American Cinematographer - October 2014 - 58

◗

Persistence of Vision

Bailey: Gordon gave us all the
courage to defend our work. He didn't
feel that he was subservient to the director. He was a colleague and an artist in
his own right - although I'm sure
Gordon would never call himself an
artist.
58

October 2014

I think Gordon, almost more
than any other cinematographer,
hovered in that slightly undefined space
between the journeyman craftsman that
cinematographers had largely been
considered to be up to that time, and
the cinematographer as artist, which
was coming to the fore at the time. This
is beyond his cinematography style and
I think gets to the heart of why Gordon
was so important for us: He was able to
express himself in his work and his
demeanor as though he were a signature
artist with a particular kind of aesthetic,
but he would never talk that way. He
would talk like a New Yorker, just an
American guy. And so he gave our
developing, emerging generation of
cinematographers a way to think of
ourselves as creative people without
actually having to talk the way a lot of
Europeans did. He was a bridge for my
generation in thinking about ourselves
as influenced by European cinematographers, but very much working in the
American mold and in an American
system.
Chapman: In those six or seven
years [we worked together], we spent
more time together than we did with
American Cinematographer

our families. It was rather like a
marriage. We lived a curiously locked
life, where we sat and ate and drank
together every night after work. Of
course, I was increasingly in awe of him
as the years went on and I realized what
he was.
I learned a lot from Gordy, but I
never learned to have his eye - nobody
could have his eye. I just learned that
you had to really, really concentrate, and
that every image was important. You
had to give your whole emotional life to
it, as he did. He was just exceptional. As
cinematographers we all do the best we
can, but there are only a few who rise to
that level, and Gordy was one of them. I
did a good job when I had the chance,
but I'm not Gordy.
The thing to remember is how
serious an artist he was. He wasn't just a
great cameraman - he was a great
artist. His imagery is the equivalent to
the music in opera; it's underneath
everything, carrying it all along. He
changed things as much as, say, Jackson
Pollock did. He did it and he owned it.
There are movies that are Before Gordy
and After Gordy. Gordy changed everything.

➣

Academy Award photo courtesy of AMPAS. Photo of Gordon and Helen Willis by Susan Willis-Powers.

Top: Willis poses
with Roger
Corman and
Lauren Bacall after
the trio received
honorary Academy
Awards in 2009.
Bottom: Willis and
his beloved wife
of 59 years, Helen.
Reflecting upon
Gordon's famously
grumpy
disposition, Francis
Ford Coppola
offers, "Like so
many people with
that kind of
personality, deep
down he was an
extremely sweet
guy - you could
see it whenever
he was in the
proximity of his
wife. When she
showed up, he
was the most
gentle."

American Cinematographer - October 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - October 2014