Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff Page #7

I was there for the whole shoot,

and I think Jack had

tremendous admiration for John.

John always tried to get

almost impossible shots,

really difficult ones,

and Jack always got what he wanted.

Huston was quite easy-going, in a way.

But ever, beneath the casual

kind of attitude, was the artist,

was the perfectionist.

He had the utmost regard for Jack,

that I know,

because they basically

talked the same language.

We were towing this raft,

and we had Katherine Hepburn's

little place as a dressing room.

I had a tiny generator for my two lamps.

I only had two lamps on the picture.

And one or two others,

the sound department, had it.

So it was a string of little boats

being towed along.

Of course, when we came to a corner,

they were like a row of sausages,

and they couldn't turn

so we would crash into the bank.

You could find yourself

with one leg, on "The African Queen",

on the boat with Katie and Bogie

sitting down there,

and your other leg up

on the bank of a river,

holding a boom like that over them

and liable to go in,

and in those rivers

were rather nasty creatures.

In Uganda on Lake Victoria,

we were all sick, very, very sick.

I mean all kinds of dysentery,

all kinds of vomiting, everything.

Sam Spiegel, our friend

and our producer, came to the location.

He was furious cos the movie

had to shut down for three days.

We got yet another doctor to look at it

and he found exactly what was wrong,

that the filter, the water filter...

We were on a houseboat,

you see, and the filter wasn't there.

So we were drinking just river water with

the droppings of hippos and crocodiles.

And the only two persons who weren't

sick was Bogie and John Huston

because they never touched water,

they only drank whisky.

- I could give you a hand.

- Close your eyes, please, Mr. Allnut.

I'm all right. I'm all right.

Hepburn was an incredible lady.

She was very strong-minded,

and in some ways she didn't want

to be regarded as a frail woman.

She wanted to be tough and accepted

as a woman of character and courage.

She did go in the jungle

and she was a very, very brave woman.

Ain't no person in their right mind

ain't scared of white water.

I never dreamed that any mere physical

experience could be so stimulating.

How's that, Miss?

Bogie, of course, put on

this big act that he was a tough guy.

I mean, he told me at the beginning

about makeup.

He said, "Jack, see this face?

"It's taken me many years to get

all these lines and crinkles in it.

"That's the way I want it. Don't light me

up and make me look like a goddam fag.

"I want to look like this." So I did it.

Bogie was not an actor who

cared much about the way he looked.

But he appreciated good photography.

And he loved effective photography

that worked for the story.

I wrote and directed

all three of the movies Maria was in,

her short, full career

from start to finish.

It was a frightening film

for a young person to see.

I'll never forget the opening scenes

in the graveyard in the rain.

And his colour, his use of colour,

particularly when they're in Monte Carlo

or on the yacht.

She unveils, in a sense, and Edmond

O'Brien, all the guys, just look at her.

It's an extraordinary picture.

The world's number-one

symbol of desirability

on display all over the world's

number-one showroom

with the world's number-one

customers wanting to buy,

and nobody wrapped her up

and took her home.

Oh, she was gorgeous,

of course. She was so good-looking.

I was on location

with that one as well, and that...

Yeah, but I think that Ava Gardner

was certainly not hard to photograph.

I mean, Bogie may have been,

but Ava was such a great beauty.

The first time I met her,

she was very happy with Frank Sinatra.

The next time I worked with her,

she was leaving Frank.

Something had gone wrong

and she was taking Soneryl to sleep

and that made her a bit sleepy,

the eyes had to be looked after,

so I was lighting her more carefully.

And it is a fact, they rely

on the cameramen very much.

I think I am pretty enough, but I would

not want to be that kind of star.

Pretty enough? Any woman that

can use the moon for a key light...

Key light? What is that?

That's your light

when the stage is all lit up,

the light that shines only on you.

You took a lot of portraits of actresses,

didn't you, over the years?

- Yes, I had...

- Could we have a look at those?

I used to take them

usually in the lunch hour.

And, um...I only had time to do a few.

Audrey Hepburn was one

I did on "War And Peace".

That's a typical type of lighting,

of light, dark, light, dark, you see.

Dark, light, dark, light.

- What's the name of that again?

- Chiaroscuro.

Pierre.

I tried to photograph them

as many times as possible

to get used to their face and study

any kind of flaws and things.

Janet Leigh? That was on "The Vikings".

And then we have Anita Ekberg,

who had a lovely face.

And that was on "War And Peace".

They all had different qualities. I mean,

Loren had the most gorgeous eyes.

Very expressive eyes.

Audrey Hepburn had these

very thick eyebrows, which was...

She made a fashion out of that, and

she made a fashion out of many things.

That's Sophia Loren,

with a big hat.

This is when I became like an amateur

enthusiast who takes pictures.

Why does he take them?

He likes to take pictures, you know.

And these women

were beautiful women.

And, you know, like you collect stamps,

I collected beautiful women,

photographically, of course.

Marilyn was always

sort of perfectly made up

and she had a face

which was virtually perfect.

She had a slightly tipped-up nose,

which was very attractive.

She specifically asked

for you once. What was that?

Well, that was because I was in vogue.

It's almost like footballers

that are getting around.

They want a certain footballer

to be in a certain position

and they find out that

that's the best man, they get them.

I don't know. And she asked for me,

and I was very flattered.

You have pretty eyebrows.

Love. What a universe of joy and pain

lies in that little word.

Larry was...he was supposed

to be in that position.

But he wanted to look through

the camera to see what the shot was.

- He was directing.

- He wanted to see what the shot was.

So I took his position and Marilyn

put her arms round me like that,

and later on she wrote,

"Jack, I'll tell you what we'll do,"

and Arthur Miller, the husband, said,

"Oh, no, you don't," so that was that.

- What were you gonna do?

- I don't know.

It was a tough job for him

because she was...

I think she was a darling girl

in many instances,

but she...she had a lot of problems...

- Do you reverse?

- Just try me!

She would come on the set very late,

and it was a tough picture to do.

Between Marilyn and Olivier,

who also directed,

there were occasional reports of strain.

We had a wonderful

make-up man, Whitey,

who was with her for years.

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