A somewhat underrated figure in cinematographic history,
Australian-born Robert Krasker handled some of the most memorable films
made in Britain after the Second World War. In his youth he attended
art classes in Paris and studied photography at the Photohaendler
Schule in Dresden. He briefly worked for Paramount in Paris before
joining Alexander Korda's London
Films at Denham Studios in 1932. As a camera operator, Krasker cut his
teeth on Technicolor spectacles like
Vier Federn (1939) and
Der Dieb von Bagdad (1940).
From 1942, he worked as director of photography, showing his flair in
all photographic media, from the softly lit, subtle black & white of
Begegnung (1945) to the
gaudy 'cartoon colour' pageantry of
Heinrich V. (1944).
He adopted a suitably harsher, almost semi-documentary look working
with director Carol Reed on
Ausgestoßen (1947) and
Der dritte Mann (1949). Both films
are characterised by expressionistic camera angles, chiaroscuro
lighting and conspicuous close-ups. Krasker deservedly won an Oscar for
his work on 'The Third Man' and went on to shoot the visually glorious
Sehnsucht (1954) for
Luchino Visconti in Italy, in turn
followed by one of the best-looking epics of the 50s:
El Cid (1961) -- with its famous long shot
of the dead hero, riding away tied upright to his horse. Krasker's
style of photography went out of fashion with the increasing popularity
of the New Wave in the 1960s. Disenchantment, combining with failing
health led to his retirement in 1965. One of the great cameramen of cinema's "Golden Age", he deserves to be remembered.
