American Cinematographer - December 2019 - 97

Bill Bennett, ASC donated this Arriflex 435 ES.

the image.
Nearly all replaced the
matte box with Mitchell ones as well.
It's very difficult to find those original
[Bell & Howell] accessories, as well as
their tripods and pan heads, which
were also dumped in favor of the
better-designed Mitchell ones."
The ASC Museum's 2709 was
donated by Consolidated Film
Industries.
Akeley "Pancake"
Devised by Carl Akeley, this
unusual, rugged unit was designed
specifically for field use, as its inventor
was an avid traveler and naturalist and
wanted a camera that could survive
being used under harsh conditions.
Commonly referred to as the
"Pancake" for obvious reasons, an
Akeley was used in Arctic weather to
photograph Robert J. Flaherty's
pioneering documentary Nanook of the
North (1922). Due to the unique rotary
design of the camera's body, the Akeley
also boasted a 230-degree shutter,
allowing it to be used in relatively low
light.
The Akeley never caught on in
Hollywood as an "A" camera, but was
frequently used for specialty action
work, such as the extensive aerial
photography by Elmer G. Dyer, ASC in
Hell's Angels (1930) and Only Angels
Have Wings (1939). It was also used to
shoot
portions
of
The
Ten
Commandments (1923). Once in the
inventory at Fox Movietone News, this
particular camera was donated by
Frank Zucker, ASC.

Éclair Camerette
This particular camera was
donated to the collection by Caleb
Deschanel, ASC, who obtained it
from his friend and fellow Society
member Haskell Wexler. Wexler had
used the camera extensively on
projects including Who's Afraid of
Virginia Woolf? and Medium Cool, and
Deschanel employed it on The Black
Stallion and other productions.
Introduced in 1947, the Frenchmade Camerette (or Caméflex) offered
reflex viewing, a three-lens turret, a
quick-change magazine system, and
the ability to be converted easily from
35mm to 16mm. Though noisy, the
compact, well-balanced unit was
perfect for handheld work, which
became popularized after World War
II. The affordable Camerette was also
prized among the filmmakers of the
French New Wave, and was used to
great effect in the 1960s by cinematographers such as Raoul Coutard
(Breathless, The Soft Skin, Alphaville).
Debrie "Le Parvo"
This hand-cranked unit has been
described as "the Rolls Royce of
European silent cameras." Developed
in France by Joseph Jules Debrie in
1908 and built by his son André, "Le
Parvo" (meaning small) was relatively
compact for the era and held 390'
(120m) of 35mm film in an internal
coaxial magazine. It was used to photograph such classic features as F.W.
Murnau's Nosferatu (1922, shot by Fritz
Arno Wagner and Günther Krampf)
and Sergei M. Eisenstein's Battleship
Potemkin (1925; Eduard Tisse and
Vladimir Popov). The camera could
also be converted for two-color
Kinemacolor
photography
by
installing a red/orange and green filter
wheel behind the lens. While early
versions like the one pictured on page
96 were made of polished wood, the
ASC also has a later model made of
metal.
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97
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