American Cinematographer - February 1990 - 83

by Mike Maginot
Directed by John

West Side Story
Produced by Robert Wise.
Directed by Robert Wise and Jerome
Robbins.

G. Avildsen.
Photographed by Victor Hammer

Photographed by Daniel L. Fapp, ASC.
(The Voyager Company)

Morgan Freeman's performance
high school principal Joe
Clark, is as powerful as the one Edward
James Olmos gave in Stand and Deliver

An excellent addition to The Voy¬

Company's Criterion Collection, West
Story shines in the laserdisc format.
The rich wide screen cinematography of
Daniel L. Fapp, ASC is given its full dimen¬
sion thanks to Criterion's Videoscope treat¬
ager
Side

ment. Leonard Bernstein's musical score

vibrant and new in true digital sound.
The highlight of the film is
Jerome Robbins' beautifully staged dance
numbers. Robert Wise discusses his
collaboration with Robbins in an interview
included in the disc's supplementary section.
Also included are storyboards and notes on
Boris Leven's production design.
seems

nicely blends
real locations and studio sets into a stylized
cinematic reality that transcends the theat¬
rical origins of the material. Linwood Dunn,
Fapp's keen

ny, Film Effects of Hollywood did the daz¬
zling photographic effects.
*

a

mission and

are

based

on

the translation to the screen, but not their

NEAL NORTON

message.

John G. Avildsen

brings the spir¬
it and energy he brought to Rocky (CBS/Fox
Home Video) and The Karate Kid (RCA/
Columbia Home Video) to this film. Victor

IT'
OWNER, MODEL Ilia

Hammer's camerawork follows a man on
the move. Even when the film becomes
melodramatic his light remains natural to
the sources in the scene,
mood.
*

*

sustaining the
MIAMI

*

The White Sheik
Produced by Luigi Rovere.
Directed by Frederico Fellini.

Neal Miller

Adapted from F. Scott Fitz¬
gerald's Myra Meets His Family by llene
Cooper and Neal Miller, Under the Biltmore
Clock is the story of a flapper who decides
to settle down and marry rich. Sean Young
plays Myra and Lenny Von Dohlen is Knowlton Whitney, her chosen beau. Meeting
Knowlton's family takes Myra from tea
dances to gothic horror with a humorous
twist.
Jeff Jur captures the period fla¬
borrowing generously from the pages of
Life, Liberty, and Vanity Fair. The care that
was taken to light every shot just right
suggests a labor of love.
vor,

*

Lean On Me

Norman Twain.

the direct source of Gene Wilder's The
Worlds Greatest Lover The White Sheik was
Fellini's second film as a director.
While on her honeymoon in

Rome,

away from
husband in order to meet her favorite
a young

wife sneaks

ORLANDO

*

TAMPA

major
companies including
ARRIFLEX, SPECTRA,
STEENBECK, and TIFFEN

*

Full line of

*

Buy/Sell/Trade Used
Equipment

ro¬

story and characterization. The White Sheik
is not a museum piece or a three ring circus
like some of Fellini's later films, it is com¬

pletely accessible, not at all self-indulgent.
The soundtrack retains its Italian

language and an entertaining score by Nino
Rota. The subtitles are white on black

▲

Dealer for most

*

her

mantic movie star. Complications ensue
when she ends up on a location caravan and
her husband is forced to make numerous
excuses to his suspicious relatives for the
absence of his runaway wife.
Arturo Gallea's pragmatic black
and white cinematography never strays
from traditional set-ups, all attention is to

bands, making them extremely legible.

*

SALES/SERVICE/RENTAL

Photographed by Arturo Gallea.
(Connoisseur Video Collection)
inspiration to writer/
directors Bob Fosse and Woody Allen, and

(Nelson Home Entertainment)

Produced by

educators with

true stories that lost some of their truth in

An

Photographed by Jeff Jur.

*

(Warner Home Video). Both films present

*

Under the Biltmore Clock
Produced and Directed by

*

in Lean On Me, as

eye

ASC should also be mentioned; his compa¬

*

(Warner Home Video)

*

expendables

Motion Picture

Equipment

Service/Sales/Rental

AATON
ANGENIEUX
REPAIRS
(ARRI, ECLAIR, BEAULIEU, BOLEX Etc.)
Factory trained by AATON
and ANGENIEUX in France

20 yrs experience in motion

picture field
Servicing all major motion
picture equipment

SMS PRODUCTIONS, INC.
445 W. Erie Street Unit 103

Chicago, IL 60610 312-664-3752
February 1990

81
American Cinematographer - February 1990

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