 Chris Menges has a reputation as an outstanding cinematographer, having won Oscars for his work on Roland Joffé's films The Killing Fields (1984) and The Mission (1986). His vast experience as a television cinematographer on documentaries, as well as dramas, provided him opportunity to develop his own unique style, a contradictory mixture of the spontaneous and the picturesque. His approach draws on classic vérité techniques, with their emphasis on capturing the pro-filmic without too much intrusion; yet he tempered this with sensitivity to the aesthetic look of the picture, paying careful attention in particular to appropriate lighting set-ups. Although most noted as a cinematographer, Menges has also directed a number of films.
Menges was born in Kingston, Herefordshire in 1940 and began his career as a production assistant on the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament documentary March to Aldermaston (1959), after which he worked in television. He contributed to the acclaimed current affairs series World in Action and the anthropological documentaries of Adrian Cowell. In 1967, he was camera operator on Ken Loach's Poor Cow and continued to work with Loach as cinematographer over the years on a number of films, including Kes (1969) and Looks and Smiles (1981). Loach, in fact, has recognised Menges' influence on his evolving directorial style: a simplistic, observational approach to actors often shot with a long focus lens, so that the camera becomes, in Loach's words, a "sympathetic observer".
The first fictional film that Menges directed was A World Apart (1988), an award-winning film that traces a South African family's involvement in anti-apartheid activities in the 1960s. The film's narrative is framed through the eyes of the daughter and focuses on political activities through very personal stories. After the acclaim of this film Menges tended to focus more on directing than cinematography, though he did return to the latter role for Neil Jordan's Michael Collins (1996). This has been necessary as, compared to his debut, his subsequent directorial efforts have been received with indifference, or in the case of his last directorial effort The Lost Son (US/UK/FR, 1999), disapproval.
Menges' films tend to dwell on small, interpersonal dynamics. After his American debut CrissCross (1992, which was again set in the 1960s), he returned to Britain to make the intimate Second Best (1994), featuring William Hurt as a lonely postmaster who adopts a son and develops a slow, stuttering relationship with him. It would be a full five years before his next film, The Lost Son, a European co-production starring Daniel Auteuil as a world-weary detective uncovering a paedophile ring. It remains to be seen whether Menges can fully develop his status as a director, or whether his efforts will forever remain in the shadow of his more extensive, celebrated role as a cinematographer.
Bibliography
Leigh, Jacob, Art in the Service of People: The Films of Ken Loach (London: Wallflower, 2001)
American Cinematographer (June 1998), pp. 88-106
Exposure (Autumn 2001), pp. 4-7
Jamie Sexton, Reference Guide to British and Irish Film Directors
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FILM & TV CREDITS
