From Time Out Film Guide The script credits list Kurosawa’s writer Shinobu Hashimoto, Professor Alan Turney, and John Bird – which just about sums it up. This is a highly eccentric spy fable about a ‘yellow dog’ (Japanese private eye) who comes to London on a mission, only to find himself working in rather...
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The film depicts the sexual competition between three roommates — the aggressive, womanizing drummer Tolen (Ray Brooks), the shy, paranoid schoolteacher Colin (Michael Crawford), and the neutral artist Tom (Donal Donnelly) — when a young girl from out of town, Nancy (Rita Tushingham), enters their London world. Directed by Richard Lester Produced by...
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The Bed-Sitting Room is a 1969 British comedy film directed by Richard Lester and based on the play of the same name. It was entered into the 19th Berlin International Film Festival The film is set on the third or fourth anniversary of a war which lasted two minutes and twenty-eight seconds, including signing...
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From David’s autobiography, Was Clara Shuman a Fag Hag? The preparation for the Lodz Festival in 2004 was the first time I’d thought to give a non-flippant answer to the question “What are your favourite films?” They are of course the four anti-war pictures, and favourite for no reason other than what they are about. How I won The...
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Help! is a 1965 film directed by Richard Lester, starring The Beatles — John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — and featuring Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, John Bluthal, Roy Kinnear and Patrick Cargill. The soundtrack was released as an album, also called Help!. Directed by Richard Lester Produced by...
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A Delicate Balance is a 1973 drama film directed by Tony Richardson. The screenplay by Edward Albee is based on his 1966 Pultizer Prize-winning play of the same title. The film was the second in a series produced by Ely A. Landau for his American Film Theatre, a subscription-based programme of screen adaptations of notable stage plays shown in five hundred...
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Used People is a 1992 American romantic comedy film directed by Beeban Kidron. The screenplay by Todd Graff, adapted from his 1988 off-Broadway play The Grandma Plays, takes a humorous look at a highly dysfunctional family living in the New York City borough of Queens circa 1969. Directed by Beeban Kidron Produced by Peggy...
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Frank took to Mountainboarding when he was twelve – practicing in Stanmer Park, just outside of Brighton. One chilly Autumnal morning David and Jozef came to watch, and to attempt to photogarph Frank as he whizzed past…
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David Watkin on a trip to Prague with his chums Scott & Jozef, 2006
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David Watkin on a trip to Amsterdam with his chums Scott & Jozef, 2006
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About twenty years ago in the morning the front door bell rang. At the time I was living in a Brunswick Road, a barrel fronted Regency terrace just off the sea front in Hove. It was a blustery day and as I opened the door I was confronted by a slightly scruffy individual, wearing...
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There is a fourth conductor that David would have added to this list that of Sir Henry J. Wood. In his teens and until he was called up to serve in the British Army David joined the audience at London’s Queens Hall for the Henry Wood Promenade concerts each summer. It was a musical...
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“…my uncle Laurie found that there was a small unit of four people making documentary and training films in the nether regions of Waterloo Station, well beneath the notice of a trade union. My father set up his Blickensderfer (the oldest typewriter in the world) on our dining-room table and dashed off a letter...
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Surviving in David’s papers was this account book which gives a detailed list of the feature films and TV commercials he worked on after leaving Transport until the height of his early career in 1976 and Joseph Andrews. It contains only one reference to London Transport, in 1962 , undoubtedly acting as a freelance.
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Although the film isn’t mentioned in David’s two memoirs, The Long Night Haul (19 minutes) is an ambitious and complex film celebrating the foundation of the British Road Service’s general haulage truck service. Sometimes perhaps David shot a film which was without any notable anecdotes and thus passes without notice in his canon of...
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This a short, nine minute film to commemorate the construction of the Travolator between the Bank and Waterloo stations in London to supplement the long walk required of City commuters and nicknamed The Drain. The otherwise exemplary box of DVDs, The British Transport Film Collection does not identify any credits. For the only time...
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“Edgar promised Ritchie, who was getting restless, a break to direct and so I took over The England of Elizabeth with John Taylor again. It is nice to have one’s name on the same picture as Vaughan Williams although on the only occasion when I should have met the great man I was sent...
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“Happily I was now able in small measure to repay some of my debt to Jimmy Ritchie. The next film for me after THE ENGLAND OF ELIZABETH was his first picture as a director, and it turned out to be a very charming one. It was about a railway orphanage in Derby run by...
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“My first picture with Tony was made in France with an entirely French crew, apart from myself and an editor I didn’t like. Oscar Lewenstein had uncovered a screen-play by Jean Genet written many years before, to while away one of his sojourns inside a French prison, that Genet himself had forgotten about…....
