LF in the movies

[Ari]

In Coal Miner's Daughter, Tommy Lee Jones takes a publicity photo of Sissy Spacek in their living room, using a lamp and pot cover as reflector.
He forgets to pull the darkslide, and only takes one photo.
Nice little scene, though, with their daughter coming into the room, and a great movie as well. Sissy did all the singing and guitar playing.

Also, The Public Eye with Joe Pesci, playing a Weegee-type. So-so movie, but accurate, photographically, by Hollywood standards.

[Stephane]

Near the end of "A bout the souffle" (Breathless), a classic French movie of Jean-Luc Godard, there's a model, a photographer and a 18x24 camera.

[Justin Cormack]

Don't remember the name of the film, Alec Guiness plays a husband keen on photography, chats to some other character re his new Thornton Pickard, WP Ithink.

Comes to a sticky end when his shed/darkroom is blown up. Guiness as usual plays several of the roles in a comedy murder mystery. Anyone else remember it or am I having a senior moment?

Gari

Kind Hearts and Coronets. There is a comment about the image being upside down that is quite funny.

[Robert Jonathan]

In the Godfather Part 3, there is a photographer doing a family portrait.

In the wide shot, the camera is clearly a 4x5 Sinar P.

When the shot cuts to the closeup of the photographer snapping the shot, the camera turns into some sort of Calumet/Cambo monorail, or some U shaped camera with a Cambo/Calumet (can't remember) lens board.

[Paul Kierstead]

An LF camera is used in several instances in The King's Speech, a movie much better then I expected. It is only used in passing (no focus on it) for photo-ops of the King.

[William McEwen]

Kind Hearts and Coronets. There is a comment about the image being upside down that is quite funny.

Yes, the portion of the movie surrounding the photographer is a special delight.

I love the darkroom, where the photographer has booze, not photo chemicals in the jugs because his wife disapproves of alcohol.

[William McEwen]

I saw two on TCM this weekend:

I’m No Angel, starring Cary Grant and Mae West (1933)
A scene centers around a carnival high-wire act. After the performance is over, a clown runs onto the stage with a large view camera and tripod. He sets it down and points it at the audience. Unfortunately, the scene ends there.

Jail Busters, starring The Bowery Boys (1955)
Three of the boys are arrested and sent to jail. They have their mug shots taken by an actor using what appears to be a 5x7 camera. The actor, Emil Sitka, either had a photography background or he was taught well, because he uses the camera correctly (insert holder, remove dark slide, etc.) without missing a beat.


Have any of you seen The Family Jewels with Jerry Lewis? I saw it when I was a kid, and I seem to remember Lewis with a big view camera, going a little nuts as he adjusts and loads the camera, then changes the background, then back to the camera, then back to the background, repeat, repeat, repeat.

[Moopheus]

The film Ghandi shows Margaret Bourke-White (Candice Bergen) interviewing Ghandi (Ben Kingsley) while taking a number of shots with her Speed Graphic.

Of course, their are vast numbers of period movies and old movies featuring scenes with mobs of press-camera wielding news photographers--too many to think of them all. But not that many where photography is an important part of the film.

[K. Praslowicz]

Of course, their are vast numbers of period movies and old movies featuring scenes with mobs of press-camera wielding news photographers--too many to think of them all. But not that many where photography is an important part of the film.

I've slowly been trying to find as many of those as I can and have been assembling screen shots of them on my website.

I love how often the bellows appear very over extended.

[uavplane]

A scene in Public Enemies(starring Johnny Depp & Christian Bale), consists of a press release where a Speed Graphic and a few other view cameras are visible among the press.