James Wong Howe on Roller Skates
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- Опубликовано: 20 авг 2023
- Video by Mark Laurila
James Wong Howe, legendary Hollywood cinematographer, loved to tell the story of how he put on roller skates and picked up a handheld camera in order to capture the excitement of the climactic boxing match in the classic Film Noir Body and Soul (1947), starring John Garfield. The footage Wong Howe captured inside the ring became a major inspiration for Martin Scorsese when he made Raging Bull (1980). How exactly was Wong Howe’s approach so different from what had come before? This video shows examples of earlier boxing movies, such as Golden Boy (1939) and They Made Me a Criminal (1939), and compares them to Wong Howe’s achievement in Body and Soul.
The resulting analysis is surprising and will likely change perceptions of the film and of Chinese-born/American-raised James Wong Howe. Regarding the film, the innovative camerawork combines the smoothness of the Mitchell BNC with the instability of the handheld Eyemo. Regarding Wong Howe, racism was a constant presence in his life, as he experienced racist movie crews, was denied citizenship because of the Chinese Exclusion Act, and was barred from marrying the writer Sanora Babb because she was white. Additional Wong Howe movies referenced here include Sweet Smell of Success (1957), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Transatlantic (1931), Air Force (1943), He Ran All the Way (1951), Hud (1963), Peter Pan (1924), and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968).
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Sources
Silver, Alain, and James Wong Howe. James Wong Howe: The Camera Eye: A Career Interview. Pendragon Books, 2010.
This is the best place to start. Silver interviewed Jimmie over a three-month period in 1969 as part of a UCLA Film Department oral history project. Silver’s commentaries and footnotes correct inaccuracies and provide crucial context. The book contains almost 500 images.
www.amazon.com/James-Wong-How...
Rainsberger, Todd. The Cinematographic Style of James Wong Howe. 1979. USC, PhD dissertation.
www.scribd.com/document/49745...
This is the next best place to start. Rainsberger’s excellent 1979 dissertation was published in 1981 as James Wong Howe: Cinematographer, which is now out of print. Lucky for us, a PDF of the original text can be found through academic databases. As with many a dissertation, too much time gets used up plugging in general research, in this case regarding the entire field of movie style. But Rainsberger struck gold in his many personal interviews with Jimmie’s collaborators, as well as Jimmie’s wife, Sanora Babb. And he provides perceptive visual analyses of a wide range of Wong Howe movies.
Wong Howe, James. “The Documentary Technique in Hollywood.” American Cinematographer. January 1944, pp. 10, 32.
Chaw, Walter. “James Wong Howe’s Way with Light.” September 9, 2022.
www.criterion.com/current/pos...
Chin, Frank. “James Wong Howe: The Chinaman Eye.” Moving the Image: Independent Asian Pacific American Media Arts. Editor: Russell Leong. UCLA, 1992. Pp. 144-56.
Chin, Rocky and Eddie Wong. “An Afternoon with James Wong Howe.” Bridge, June 1973. 11-14.
Hudson, David. “The Inventive Versatility of James Wong Howe.” May 12, 2022.
www.criterion.com/current/pos...
King, Susan. “When a Poet Picked Up the Camera.” Los Angeles Times, July 8, 2021.
Lee, Richard. “Master DP James Wong Howe: A Relative’s Perspective.” MovieMaker Magazine, issue 20, July 1996.
Richard Lee, Wong Howe’s nephew, was given permission by Sanora Babb to relate a number of family stories, several of which relate shocking instances of racism, a subject Jimmie rarely discussed.
Parrish, Robert. Growing Up in Hollywood. Harcourt, 1976.
Schickel, Richard. “Brutal Attraction: The Making of Raging Bull.” Vanity Fair. March, 2010.
www.vanityfair.com/news/2010/...
Sharples Jr., Win. “A Discussion with James Wong Howe.” Filmmakers Newsletter. February 1973. 20-26.
Music
Magnus Ludvigsson “Postcard from June” Epidemic Sound
Wendy Marcini “Midnight Walker” Epidemic Sound
Wendy Marcini “Lemon Pie” Epidemic Sound
Vendla “Rambla Principal” Epidemic Sound
David Fincher: “My aesthetic has always been tied to the Gordon Willises of the world, the Jordan Cronenweths, the Conrad Halls, the James Wong Howes… the people who took risks.”
Roger Deakins: “With all of our modern technology, there is no one who can match James Wong Howe’s ability to control light in the service of the story.”
A lovely homage to a forgotten pioneer and hero of cinematography. Erudite, poignant, and beautifully written, delivered, and edited.
I'm grateful for your comments and support.
This is so good I only wish it was longer: a full-length documentary. James Wong Howe had a difficult but fascinating life. And a brilliant professional and artistic career. He even deserves a feature film biopic!
Thanks. Alain Silver, who wrote the book that collects all of his interviews with Wong Howe, has just told me that two Asian-American filmmakers are currently working on a feature-length documentary. Something to look forward to.
I read somewhere that Garbo was supposed to ask/demand only to be filmed with Howe doing the lighting/camera work.
Garbo's longtime cameraman was William Daniels. But in 1949, she intended to come out of retirement for a film adaptation of Balzac's La Duchess de Langelais, to be directed by Max Ophuls. Ophuls and the producer Walter Wanger wanted to try out several directors of photography, including Daniels and Wong Howe. They all agreed that Jimmie made Garbo look better than her own longtime cameraman. But the movie was never made after various delays caused Garbo to lose interest.
@@marechal1937 Great research, thanks!