Table Of ContentP a i n t i n g _
WITH LIGHT
JOHN ALTON
Introduction by Todd McCarthy
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the contribution provided by
the General Endowment Fund of the Associates of the University of
California Press.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press
London, England
Copyright © 1995 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Alton, John.
Painting with light / John Alton,
p. cm.
Originally published: New York: Macmillan, 1949. With new
introductory material and filmography.
Includes index.
Filmography: p,
ISBN 978-0-520-08949-5 (alk. paper: pbk.)
1. Cinematography—Lighting. 2. Alton, John. I. Title.
TR891.A48 1995 '
79,5'343—dc20 94-4121
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
13 12 11 10 09 08
16 15 14 13 12 11 10
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper), ©
TO MY DEAR W I F E Rozalia
whose infinite patience and encouragement made
this book possible.
Life is short, but long enough to get what's coming to you.
THE AUTHOR
CONTENTS
THROUGH A LENS DARKLY: 6. OUTDOR PHOTOGRAPHY 18
THE LIFE AND FILMS OF JOHN ALTON Films with Exteriors • Mood in Exteriors • Composi-
by Todd McCarthy tion • Painting with Sun Reflectors • Booster Lights •
Painting with Filters • Light Problems • Westerns •
FILMOGRAPHY The New School of Exterior Photography
by Todd McCarthy and Dennis Jakob xxxv
7. SYMPHONY IN SNOW 136
PREFACE xli On Vacation • On Location
8. OCEAN VOYAGE 146
1. HOLYWOD PHOTOGRAPHY 1
Love, Live, Laugh, and Loaf • Preparation • At
The City of Geniuses • The Photographic Staff •
Sea • Taking Pictures • Arrival at a Foreign Port •
The Outstanding Stand-ins • The Laboratory Con-
In Port • Homeward Bound
tact Man • Tools of Motion Picture Photography
9. VISUAL MUSIC 158
2. MOTION PICTURE ILUMINATION 18
Visual Symphony
The Set • Props • People • Rigging for Illumination •
Lighting Equipment • The Theory of Illumination
10. THE PORTRAIT STUDIO 164
Improvements • Make-up and Portrait
3. MYSTERY LIGHTING 4
Fire • Sets and Mystery • Lighting for Lightning • 1. THE LABORATORY 167
Lighting a Campfire Scene • How to Illuminate a Screen Tests • The Contact Man • Negative De-
Fireplace Scene • The Candle Flame • Doubles and
veloping
Their Illumination • Criminal Lighting • The Radio
Dial as a Light Source • The Power of Light
12. DAY AND NIGHT, LADIES, WATCH
YOUR LIGHT 171
4. SPECIAL ILLUMINATION 57 Faces • Interior Illumination of the Home • Out-
Lighting the Street • Rain • Summer Moonlight • door Lighting • Lighting in Clubs, Bars, and Res-
Autumn Fog • Wintertime • Dream Lighting • Train taurants • Architectural Lighting
Light Effects • Interior of a Plane • Steamship In-
teriors • Tents • Gags and Tricks • Transparency or 13. MOTION PICTURE THEATRES 185
Process Photography The Headache • The Modern Theatre
5. THE HOLLYWOOD CLOSE-UP 80 14. THE WORLD IS A HUGE TELE-
Starlight • The Close-up Is Born • Rules for Close- VISION STUDIO AND WE ARE ALL
up Ilumination • Tols Used for Making Close- PHOTOGRAPHERS 187
ups • The Clock System of Placing Reflectors • The Human Camera • The Laboratory • What Is
Lighting Procedure Thinking? • Television
PAINTING WITH LIGHT
THROUGH A LENS DARKLY:
THE LIFE AND FILMS OF JOHN ALTON
Todd McCarthy
"Black and white are colors," John Alton has with the long-overdue republication of his clas-
stated, and no cinematographer in film history sic 1949 book, Painting With Light, the first
has more deeply explored the value of those book on the art of cinematography ever written
colors, or the nature of the violent contrast be- by a leading Hollywood cameraman. This event,
tween them, than has John Alton. "I could see along with the groundswell of attention Alton
more in the dark than I could in color," he has been receiving, represents a happy confir-
claimed, "I could see in the dark." His remark- mation of this volume's original epigraph: "Life
able talent lay in the way he enabled audiences is short, but long enough to get what's coming
to do the same. to you."
