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Chris Menges
English cinematographer and film director (born 1940) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Chris Menges BSC, ASC (born 15 September 1940) is a British cinematographer and film director.
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He is a member of both the American and British Societies of Cinematographers.
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Life and career
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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. Menges 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, Menges 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.
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Filmography
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Cinematographer
Documentary film
Feature film
Director
Documentary film
- Wild and Free Twice Daily (1969)
- East 103rd Street (1981) (Also producer)
Feature film
- A World Apart (1988)
- CrissCross (1992)
- Second Best (1993)
- The Lost Son (1999)
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Awards and nominations
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Academy Awards
BAFTA Awards
American Society of Cinematographers
Los Angeles Film Critics Association
National Society of Film Critics
New York Film Critics Circle
Other awards
References
External links
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