Freddie Francis - Freddie Francis: The Straight Story from Moby Dick to Glory, a Memoir

Freddie filming for Robert Mulligans The Man in the Moon (1991).

Foreword

David Lynch

F reddie Francis. What a great guy Freddie was. What a great man with the light. Freddie was a no-nonsense person. His philosophy with lighting was, Wheres the light coming from in this scene? Thats where the lights go. Freddie used common sense. Always common sense. Hed figure the mood of the scene and light accordingly. Hed use his common sense on everything having to do with the light in a scene and yet he always intuitively took it a step further and always managed to get a subtle magic.

Freddie made things look correct, and he also made things look beautifuland on top of it all he was fast. He had many tricks for special lighting effects. He loved making rigs for certain effects, for instance, making a small oil lantern look like it was lighting the whole scene. He had an electrical lighting rig for when the lantern was first lit. He had a rig for the look of a steady flame and electrical lighting rigs for turning or moving the lantern. These were complicated, sophisticated rigs, but they were always based on common sense.

Freddie was always really great with me. He backed me up and gave me always what I wanted. (Unless I wanted it DARKER!) He always gave his best to the film. He enjoyed his work so much. Being on a location or a set, taking care of the light, really made Freddie happy. His happiness made for a great feeling on the set. He had a great sense of humor. He had many standard jokes. One joke he used a lot, and the absurdity of the joke and the way he told it, always made me laugh. I always carry a violin... just in case. Sometimes late in the day, Freddie would say something like, Is this the last shot, David? And Id say, Yeah, maybe one more, why? And Freddie would say, Ive got a party of eighteen tonight... and she arrives at seven.

It was so much fun working with Freddie. We made three pictures together and had a great friendship through the years. And not just with Freddie but his family as well. They always made me feel welcome, and their house was like a home away from home.

This is a fantastic book. Freddie tells his whole story. I dont know how Tony Dalton got it all. And Freddie tells it so well. It strikes me that Freddies story is so special as it chronicles such a full and interesting life in and around the places, times, and the filmsand with his story Freddie has managed to paint a full picture of British cinema of the twentieth century.

I miss Freddie Francis, and Im sure the real deal cinema is missing Freddie, too.

Foreword

Oswald Morris, OBE, DFC, AFC, BSC

I n the summer of 1937, not long after Pinewood Studios opened, I was operating on a quota quickie photographed by Ronnie Neame. In those days cinematographers asked for hand tests to be developed at the end of each roll of exposed film. Freddie was doing that particular work, and our friendship developed from that moment. That was more than seventy years ago. We lost track of each other for a while after that.

In 1939, at the outbreak of war, he joined the Army Kinematographic Society based at Wembley Studios, the so-called Wembley Chindits, and I was conscripted into the Royal Air Force where I was plunged into flying heavy bombers over enemy territory at night.

We were both discharged from the army at about the same time in early 1946 and were offered work as camera operators; he at Shepperton Studios, and I at Pinewood.

In 1948 I was offered my chance to photograph my first movie with my mentor Ronnie Neame. He advised me to seek an experienced operator. In those days operators of a certain calibre avoided first film cinematographers like the plague! I turned to Freddie, and, without the slightest hesitation, he agreed to join me; its a gesture that I have never forgotten, and he would never let me forget!

We parted for a while as he was in great demand as an operator and I was struggling to gain work as an experienced cinematographer. In 1952, out of the blue I was invited to photograph Moulin Rouge for John Huston; I asked Freddie to join me yet again as my operator, and he agreed. That was really the beginning of a truly memorable association. He swung that giant Technicolor camera among the dancers in the can-can sequence as never had been seen before. He handled the fads and fancies of the likes of Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Peter Lorre, Robert Morley, and others on the shaggy dog movie, Beat the Devil , our second film with Huston. He spent hours behind me as I read a newspaper in so-called disguise in the London streets whilst filming Knave of Hearts for the very talented Ren Clment. He witnessed the spectacle of Beau Brummell with the very young Elizabeth Taylor enjoying life with the first of her eight husbands and frequently yawning in front of the long-suffering director Curt Bernhardt. Finally on Moby Dick he asked me if he could photograph the model and second units on that movie, and I readily agreed. That was the least I could do to repay him for his loyalty.

Shortly after that he branched out on his own and photographed a stunning array of black-and-white features, picking up his first American Academy Award for Sons and Lovers on the way. Such classics as Room at the Top , Saturday Night and Sunday Morning , and The Innocents , his oft mentioned favourite film, were other remarkable highlights of his early career as a cinematographer.