Vilmos Zsigmond rose to fame in the 1970s after Robert Altman hired him as a cinematographer. Zsigmond, who has died at the age of 85, ended up working with several top American directors, including Altman (McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Images, The Long Goodbye), Steven Spielberg (The Sugarland Express, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind), Michael Cimino (The Deer Hunter, Heaven’s Gate) and Woody Allen (Melinda and Melinda, Cassandra’s Dream, You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger).
Zsigmond won the Academy Award for Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and was subsequently nominated for The Deer Hunter (1978), The River (1984), and The Black Dahlia (2006).
Zsigmond was born in Hungary in 1930. He studied cinema at the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest and moved to Los Angeles in the ‘60s. Apart from his mastery over natural light, he was also known for the technique “flashing”, in which the film negative is exposed to light to achieve a muted colour palette. The effect was first seen in McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) and it soon became his hallmark.
Here are a few of Zsigmond’s key works.
Summer Children (1965) European-style noir lighting is the highlight of this James Bruner movie. Zsigmond’s use of light and shadow mirrors the moods of its characters, casting them in appropriate lighting conditions in crucial scenes.
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (1964) Billed as the world’s first monster musical, this film by Ray Dennis Steckler was panned upon its release but has since acquired cult status. Zsigmond’s guerrilla style shooting of outre sequences is one of the movie’s guilty pleasures.
The Sugarland Express (1974) Here is where Zsigmond’s neo-noir style meets Steven Spielberg’s high-voltage drama. The film stars Goldie Hawn and William Atherton as a couple on the run from the law. The breathless pace at which the film is shot includes a thrilling chase sequence.
Heaven’s Gate (1980) Often regarded as a masterpiece, this Michael Cimino film is also beautifully photographed by Zsigmond at the height of his creative powers.
The Black Dahlia (2006) This Brian De Palma thriller, set in Los Angeles in the 1940s, is memorable for its perfectly shot visuals. An exquisite play of light and fluid camera movements give the film an added character to follow.