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Snowdrift at Bleak Gill, 1955, directed by Kenneth Fairburn, edited by John Legard and photographed by Bob Paynter. David Watkin was an unacknowledged assistant on this film. The film is 10minutes, largely devoted to the single task of freeing a goods engine and carriages from snowdrifts using a mechanised snow plough and gangs of...
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Blue Pullman, 1960 was directed and written by Jimmie Ritchie and photographed by David Watkin and Jack West. It was edited by Hugh Raggett with music by Clifton Parker. The film was shot in colour and lasts almost 23 minutes, exploring the intensive testing of the new 90mph diesel-electric Midland Pullman, and its maiden...
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Briefly, I was married in 1940 to my schoolgirl sweetheart who was then killed by so-called Friendly Fire on 21st December 1943, leading RAF Squadron 609 escorting American Bombers over Northern France. In 1947 I married an old family friend whose wife had walked out leaving him with three attractive children; a girl of...
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“I think it is terribly pretentious for people who are cinematographers to go around and say they looked at a painting by such and such a bod. Nothing irritated me more than, when I was doing Catch-22, Mike Nichols said I want it to look like Andrew Wyeth, that sort of thing is a...
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David first used the technique of reflected light rather than direct lighting on a documentary film he was doing about London Transport buses (All That Mighty Heart 1962). “And it had a scene in Welwyn Garden City. In some house there was a housewife tidying up and vacuuming before getting on a Green Line bus....
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“A friend had bought a square piano in Bonham’s saleroom with the intention of having it restored as a present for me. Nothing had ever been done and I decided to see to it. Morleys came, looked, and went away to quote. Then by a happy chance there was a commercial at a house...
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The phone rang on Sunday at its usual Watkin time, around 10.00am. Retreating to the study I arranged myself at the desk for a serious gossip. “Can you come over, dear?” It was ominous. He didn’t start with “My Dear Chris, How are you?…” Some affair of the heart needing my wise counsel? An...
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Apart from poetry and jazz, what else discomforted Mister Watkin? - certainly word play and anagrams. Puns were associated with David Plumtree (see Holleyman and Treacher) who held a Black Belt at Punning. Mister Watkin would groan at word play, screw his face up in agony, and then allow himself a constricted laugh. James...
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In 1989 when I first came to Brighton from antiquarian Norwich I little expected to find an equivalent to Thomas Crowe, or the Scientific Anglian. But to have the shops of Colin Page and Holleyman and Treacher within a minute’s walk of each other was exhilarating. Rather than join my Art School colleagues in...
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David Watkin was a dedicated collector of books. He bought carefully but knowledgeably from the main dealers in Britain and the US, in person or by catalogue. Even when he feared poverty in his later years (never with much conviction) I saw him contemplating catalogue items such as the Complete Plays of Vanbrugh for...
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For a man who earned his living through images, David Watkin was astonishingly confident with the written word, reading and writing and declaiming. At various stages of our friendship I remember his completing Thomas Mallory, Proust and The Faerie Queen. He took particular delight in Shakespeare’s plays and mined deeply within the two volume...
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David’s regular perambulations through the streets of Brighton were clearly ritualistic. 1. Walking into town. 2. Specialist newsagent for Gay Magazine. 3. Packets of Coffee and Tea from Robert’s shop. 4. Cds at Keith and Vivienne’s – The Classical Longplayer 5. Books at Colin Page, then Holleyman and Treacher, both in Duke Street. Over...
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Ascending the Hierarchy of Conductors we come three conductors at whose rostra Mr.Watkin worshipped. They could do no wrong. In ascending order then, Hans Knappertsbusch Willem Mendelberg Wilhelm Furtwangler Their performances were exemplary despite the ruined surface of scratched shellac disks, despite the ear splitting distortions from the timpani, and sometimes the clear sound...
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His Gods were his Gods. No arguments allowed. His Villains, either through imagined incompetence or banality, were to be universally condemned by me, my family, and by any friends I could ask. Any photographs of the Villains going about their legitimate business on the podium were to be held aloft for general merriment. Herbert...
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He got the greatest pleasure having you share a new piece of music, a recently discovered interpretation, a revived antique recording. As a listening companion, it was made clear from the beginning that my responses could only run parallel to his, that I was there to share, and not to ask for further explanation...
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“The visual style of the film is the province of the lighting director, David Watkin, whose work on Charge of the Light Brigade particularly impressed Nichols. Watkin has the disarming habit of, when being asked a direct question, answering with “Well-…” and then leaving the room. He has spent a great part of...
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Auction of the Contents of 6 Sussex Mews It came to our attention that the contents of David’s home were being auctioned at Gorringes Auction House, Lewes, East Sussex on 2nd & 3rd September 2009. The Gorringes website will offer further details. Much of his furniture and many paintings were listed. Apparently some of...