At the same time, Alton displayed a remark- For too many years, Alton was one of the pri-
able ability—intentional or not—to enshroud vate pet obsessions of a handful of film buffs
his career in mystery. He was the Greta Garbo and critics; those who even knew his name and
of Hollywood cameramen, an Austro-Hungarian could cite a few of his credits belonged to a sort
nearly as illustrious in his own field as the great of secret society, a shadowy inner circle within
Swede was in hers and, as the years passed, the already exclusive coterie of specialists in
possibly even more mysterious and elusive. Af- film noir. Yet, over time, such films as T-Men,
ter he abruptly quit the industry in 1960 at Raw Deal, He Walked by Night, Border Inci-
age 59, he was rumored to have abandoned cin- dent, and The Big Combo gradually developed
ema for painting, and to be living in Switzer- wider followings and their striking style began
land, Patagonia, or even Hollywood. He refused asserting an influence on contemporary film-
all requests for interviews or to be a guest at makers. Recognition started with the cults sur-
film festivals. The image grew of a ferocious rounding Anthony Mann and Joseph H. Lewis,
artistic purist who would tolerate no intrusion but finally it became clear that even these di-
upon his privacy or the sanctity of his vision. rectors' other films didn't look like this, that the
essence, and ultimate example, of film noir style
As it happens, Alton is decidedly an artistic
was, logically enough, created by a cinematog-
purist, but is ferocious only in the tenaciousness
rapher, not a director.
with which he expresses his ideals and opinions.
A Middle European charmer and bon vivant Considerable academic study has been de-
even at 92, Alton has proven to be the most dis- voted to film noir in an attempt to define it,
arming and congenial of guests since, in 1993, describe its parameters, and explain it socio-
he finally reemerged into the public eye at film logically, historically, and artistically. But no
festivals and special screenings. This process of matter whom one credits with having set the
reacquaintance with cinephiles now continues tone for noir—hard-boiled crime writers such as
ix
Chandler, Cain, and Hammett ; expressionistic- theless devoted a section of the film to Alton's
minded, predominantly Germanic emigre di- work. When he heard about the film, he wanted
rectors, including Lang, Wilder, Siodmak, and to see it, and since then I have had the privilege
Preminger; economy-minded executives and of spending considerable time with him at pri-
producers looking for tough, timely material vate screenings of his own pictures, many of
that could be done on the cheap; or the politi- which he was seeing for the first time in de-
cians of the postwar, Red Scare era who helped cades; at the Telluride Film Festival, where I
foster a paranoid cultural climate—there can helped present the first tribute to Alton's work
be no doubt that John Alton pushed film noir to attended by the artist himself (Fig. 1); and at
its most exciting visual extremes. In the defini- his apartment in Beverly Hills—which is domi-
tive noir period, roughly 1946-1951, no one's nated by a few of his own paintings, some
blacks were blacker, shadows longer, contrasts photographs, and his Oscar for An American
stronger, or focus deeper than John Alton's. In in Paris—where he patiently and vigorously an-
fashioning the nocturnal world inhabited by swered my many questions about his life and
noir's desperate characters, Alton was ever con- career.
sistent and imaginative in forging his signature,
John Alton began his long, accomplished,
illuminating scenes with single lamps, slanted
and exceedingly well-traveled life on October 5,
and fragmented beams and pools of light, all
1901, in Sopron, a Hungarian village near what
separated by intense darkness in which the
is now the Austrian border. The family name
source of all fear could fester and finally thrive.
at the time was the German Altman, although
Alton's films are paradoxically filled with violent
Herr Altman's father undoubtedly had a dif-
killings and relatively absent of kinetic action,
ferent surname before moving to Vienna from
largely because his sculpted style demanded
Russia. John's father Sam Altman, who was born
a choreography of shots different, and more
in 1872, and his brother Emile emigrated in the
static, than the norm. Very often, the brightest
1880s to the United States, where they changed
object in the frame would be located at the fur-
their names to Alton and became U.S. citizens,
thest distance from the camera, in order to
thereby giving John Alton an American connec-
channel viewer concentration; often, the light
tion long before he was born. Emile stayed, but
would just manage to catch the rim of a hat, the
in time Sam returned to Vienna, where he re-
edge of a gun, the smoke from a cigarette.
claimed the Altman name and became a brandy,
Actors' faces, normally the object of any cam-
wine, and champagne maker and exporter. For
eraman's most ardent attention, were often in-
a time, he worked for the wealthy Szecheny
visible or obscured, with characters from T-Men
family, and it was in the Szecheny castle, where
to, perhaps most memorably, The Big Combo
the Altmans had rooms, that John (or Jacob in
playing out their fates in silhouette against a
German, or Janos in Hungarian) was born.
witheringly blank, impassive background. Few,
The family had a strong Jewish identity. Sam's
if any other, cinematographers' styles could be
wife, whom he had met through a traditional
said to express a philosophy, a concrete view of
matchmaker, was a Sephardic Jew named Eva
the world, but Alton's certainly represents the
Lipschutz, a descendant of a prominent family
purest visual correlative for fatalistic existential-
that had fled Spain for Austria during the In-
ism yet seen in motion pictures.
quisition. For his part, Sam was an adherent of
I came to know John Alton as a result of my the Austro-Hungarian Zionist leader Theodor
work on the documentary Visions of Light; The Herzl. "My father was a Zionist all his life, on
Art of Cinematography. Unable to locate Alton the religious end," Alton recalled. "H e was Or-
to interview him, my collaborators and I none- thodox, and I didn't agree with all that. He
Fig. 1 Fihmnaker Bertrand Tavernier, John Alton, and Todd McCarthy during audience discussion at 1993
Telluride Film Festival. Photograph © Wendy H. Smith, courtesy of Telluride Film Festival.
