But certainly also, as a director of photography, I have to serve the movie in whatever way I can as a filmmaker.”Ī child of wealth - his father made a fortune in electronics and continued to prosper during the Depression - Wexler was born Feb. I don’t think there is a movie that I’ve been on that I wasn’t sure I could direct it better. Wexler was fired from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” more than halfway through shooting because, according to director Milos Forman, “He was sharing his frustrations with the actors.”įor his part, Wexler said in the documentary: “As a director of photography, I always have worked as if it’s my film. Then I use light, framing and motion to create a focal point.”Īs a cinematographer, Wexler was known for being difficult - as several filmmakers attested to in “Tell Them Who You Are,” the highly personal 2004 documentary on Wexler made by his son, Mark, himself a target of his father’s prickly nature. You have to make the audience feel like they are peeking through a keyhole. Once named one of the 10 most influential cinematographers in movie history in a survey of International Cinematographers Guild members, Wexler became the first active cameraman to receive the American Society of Cinematographer’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993.ĭescribing his work in an interview that year with American Cinematographer magazine, Wexler said: “Movies are a voyeuristic experience. involvement in Nicaragua that pulls no philosophical punches and was made under conditions of real danger, near actual battle zones.” Wexler also directed and wrote the 1985 feature film “Latino,” a war drama shot in Nicaragua that movie critic Michael Wilmington described as “an indictment of U.S. Wexler made his feature directorial debut with “Medium Cool,” a low-budget 1969 film that he wrote and for which he served as a producer and as the director of photography.ĭescribed by Wexler as “a wedding between features and cinema verite,” the drama about an emotionally detached TV news cameraman was partly shot in Chicago during the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention.Īt one point, as the camera inches closer to a tear-gas cloud and a wall of police officers, a voice off-camera famously can be heard warning, “Look out, Haskell - it’s real!”Ĭonsidered “a seminal film of ‘60s independent cinema,” “Medium Cool” was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2003. He also was visual consultant on George Lucas’ 1973 classic “American Graffiti.” And he received an “additional photography” credit on Terrence Malick’s 1978 film “Days of Heaven,” for which cinematographer Nestor Almendros won an Oscar. Wexler also received Oscar nominations for best cinematography for the 1975 film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (shared with Bill Butler), “Matewan” (1987) and “Blaze” (1989).Īmong Wexler’s other feature film credits as a cinematographer are “The Thomas Crown Affair,” “In the Heat of the Night,” “Coming Home,” “Colors” and “The Babe.” He won his second Oscar for “Bound for “Glory,” director Hal Ashby’s 1976 movie starring David Carradine as legendary singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie. His acceptance speech was among the briefest in Hollywood history: “I hope we can use our art for peace and for love. One of the few cinematographers to have received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (in 1996), Wexler won his first Oscar for his black-and-white photography on “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” director Mike Nichols’ 1966 debut starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
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