 Black Beauty James Hill
1971 Gumshoe Stephen Frears
1979 Black Jack Ken Loach
1980 The Gamekeeper
1980 Babylon Franco Rosso
1981 Looks and Smiles Ken Loach
1982 Battletruck Harley Cokeliss
1983 Local Hero Bill Forsyth
1984 Comfort and Joy
The Killing Fields Roland Joffé
1986 The Mission
1987 Shy People Andrei Konchalovsky
1996 Michael Collins Neil Jordan
1997 The Boxer Jim Sheridan
2001 The Pledge Sean Penn
2002 Dirty Pretty Things Stephen Frears
The Good Thief Neil Jordan
2005 The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada Tommy Lee Jones
North Country Niki Caro
2006 Notes on a Scandal Richard Eyre
2008 The Reader Stephen Daldry Co-cinematographer with Roger Deakins
Stop-Loss Kimberly Peirce
The Yellow Handkerchief Udayan Prasad
2010 Route Irish Ken Loach
London Boulevard William Monahan
2011 Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close Stephen Daldry
2013 Hummingbird Steven Knight
2019 Waiting for the Barbarians Ciro Guerra

As director

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

YearTitleCategoryResult
1984The Killing Fields Best Cinematography Won
1986The MissionWon
1996Michael CollinsNominated
2008The ReaderNominated

BAFTA Awards

YearTitleCategoryResult
1983Local Hero Best Cinematography Nominated
1984The Killing FieldsWon
1986The MissionNominated
1996Michael CollinsNominated
2008The ReaderNominated

American Society of Cinematographers

YearTitleCategoryResult
1986The Mission Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography Nominated
1996Michael CollinsNominated
1997The BoxerNominated
2008The ReaderNominated

Los Angeles Film Critics Association

YearTitleCategoryResult
1984The Killing Fields Best Cinematography Won
1986The MissionWon
1996Michael CollinsWon

National Society of Film Critics

YearTitleCategoryResult
1984Comfort and Joy Best Cinematography Won
The Killing FieldsWon
1996Michael CollinsNominated

New York Film Critics Circle

YearTitleCategoryResult
1984The Killing Fields Best Cinematography Won
1986The MissionNominated

Other awards

YearTitleAward/Nomination
1984The Killing Fields Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography
1996Michael CollinsNominated – Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wim Wenders</span> German filmmaker

Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders is a German filmmaker, playwright, author, and photographer. He is a major figure in New German Cinema. Among the honors he has received are prizes from the Cannes, Venice and Berlin film festivals. He has also received a BAFTA Award and been nominated for three Academy Awards and a Grammy Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Deakins</span> British cinematographer

Sir Roger Alexander Deakins is an English cinematographer, best known for his collaborations with directors the Coen brothers, Sam Mendes, and Denis Villeneuve. He is the recipient of five BAFTA Awards for Best Cinematography, and two Academy Awards for Best Cinematography from sixteen nominations. His best-known works include The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Fargo (1996), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Skyfall (2012), Sicario (2015), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and 1917 (2019), the last two of which earned him Academy Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Cardiff</span> British cinematographer, director and photographer (1914–2009)

Jack Cardiff, was a British cinematographer, film and television director, and photographer. His career spanned the development of cinema, from silent film, through early experiments in Technicolor, to filmmaking more than half a century later.

<i>A World Apart</i> (film) 1988 film

A World Apart is a 1988 anti-apartheid drama film and directed by Chris Menges and starring Barbara Hershey, David Suchet, Jeroen Krabbé, Paul Freeman, Tim Roth, and Jodhi May. Written by Shawn Slovo, it is based on the lives of Slovo's parents, Ruth First and Joe Slovo. The film was a co-production between companies from the UK and Zimbabwe, where it was filmed. It features Hans Zimmer's first non-collaborative film score.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Suschitzky</span> British cinematographer and photographer

Peter Suschitzky, A.S.C. is a British cinematographer and photographer. Among his most known works as director of photography are The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Empire Strikes Back, and Mars Attacks! and the later films of David Cronenberg. Suschitzky succeeded Mark Irwin as Cronenberg's regular cinematographer when Irwin left during the pre-production of Dead Ringers (1988), and has been the cinematographer for all of Cronenberg's films since, with the exception of Crimes of the Future (2022). He has also collaborated with directors John Boorman, Ken Russell, Bernard Rose, and Tim Burton.