spoke Hebrew as a boy, so when he got to Pales- became a bookworm and was not very success-
tine he was able to start making speeches right ful," John recalled. "My father caught the bug
away." of money in America, and he tried for the rest
John's native language was "Viennese dialect" of his life to make everyone American." The
German, but he also grew up learning Hun- second son, Bernard, "was the smartest and
garian and Romanian (a list to which he later most educated of the children. He studied phi-
added English, Spanish, French, Italian, and a losophy and was in the German Army in World
smattering of other tongues). When the boy War I. But later he stayed too long and the
was four, the family moved to Transylvania, and Nazis got him and killed him." A daughter,
subsequently Sam opened his own winery in Anna, was next, followed by John, son Harry,
Romania. A precocious kid, John displayed an and daughter Esther.
artistic bent, taking up photography at age five, Just young enough to miss military service in
learning to develop his own film, and drawing World War I, Alton attended college for two
constantly. "In school, I was very bad in most years. But, as he put it, "I didn't see my future
subjects, but very good in drawing and art," in Hungary." Feeling there were few opportu-
Alton said. There were six Altman children. The nities for Jews in top professions, and always
eldest son Michael "was artistically inclined, fascinated by the stories of America told by his
but my father killed the artist in him, so he father and uncle, he decided to take a chance
VI
and go to New York, which he did by freighter first real job at the Paramount Studios lab in
in 1919. His mother had died in surgery in Long Island City. When he had earned enough
Vienna in 1914, and after leaving for America, money, he bought a car and, in the winter of
Alton never saw any of his family again except 1923-1924, caravaned with five friends across
for his younger sister Esther, whom he visited the country. After their arrival in Los Angeles,
at her home in Israel last year. Alton remembered, they at tended the premiere
Initially welcomed by Uncle Emile, who by of Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad,
this time was the wealthy owner of a Second which opened at the Egyptian Theater in Holly-
Avenue furnishings company, Alton enrolled in wood on July 10, 1924. "When I saw it, I started
school (he has remembered it on different oc- to dream about pictures again, although I had
casions as New York University and City Col- no idea I was going to be a cameraman. There
lege), where he studied photo-chemistry, among was a fortune-teller for everyone who bought
other things. It was during this period that John a ticket. She told all the others to go back
Alton had his first contact with the professional where they came from. But when I got there,
motion picture industry. Living in the Yorkville she looked at my palm and said, 'You're going
section in the East 80s, Alton was "on the bus to be a success in pictures. ' The rest of them
on Second Avenue when it passed the Cosmo- did go back.
politan Studios owned by Hearst. I decided to
"I went to MGM and got a job in the lab,
look into it and skip a couple of days of school.
based on the experience I had in New York.
So I got off the bus and went up and the man at
When I was there, I gave them ideas, and when-
the gate said, 'You're just the man we're looking
ever I gave them ideas, I was fired. But what
for,' and put me in a coat before I could turn
they forgot was that, in the afternoon, I worked
my head. After three days, they gave me a check
in a different department at the same studio."
for $10.50. Suddenly, I felt rich. Comes the end
Despite his occasional run-ins with superiors, Al-
of the day, and they read the roll of who's going
ton gained in-depth experience in various areas
to be called the next day. I felt I had to go back
that proved tremendously valuable to him when
to school, but then I decided, school can wait.
he finally became a cinematographer. In the
In a few days, we went on location. I had to
lab, he became intimately acquainted with the
ride a horse—I'd never ridden a horse, except
fine points of printing. Transferred to the cam-
for a merry-go-round horse. I ended up work-
era department, he became a loader, and la-
ing for 41 days in a row on location, and I
ter a first assistant (although he was never an
pulled in so much money I thought I had it
operator). Particularly memorable to him was
made." Alton could only recall the film as a
the opportunity to observe Erich von Stroheim
Marion Davies silent, but the experience was
throughout the production of The Merry Widow.
pivotal: "I fell so in love with the possibilities of
However, far more influential on Alton's own
what I saw in motion pictures."
later work habits was director Woody S. Van
Dyke, for whom he toiled on numerous Tim
Alton's windfall didn't last forever, and Emile,
McCoy Westerns in 1926-1927 as assistant to
a hard-nosed businessman, was not impressed
cameraman Clyde de Vinna. Van Dyke, whom
with his nephew's intellectual interest in the
Alton liked enormously, taught him how to
fine arts or his vague career ideas, and refused
shoot quickly and work economically, traits that
to help him financially. "Every time we sat down
bcame Alton's bread and but ter fifteen years
to lunch, he was telling me how much money
later.
he had made that week, and I didn't care for
it." Finally, they clashed irrevocably, and the
Feeling he was ready to be a first camera-
young man moved out.
man, Alton said that he went to Louis B. Mayer
Forced to fend for himself, Alton got his to ask for his promotion. Although his claim
xii