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Speaking of his attitude on set, “What it meant was that I would light a set, watch a rehearsal and then I would actually go to sleep, because it is the one thing you can do on a film set that makes you less tired. Fortunately I don’t snore and I also wake up...
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“I have been apprehensive only twice in my whole life. The first was when I arrived at that bakery in the Mile End Road, there was a car park and I saw all these trucks and lorries and generators. I saw the mass of a feature film unit for the first time that morning...
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Iain was perhaps David’s greatest love, and certainly his most significant relationship – they were together from the 1950′s until 1974, when Iain died tragically aged 39. This painting was a favourite of their’s – they’d bought it in Italy together, alert to the fact that it held an uncanny likeness to a young...
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David Watkin’s house is now sold, his Library and personal papers dispersed, and stocks of both volumes of autobiography destroyed.
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“The letters are, for me, like treasures…”
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We’d gone to the Apocalypse Exhibition at the Royal Academy – DW guffawing his way around The Chapman Brother’s ‘Hell‘. Afterwards he took us to visit his chums at Maggs… where a complete tour of the building ensued, courtesy of Mister Maggs, with Jozef taking the following snaps. Maggs Rare Books
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Out of Africa (1985) Based loosely on the autobiographical book by Isak Dinesen (pseudonym of Karen Blixen) published in 1937. The movie received 28 film awards, including seven Academy Awards. David Watkin won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Out of Africa. Director: Sydney Pollack Cinematography: David Watkin Camera and...
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I feel very fortunate to have met David. As it transpired, it was towards the end of his life but the man was so full of vitality that you could never have guessed he was ill. I was introduced to him following the completion of a film I’d made on a small boy in...
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Ken Russell’s The Boy Friend
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Directed by Hugh Hudson Written by Colin Welland Cinemtography by David Watkin Executive Producer: Dodi Fayad Chariots of Fire is a 1981 British film loosely based on historical events surrounding the British athletic team before and during the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. The story follows Harold Abrahams, a Jew out to overcome prejudice,...
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Directed by Barbra Streisand Writing credits: Jack Rosenthal (screenplay) and Barbra Streisand Cinematography: David Watkin Camera and Electrical Department Frank Batt: key grip Garrett Brown: Steadicam operator John J. Campbell: first assistant camera (as John Campbell) Derek Gattrell: gaffer (as Derek Gatrell) Gordon Hayman: camera operator: second unit David James: still photographer Brian Kemp:...
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Filming Tea with Mussolini I met David at a party at Franco Zeffirelli’s home in Rome. My son had been cast to play Franco Zeffirelli in Tea With Mussolini (TWM) and I was to be his chaperone (required by law as he was under 18 years of age). We were told about David and...
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Stills supplied by Barry Coward at Beulah
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I knew David for just over thirty years; I first met him in 1977 on a commercial that we were supplying equipment on. About a year later we were to supply equipment on the film Chariots of Fire which David was to light. David had a couple of scenes that needed high-speed photography and...
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David received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. The T-Shirt that year quoted David on its front: One tries not to fuck it up. Below are snaps of David’s friends, Peter Macdonald and Madelyn Most at Lodz. Daniel Barenboim “Shortterm thinking, or even worse, thoughtlessness, makes many people think that culture, education and the...
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Director: Franco Zeffirelli Writers: John Mortimer (writer) Franco Zeffirelli (autobiography) Release Date: 2 April 1999 (UK) Produced by Marco Chimenz, executive producer Clive Parson, producer Pippo Pisciotto, associate producer Riccardo Tozzi, producer Giovannella Zannoni, producer Frederick Muller, producer (uncredited) Original Music by Stefano Arnaldi Alessio Vlad Cinematography by David Watkin Film Editing by Tariq...
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Conception of a new lighting technique Watkin conceived of the idea for a new light which would tackle the problem of light falloff during night shoots. Because of the inverse square law, light from even moderately strong sources starts to fall off fairly quickly as the subject walks away from the light source. Therefore...
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British Transport Films was an organisation set up in 1949 to make documentary films on the general subject of British transport. Its work included internal training films, travelogues (extolling the virtues of places that could be visited via the British transport system – mostly by rail), and “industrial films” (as they were called) promoting...
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Holiday in Positano Glyndebourne August 6th 2006 Scott and Jozef’s Civil Partnership. The reception was held in the Mews.
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David Watkin interview with Peter Handford This interview was recorded in the garden of Peter Handford on the 1st October 2002, by Barry Coward. In 1985 Peter won an Oscar and a Bafta for his work on Sidney Pollack’s Out of Africa. He also worked alongside David on Charge of the Light Brigade (1968)...
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David would, very occasionally, take a little nap on set.. And, on those rare occasions, invariably somebody would have a camera at hand… David found a little cave-like area near the church in San Gimignano, where he could beat the heat and nap. When Baird found this out, he followed suit. I call these...
