'Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff'
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'Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff'

By Leba Hertz, Chronicle Staff Writer
Cinematographer Jack Cardiff in CAMERAMAN: THE LIFE AND WORK OF JACK CARDIFF
Cinematographer Jack Cardiff in CAMERAMAN: THE LIFE AND WORK OF JACK CARDIFFmill valley film festival

Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff

POLITE APPLAUSE

Documentary. Directed by Craig McCall. (Not rated. 90 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.)

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In "Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff," we learn about the visionary filmmaker through his body of work and insightful interviews with such luminaries as Martin Scorsese and Kirk Douglas as well as Cardiff himself.

The director of photography for such disparate films as "The Red Shoes," "The African Queen" and "Rambo: First Blood II" also worked for such directors as Alfred Hitchcock and King Vidor. He won two Oscars: best cinematographer for "Black Narcissus" in 1948 and the first cinematographer to receive an honorary award (2001). He also was nominated for best director for the 1960 movie "Sons and Lovers."

Cardiff died in 2009 at the age of 94. He was still working in 2006 when this documentary was being made. Although we never really learn much about his life outside the movies, by the end of the film we are in awe of his work accomplishments.

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Leba Hertz is the San Francisco Chronicle's Arts and Entertainment Editor and Sunday Datebook Editor in charge of movie and dance coverage as well as overseeing the content and production of the Sunday Pink entertainment section. She also provides movie content for the Hearst Newspapers. A member of the San Francisco Film Critics Circle and Alliance for Women Journalists in Film, Hertz has been the Arts and Entertainment editor since 2002. Before that she was the Olympics and Deputy Sports Editor at The Chronicle and is a former president of the Association for Women in Sports Media and a former member of the Associate Press Sports Editors organization. Hertz grew up in Bayonne, N.J., and received a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Michigan (where she still roots for the Wolverines) and a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. Although she roots for the Giants in many cases, Hertz is an original Mets fan and still cheers for them even in dire circumstances.