Bernard Knowles(1900-1975)
- Director
- Cinematographer
- Producer
British director Bernard Knowles started his career as a newspaper
photographer, and in the 1920s journeyed to the US and worked as a
photographer for the Detroit News. Upon his return to England in 1922
he was hired by Gainsborough Pictures as an assistant cameraman, and it
didn't take long for him to become a full-fledged Director of
Photography. He gained a reputation as an innovator in photographic
techniques and for his mastery of moody, atmospheric black-and-white
photography, most notably on such classic films as
Les 39 marches (1935),
Les mines du Roi Salomon (1937)
and Hantise (1940). After World War II
he set out to fulfill his ambition of becoming a director, and his
debut was the well-received ghost story
Le médaillon fatal (1945).
However, his next film,
L'archet magique (1946), a "biopic" of
19th-century violinist/composer
Nicolo Paganini, was a critical and
commercial flop, being derided as heavy-handed and slow-moving. His
film career faded somewhat after that, and in the mid-'50s he turned to
television, making the occasional foray back into feature films.
