Rest in Peace Laszlo Kovacs

[Adam]

And yet another passing, on Sunday 22 July 2007:

Laszlo Kovacs, Cinematographer, Dies at 74

By DOUGLAS MARTIN

Published: July 26, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/arts/26k...70&emc=eta1

Correction Appended

Laszlo Kovacs, a Hungarian cinematographer who fell in love with the American landscape on a cross-country bus ride and then used light, shadow and imagination to give visual shape to seminal films like “Easy Rider,” died on Sunday at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 74.

In films like “Easy Rider” (1969), Laszlo Kovacs blended a love of landscape with an innovative filming style.

His death was announced by the International Cinematographers Guild. James Chressanthis, a cinematographer who is preparing a documentary on Mr. Kovacs and his friend and fellow cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, said that the cause was not known but that Mr. Kovacs had earlier had cancer.

Mr. Kovacs came along in the 1960s when the old studio system was sputtering and a new independent cinema was rising. Filmmakers emerged from film schools and work on B movies to challenge traditional themes and techniques and create what has been called “the new Hollywood,” or “the American new wave.”

Production moved from the studios to the streets, and the new breed used small crews, lightweight equipment and innovative means of coping with low budgets. Improvisation was both artistic goal and hard necessity. In “Easy Rider” (1969), Mr. Kovacs used a 1968 Chevrolet convertible as his camera car, making the platform for his camera from a piece of plywood on the trunk held in place by a sandbag.

In that movie, he wanted to portray something hopeful after the fiery demise of the character played by Peter Fonda. A rising helicopter delivered a panoramic view of the horizon, but only after Mr. Kovacs balanced a camera on one skid and counterweights on the other to keep the helicopter from tipping over.

In “Five Easy Pieces” (1970), Mr. Kovacs memorably matched the color of Susan Anspach’s blue eyes and the sky. In another scene, he shot Ms. Anspach and then let his camera drift elsewhere; she scurried behind the camera and he arrived back at her face, giving the illusion that the shot had gone all the way around the room.

His tricks included using flashing lights and other techniques to create the impression of psychedelic hallucinations. His goal was to let the environment make statements about the characters. He intended for the foggy islands of the Pacific Northwest to explain the tight little family in “Five Easy Pieces.”

Most of his major works are clustered at the start of the 1970s, including “That Cold Day in the Park” (1969), Robert Altman’s third feature as a director, and “The King of Marvin Gardens” (1972), which, like “Five Easy Pieces,” was directed by Bob Rafelson. He did six pictures with the director Peter Bogdanovich, including “Targets” (1968), “What’s Up, Doc?” (1972) and “Paper Moon” (1973).

His range grew wider, with credits including Martin Scorsese’s movies “New York, New York” (1977) and “The Last Waltz” (1978) and Hal Ashby’s “Shampoo” (1975). Other movies included “Ghost Busters” (1984) and “My Best Friend’s Wedding” (1997).

Mr. Kovacs was born on May 14, 1933, in Cece, a farming village about 60 miles west of Budapest. During the Nazi occupation, he distributed flyers for the propaganda movies shown each week in a school auditorium. His pay was a free seat, and he was fascinated by the flickering images.

In 1945, he was accepted into the Academy of Drama and Film Art in Budapest, where students watched Western films surreptitiously. He was swept off his feet by “Citizen Kane,” saying it “changed my visual vocabulary.”

In the uprising against the Communist regime in 1956, he and Mr. Zsigmond shot 30,000 feet of film at great risk to themselves. They escaped with the film, and some of it eventually became part of a documentary a few years later.

They both bounced among odd jobs. Around 1957, Mr. Kovacs, who had arrived in the United States speaking no English, moved from New Jersey to Seattle, taking the memorable bus ride that found echoes later in “Easy Rider.” In 1959, he took another bus to Los Angeles, where he reunited with Mr. Zsigmond.

Mr. Kovacs did movies like “The Notorious Daughter of Fanny Hill” (1966), often working with the B movie producer Roger Corman. After he shot eight biker movies in one year, Dennis Hopper asked him to do another. Mr. Kovacs’s reluctance to repeat himself vanished after Mr. Hopper acted out the script. “Easy Rider,” with a budget of $340,000, was a sensation at Cannes and made $60 million.

Mr. Kovacs is survived by his wife, Audrey, and his daughters Julianna and Nadia.

He prided himself on spontaneity. He and the other crew members had no preconceived idea where they would shoot the classic scene in “Five Easy Pieces” in which Jack Nicholson orders a chicken salad sandwich without the chicken salad just to get the toast he wants.

“Approaching the freeway, we saw a little rise, and there was the cafe,” he said in an interview with American Cinematographer magazine in 2005. “I think we shot that scene in two hours, and then we moved on.”

Correction: July 28, 2007

An obituary on Thursday about the cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs misspelled the surname of a fellow Hungarian cinematographer at two points. As noted elsewhere in the obituary, he is Vilmos Zsigmond, not Szigmond. The obituary also misstated the date of the Robert Altman film “That Cold Day in the Park,” on which Mr. Kovacs worked, and referred incorrectly to it. It was released in 1969, not 1970, and it was Mr. Altman’s third feature as a director, not his “first venture into longer narrative filmmaking.”

