by Nathaniel R
It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing of German cinematographer Michael Ballhaus. The 81 year old artist was a crucial figure in making me the movie maniac that I am today. Michelle Pfeiffer on the piano top in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) -- hell the entire movie -- being a defining image in my life, after which I went from enthusiastic regular moviegoer to celluloid-devouring obsessive.
Ballhaus had retired after Martin Scorsese's The Departed (2006) making only one German movie in the last decade of his life and we had hoped each year that he'd be announced as an Honorary Oscar recipient. His three scant nominations -- The Fabulous Baker Boys, Broadcast News, and Gangs of New York -- do no justice to his long and gorgeous career. That's because they don't feel representative of his career as a whole and because, apart from his crowning glory (Baker Boys -- which ought to have walked away with Cinematography in just about any year, let alone 1989) aren't even his best work.
Ballhaus and Fassbinder worked together all through the 70s
Ballhaus got his start as a young man of 24 in German television but quickly graduated to features...
After shooting a documentary on Rainer Werner Fassbinder he became his go to DP from Beware of a Holy Whore (1971) through The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) which won them both international attention. Soon American indies and minor efforts (Baby, It's You and Reckless), followed as well as Madonna music videos (True Blue era), and a Prince movie (the black and white beauty of Under the Cherry Moon). Then Big Hollywood came calling. By the mid to late 80s he was lensing films for directors as famous as Martin Scorsese (After Hours), Paul Newman (The Glass Menagerie) and James L Brooks (Broadcast News).
Directors who worked with him tended to latch on to him for dear life. He shot most of James L Brooks's movies, a huge chunk of Fassbinders, multiple films by Mike Nichols, and many Scorsese movies until his own retirement.
Ten of TFE's favorite Ballhaus efforts... in chronological order
THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT (1972)
FOX AND HIS FRIENDS (1975)
WORKING GIRL (1988)
THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS (1989)
POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE (1990)
BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA (1992)
THE MAMBO KINGS (1992)
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (1993)
QUIZ SHOW (1994)
THE DEPARTED (2006)
Which of his movies do you think were most beautifully lensed?