Actualités

Cinematographer who brought his imaginative sensibilities to films such as Trainspotting, Billy Elliot and Quadrophenia

The cultural aesthetic of the Britpop and New Labour years was shaped partly by the cinematographer Brian Tufano, who has died aged 83. In films such as Trainspotting (1996), East Is East (1999) and Billy Elliot (2000), he combined social realism and absurdist fantasy, smudging the joins between the two. A typical Tufano production, said the film-maker Saul Metzstein, had “technical polish and a cinematic ambition at odds with its financially modest status”.

He worked for the BBC throughout the 1960s and 70s with directors including Lindsay Anderson, Ken Russell, Stephen Frears, Mike Leigh and Ken Loach. But it was in his work with a younger generation in the 90s that his imaginative cinematic sensibility was most strongly felt. For Danny Boyle, with whom he had already made the BBC period drama series Mr Wroe’s Virgins (1993), he shot the...

Danny Boyle is headed to the small screen. The "127 Hours" filmmaker is set to direct the pilot for "Babylon," a comedy drama commissioned by the U.K.'s Channel 4.  The Guardian reports that the pilot "is set in the world of modern policing." The pilot will be written by Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, the co-creators of "Peep Show" and the writers of Chris Morris' suicide bomber comedy "Four Lions." While film directors from David Fincher to Alfonso Cuarón have been dipping their toes into the world of television lately, this is far from Boyle's first TV venture. He got his start producing and directing shows like ""Inspector Morse" and "Mr. Wroe's Virgins," and directed two TV movies for the BBC in 2001 after "The Beach" -- "Vacuuming Completely Nude In Paradise" and "Strumpet." "Babylon" is slated to air next year. Boyle's most recent film was the James McAvoy...