From imdB:

Cinematographer:

1. Torn from the Flag (2006) (director of photography)

2. Two Weeks Notice (2002)

3. Miss Congeniality (2000) (director of photography) (as Laszlo Kovacs)

... aka Miss Undercover (Europe: DVD title)

4. Return to Me (2000) (director of photography)

5. Jack Frost (1998) (as Laszlo Kovacs)

... aka Frost

6. My Best Friend's Wedding (1997) (director of photography) (as Laszlo Kovacs)

7. Multiplicity (1996)

8. Copycat (1995)

9. Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home (1995)

... aka Sauvez Willy 2 (France)

10. The Scout (1994) (as Laszlo Kovacs)

11. The Next Karate Kid (1994) (director of photography) (as Laszlo Kovacs)

12. Cyndi Lauper: 12 Deadly Cyns... and Then Some (1994) (V) (video "I'm Gonna Be Strong")

13. Ruby Cairo (1993)

... aka Deception (USA: video title (recut version))

... aka The Missing Link: Ruby Cairo

14. Radio Flyer (1992)

15. Shattered (1991)

16. Say Anything... (1989) (as Laszlo Kovacs)

... aka ...Say Anything... (USA: promotional title)

17. Little Nikita (1988)

... aka The Sleepers

18. Predator: The Concert (1987)

19. Legal Eagles (1986) (director of photography) (as Laszlo Kovacs)

20. Mask (1985) (director of photography) (as Laszlo Kovacs)

... aka Peter Bogdanovich's Mask (USA: complete title)

21. Ghost Busters (1984) (director of photography) (as Laszlo Kovacs)

22. Crackers (1984)

23. The Toy (1982)

24. Frances (1982)

25. The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981)

26. Inside Moves (1980) (as Lazlo Kovacs)

27. Heart Beat (1980)

28. The Runner Stumbles (1979)

29. Butch and Sundance: The Early Days (1979) (director of photography) (as Laszlo Kovacs)

30. Paradise Alley (1978)

31. F.I.S.T (1978)

32. New York, New York (1977) (as Laszlo Kovacs)

33. Nickelodeon (1976)

34. Harry and Walter Go to New York (1976)

35. Baby Blue Marine (1976)

36. Shampoo (1975)

37. At Long Last Love (1975)

38. Freebie and the Bean (1974)

39. For Pete's Sake (1974) (director of photography)

... aka July Pork Bellies

40. Huckleberry Finn (1974)

... aka Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn: A Musical Adaptation (USA: promotional title)

41. Paper Moon (1973) (director of photography) (as Laszlo Kovacs)

42. Slither (1973)

43. A Reflection of Fear (1973)

... aka Autumn Child

... aka Labyrinth

44. Steelyard Blues (1973)

... aka The Final Crash (USA: TV title)

45. The King of Marvin Gardens (1972)

46. What's Up, Doc? (1972) (director of photography)

47. Pocket Money (1972)

48. The Last Movie (1971)

... aka Chinchero

49. The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker (1971)

50. Alex in Wonderland (1970)

51. Five Easy Pieces (1970) (director of photography) (as Laszlo Kovacs)

52. Getting Straight (1970)

53. The Rebel Rousers (1970)

54. Hell's Bloody Devils (1970)

... aka Operation M.

... aka Smashing the Crime Syndicate (UK)

... aka Swastika Savages

... aka The Fakers (USA: TV title)

55. Blood of Dracula's Castle (1969) (as Leslie Kovacs)

... aka Castle of Dracula

... aka Dracula's Castle (USA: TV title)

56. That Cold Day in the Park (1969)

57. Easy Rider (1969)

58. Los Angeles: Where It's At (1969) (TV) (as Leslie Kovacs)

59. A Day with the Boys (1969)

60. Making of the President 1968 (1969) (TV)

61. Single Room Furnished (1968) (director of photography) (as Leslie Kovacs)

62. The Savage Seven (1968)

63. Targets (1968) (as Laszlo Kovacs)

... aka Before I Die

64. Psych-Out (1968)

65. Mantis in Lace (1968) (as Leslie Kovacks)

... aka Lila

... aka Lila: Mantis in Lace (USA)

66. Hells Angels on Wheels (1967) (as Leslie Kovacs)

67. Mondo Mod (1967) (as Leslie Kovacks)

68. A Man Called Dagger (1967)

69. A Smell of Honey, a Swallow of Brine (1966) (as Art Radford)

70. The Notorious Daughter of Fanny Hill (1966)

71. "Time-Life Specials: The March of Time" (1965) TV Series (unknown episodes)

72. Kiss Me Quick! (1964) (as Lester Kovacs)

... aka Dr. Breedlove

... aka Dr. Breedlove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love

73. The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (1964)

... aka Diabolical Dr. Voodoo

... aka The Incredibly Mixed Up Zombie

... aka The Incredibly Strange Creature: Or Why I Stopped Living and Became a Mixed-up Zombie (USA)

... aka The Teenage Psycho Meets Bloody Mary

74. "National Geographic Specials" (1964) TV Series (unknown episodes)

Camera and Electrical Department:

1. Wayne's World 2 (1993) (additional photographer) (as Laszlo Kovacs)

2. Sliver (1993) (additional photographer) (as Laszlo Kovacs)

... aka Sliver - Gier der Augen

3. Elvis Presley's Graceland (1984) (V) (additional photographer)

4. Blow Out (1981) (additional photographer) (uncredited)

5. The Rose (1979) (additional photographer: concert scenes) (as Laszlo Kovaks)

6. The Last Waltz (1978) (additional director of photography) (as Laszlo Kovacs)

7. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) (additional director of photography) (as Laszlo Kovacs)

... aka CE3K (USA: informal short title)

... aka Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Special Edition (USA: reissue title)

8. Directed by John Ford (1971) (camera operator: interviews) (as Laszlo Kovacs)