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The career of David Watkin revealed through photographic glimpses… British Transport Films Alan working at 25 Saville Row, 1955 Alan and Tom in the Post Office Yard, Waterloo, 1956 BTF crew: Baxter, Richie and Williams England’s North Country BTF crew: Robertson and Richie
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My meeting with David: I was part of a jury at the 2004 edition of Cameraimage. We were all staying in a particularly depressing hotel where the smell of fried foods was everywhere. In the morning, while I was having breakfast, a man, who appeared both to be of a certain maturity yet also...
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1997 was a difficult and stressful year. The “Gays in the military” campaign was in full swing and I was under intense media scrutiny. My neighbour had just called to let me know that, once again, journalists had been looking in my rubbish bins. That morning I also found a live 9mm round on...
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When the boys first met David they were really quite little. They’d been thrilled by the chocolate cake, the painting with the ‘changing-faces’, the piano, the fountain on/off switch, the precariously tall library steps, the phenomenal use of the word ‘fuck’ and the even more delicious ‘cunt’. And they told him as much. Then...
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Keen to share his love of opera… David treated many of his chums to a trip to Glyndebourne…
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One of my favourite memories is him phoning me, hardly able to speak for laughter, to tell me why I wasn’t going to work with him on a film. He was about to photograph a film for Richard Lester who always used two cameras so needed two camera operators. At the time I was...
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David had a fondness for using the colour green…
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This website has been initiated as a response to the hundreds of friends of David Watkin from all over the world who wished to contribute to an archive of memories of this remarkable man. The editors are the designer Rachael Adams and the historian Chris Mullen who were in contact with him in Brighton...
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Born into an illustrious railway family, David Watkin began work with the Southern Region Film Unit of British Railways in the late 1940′s. In 1950 he became a messenger boy and assistant cameraman at British Transport Films. Barry Coward writes: One day in 1981 I received a phone call from a David Watkin asking...
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As an amateur musician and loyal Beulah supporter, David Watkin wrote the following notes for the Visions of Elgar CD booklet: “Poor old Elgar was, like Kipling, enmeshed with the British Empire. Both men deserved better, the two symphonies and the violin concerto may rightly stand besides Brahms: and I have a soft spot...
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David’s ancestors built The Watkin Path – one of the principal access routes up to the summit of Snowdon. The Watkin Path has the greatest change in altitude out of all the paths up Snowdon. Starting at 60 metres (200 ft) above sea level at the Nantgwynant car park (SH628506) south of Snowdon, and...
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David loved being at home in Brighton… His beloved dog, Longuiter – waiting on the landing. The Camerimage Lifetime Achievement Award (Golden Frog) can be seen on the coffee table!
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Directed by Mike Nichols Writers: Joseph Heller (novel) Buck Henry (screenplay) Cinematography: David Watkin Camera and Electrical Department Peter Ewens: first assistant camera Bud Gaunt: key grip Earl Gilbert: gaffer Alan McCabe: camera operator Nelson Tyler: helicopter photographer Harold E. Wellman: photographer: second unit (as Harold Wellman) Ronald B. MacKenzie: electrician (uncredited) Robert Willoughby:...
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Directed by Tony Richardson Written by Charles Wood Cinematography: David Watkin Film Editing: Kevin Brownlow and Hugh Raggett The Charge of the Light Brigade is a British war film made in 1968 by Woodfall Film Productions, which held the rights to the 1936 film version at the time. It was directed by Tony Richardson....
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Spode Robert’s ‘Morning Kick’ tea. Smoked Salmon, a quarter of lemon and a slice of wholemeal bread – eaten at the glass topped table or out in the courtyard… Sweet white dessert wine. Summer Pudding, weighted down by a stone cannon ball. A stack of crumpets beside the fire… Little Scarlett jam. Roast Beef...
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Goldfinger (1964) Cinematographer: title sequence (uncredited). Pictured: DW behind the camera. Academy Awards, USA Oscar Winner The 58th Annual Academy Awards Oscar Best Cinematography for: Out of Africa (1985) BAFTA Awards 1987 Won BAFTA Film Award Best Cinematography for: Out of Africa (1985) 1982 Nominated BAFTA Film Award Best Cinematography for: Chariots of Fire...
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Some quotes, taken from literally, worlds apart: Jim Ballentyne “This is an exercise in self-publishing, the handsomest I have ever come across. Many a commercial publisher should sit down with it. The design of the whole book, from dust jacket (lovely picture of the author at work!) through page layout to binding is...
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David Watkin died at the age of 82 in his mews house in Brighton at 10.15pm on the 19th of February, 2008 This must come as a shock to those of you who did not know of the severity of his illness, or were unaware of the speed of his decline in health. Those...
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