Dante Spinotti, A.S.C., A.I.C. is an Italian cinematographer and a member of the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He is known for his collaborations with directors Michael Mann, Michael Apted, Deon Taylor, and Brett Ratner, and is frequently credited with helping to pioneer the use of high-definition digital video in cinematography. He is a BAFTA Award recipient and two-time Academy Award nominee.

John Niel Green, ASC, is an American cinematographer and film director best known for his Oscar-nominated collaborations with actor/director Clint Eastwood, taking over from Eastwood's previous collaborator Bruce Surtees.

Barry Ackroyd, BSC is an English cinematographer and director. Ackroyd has frequently worked with directors Ken Loach and Paul Greengrass. He worked on Kathryn Bigelow's 2008 war film The Hurt Locker as well as the critically acclaimed 2013 biographical thriller Captain Phillips, the former earning him a BAFTA Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography. In 2014, Ackroyd became the president of the British Society of Cinematographers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1988 Cannes Film Festival</span>

The 41st Cannes Film Festival was held from 11 to 23 May 1988. The Palme d'Or went to the Pelle erobreren by Bille August.

Zoltán Kamondi was a Hungarian film director, actor, screenwriter and producer. He was born in 1960 in Budapest, Hungary.

<i>Route Irish</i> (film) 2010 drama-thriller film directed by Ken Loach

Route Irish is a 2010 drama-thriller film directed by Ken Loach and written by Paul Laverty. It is set in Liverpool and focuses on the consequences suffered by private security contractors after fighting in the Iraq War. The title comes from the Baghdad Airport Road, known as "Route Irish". The film was a British-French co-production. It was selected for the main competition at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2012 Cannes Film Festival</span> Film festival

The 65th Cannes Film Festival was held from 16 to 27 May 2012. Italian film director Nanni Moretti was the President of the Jury for the main competition and British actor Tim Roth was the President of the Jury for the Un Certain Regard section. French actress Bérénice Bejo hosted the opening and closing ceremonies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clio Barnard</span> British film director

Clio Barnard is a British director of documentary and feature films. She won widespread critical acclaim and multiple awards for her debut, The Arbor, an experimental documentary about Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar. In 2013 she was hailed as a significant new voice in British cinema for her film The Selfish Giant, which premiered in the Director's Fortnight section of the Cannes film festival.

Michael Daley CoulterBSC is a Scottish cinematographer. He achieved prominence for his collaborations with writer-director Bill Forsyth, and went on to work on high-profile films like Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Sense and Sensibility (1995), FairyTale: A True Story (1997), Notting Hill (1999), Mansfield Park, Love Actually (2003), The Bank Job (2008), and The Hustle (2019). He was nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for his work on Sense and Sensibility. He is a member of the British Society of Cinematographers, and BAFTA Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken Loach</span> British filmmaker (born 1936)

Kenneth Charles Loach is a British film director and screenwriter. His socially critical directing style and socialism are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty, homelessness, and labour rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 Cannes Film Festival</span>

The 69th Cannes Film Festival was held from 11 to 22 May 2016. Australian director George Miller was the President of the Jury for the main competition. French actor Laurent Lafitte was the host for the opening and closing ceremonies. On 15 March it was announced that Japanese director Naomi Kawase would serve as the Cinéfondation and Short Film Jury president. American director Woody Allen's film Café Society opened the festival.

<i>I, Daniel Blake</i> 2016 film by Ken Loach

I, Daniel Blake is a 2016 British drama film written by Paul Laverty and directed by Ken Loach. The film stars Dave Johns as Daniel Blake, a middle-aged man who is denied Employment and Support Allowance despite being declared unfit to work by his doctor. Hayley Squires co-stars as Katie, a struggling single mother whom Daniel befriends.

Robbie Ryan is an Irish cinematographer whose work spans over 106 film projects, including feature-length, short films, commercials, and music videos. He is most known for his collaborations with film auteurs such as Andrea Arnold, Sally Potter, Stephen Frears, Ken Loach, Noah Baumbach, Yorgos Lanthimos and Mike Mills.

Sally Hibbin is a British independent film producer, known for her work on low budget films with directors like Ken Loach and Phil Davis as well as producers like Sarah Curtis and Rebecca O'Brien. She has produced various British independent films and some television productions.

References

  1. "Chris Menges Biography (1940-)". www.filmreference.com. Archived from the original on 1 April 2018. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  2. "Festival de Cannes: A World Apart". festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on 20 August 2011. Retrieved 26 July 2009.