Jack Cardiff, A.S.C.
1952

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Jack Cardiff | Quins | Scott of the Antarctic

Jack Cardiff

Jack Cardiff was cinematographer on Powell and Pressburger's 'A Matter of Life and Death' (1945). The film, considered a modern masterpiece, tells the wartime story of an airman who falls in love with a woman whose voice he hears over the radio as his damaged plane falls to earth. On earth, after the crash, the airman's life is held in the balance while a trial takes place in heaven as to whether he should be allowed to live since he has fallen in love with the woman on the radio. The film's narrative moves between heaven and earth by means of a cosmic stairway. The photographs taken on set here show 'Ethel', the huge escalator that linked heaven and earth, twice from above and once from below. Named 'Operation Ethel' by the engineers who built her, she cost $ 3000, took three months build, had 106 steps, each 20 feet wide, was driven by a 12 h.p. engine and required an underpinned floor to support her eighty-five ton weight. Cardiff later went on to win an Oscar for his cinematography for Powell and Pressburger's 'Black Narcissus' (1947). Jack's Technicolor camera is on display in 'Insight: the Collections and Research Centre'. Free daily tours are available.