About

Known credits:
44
Birthday:
1913-08-21
Place of birth:
Alexandria, Egypt
Website:

Robert Krasker

Overview

Robert Krasker, BSC was a cinematographer and feature film Director of Photography who worked on more than sixty films in his career.

He was born in Alexandria, Egypt during a business trip by his parents Mathilde and Leon Krasker from Western Australia to Europe and back and his birth was registered in Perth, Western Australia after their return. The Krasker family lived and operated their pearl trading business out of Denham in Shark Bay and Subiaco in Perth. After Leon died in an accident in Shark Bay, Mathilde had to consider the children's educational needs so moved the family back to Paris where she and Leon had been educated as refugees from eastern Europe. Krasker completed his secondary schooling in Paris then studied art there in 1929 before enrolling in Professor Robert Luther's celebrated photograph course at the Photohändler Schule of the Technische Hochschule, later Technische Universität, in Dresden. He credited his education there for his fast start in the film industry at Les Studios Paramount in Joinville-le-Pont in the south-east of Paris and rapid ascension as the youngest Director of Photography of his era. Krasker moved to England from Paris in 1931 and worked there in that year on his last film as camera assistant to Philip Tannura, Service for Ladies, produced and directed by Alexander Korda. Korda invited him to work at Korda's London Films, where he was apprenticed to French Director of Photography Georges Périnal , becoming a senior camera operator then a Director of Photography in his own right.

To say that Krasker's work was "strongly influenced by film noir and German Expressionism" is an oversimplification. It elides his art and photography education in Paris and his apprenticeship to Georges Périnal working as his camera operator on a range of very different films including The Rise of Catherine the Great (1933), Things to Come (1935), Rembrandt (1936), I, Claudius (1937 but unreleased), The Drum (1937), The Four Feathers (1938), The Thief of Bagdad (1939) and more. Robert Krasker's most notable films as Director of Photography included Henry V (1944) for Laurence Olivier, Uncle Silas (1947), directed by Charles Frank and The Third Man (1949), for which he won an Oscar, and Odd Man Out (1947), both for director Carol Reed, as well as Brief Encounter (1945) for David Lean and Another Man's Poison (1951) for Irving Rapper, and more. Despite Krasker's brilliant and atmospheric work on Brief Encounter (1945), Lean sacked him from his next film, Great Expectations (1945), because he and producer Ronald Neame were unhappy with the handling of Krasker's much-celebrated marsh scenes at the beginning of the film. Robert Krasker's later films included Romeo and Juliet (1953) for Renato Castellani, Senso (1953) for Luchino Visconti and The Quiet American (1957) for Joseph L. Mankiewicz and The Criminal (1960) for Joseph Losey as well as the widescreen black and white drama Billy Budd (1961) for Peter Ustinov and the widescreen Technicolor epics Alexander the Great (1955) for Robert Rossen, Trapeze (1955) for Carol Reed, El Cid (1961) for Anthony Mann, The Fall of the Roman Empire (1963) for Anthony Mann and The Heroes of Telemark (1965) also for Anthony Mann.

Known for

Acting

1960 Insight: Anthony Asquith Actor 59
Average

Camera

1966 The Trap Camera Director of Photography 59
Average
1965 The Heroes of Telemark Camera Director of Photography 61
Fair
1965 The Collector Camera Director of Photography 62
Fair
1964 The Fall of the Roman Empire Camera Director of Photography 60
Fair
1963 The Running Man Camera Director of Photography 59
Average
1962 Billy Budd Camera Director of Photography 60
Fair
1962 Guns of Darkness Camera Director of Photography 58
Average
1961 El Cid Camera Director of Photography 61
Fair
1961 Romanoff and Juliet Camera Director of Photography 58
Average
1960 The Criminal Camera Director of Photography 59
Average
1959 Libel Camera Director of Photography 59
Average
1959 The Doctor's Dilemma Camera Director of Photography 58
Average
1958 Behind the Mask Camera Director of Photography 58
Average
1958 The Quiet American Camera Director of Photography 58
Average
1957 The Rising of the Moon Camera Director of Photography 59
Average
1956 Trapeze Camera Director of Photography 59
Average
1956 Alexander the Great Camera Director of Photography 58
Average
1955 That Lady Camera Director of Photography 58
Average
1954 Senso Camera Director of Photography 62
Fair
1954 Romeo and Juliet Camera Director of Photography 58
Average
1953 Malta Story Camera Director of Photography 58
Average
1953 Never Let Me Go Camera Director of Photography 58
Average
1951 Another Man's Poison Camera Director of Photography 59
Average
1951 The Wonder Kid Camera Director of Photography N/A
N/A
1951 Cry, the Beloved Country Camera Director of Photography 58
Average
1950 State Secret Camera Director of Photography 58
Average
1950 The Angel with the Trumpet Camera Director of Photography 58
Average
1949 The Third Man Camera Director of Photography 74
Good
1948 Bonnie Prince Charlie Camera Director of Photography 58
Average
1947 Uncle Silas Camera Director of Photography 58
Average
1947 Odd Man Out Camera Director of Photography 62
Fair
1945 Caesar and Cleopatra Camera Director of Photography 58
Average
1945 Brief Encounter Camera Director of Photography 69
Fair
1944 Henry V Camera Director of Photography 60
Fair
1943 The Lamp Still Burns Camera Director of Photography 58
Average
1943 The Gentle Sex Camera Director of Photography 58
Average
1941 Old Bill and Son Camera Camera Operator 58
Average
1938 The Challenge Camera Camera Operator 59
Average
1936 Men Are Not Gods Camera Camera Operator 58
Average
1936 Rembrandt Camera Camera Operator 59
Average
1936 Things to Come Camera Camera Operator 60
Fair
1934 The Rise of Catherine the Great Camera Camera Operator 58
Average

Crew

1976 Red Crew Cinematography N/A
N/A