Why is there only one word for Thesaurus?
Designed and Published by The Scrutineer, Rachael Adams
Being an Autobiography of David Watkin
Text from the jacket flap:
Autobiography of one of the greatest living cinematographers still working today. Full of life, energy and attitude. Published by subscription with the support of the many luminaries with whom he has worked.
The book, rather like its contents, was unconventionally produced. It hasn’t known a publisher and owes its existence to a long list of people: many well known personalities, who undertook to purchase copies; lecturer Dr Chris Mullen, at the University of Brighton oversaw the project; Professor John Vernon Lord did the illustrations, and The Scrutineer, Rachael Adams, had the pleasure of designing it – choosing the cloth, the silk-bands, the paper stock – designing the cover and the layout… becoming great friends with the author from the outset, over tea and crumpets…
Comments on Thesaurus.
Some quotes, taken from literally, worlds apart:
“This is an exercise in self-publishing, the handsomest I have ever come across. Many a commercial publisher should sit down with it. The design of the whole book, from dust jacket (lovely picture of the author at work!) through page layout to binding is exemplary, Jim Ballentyne”.
“Fuck a stoat, what a wickedly funny book! I laughed, I cried, I read huge pieces aloud to Kathleen, and I smile every time I see it on my bookshelves, sitting between Fritz Lang’s Biography and some hyper-intellectual stuff by Wim Wenders.
So I demand that you live forever so you can keep writing, and thank you again for your kindness to me and Katherine in Florence”. David Lawrence, Hollywood DOP.
“I get an awful lot of film biogs and autobiogs, and most of them are overwritten and rather tedious. Yours is remarkably fresh and different, to say nothing of immensely readable.
I need hardly add that your book stays firmly on my shelves, while the autobiogs of several others (who shall remain nameless) are on their way to the Oxfam Shop.
Have a smashing 00. Very best wishes, Barry Norman”.
“The chapter is a delight, as I knew it would be. The stories are funny and, best of all, reading it is like hearing you speak. Love, Sidney Lumet”.
“Yours is quite different; fabulously gossipy, tremendously funny, gloriously outspoken with stable after stable of hobby-horses. It is also beautifully produced and I must congratulate your collaborators on their taste, style and execution. It will make you hundreds of friends and offendees far beyond the list of subscribers.
Anyway it’s bloody marvelous and I’m enjoying every word of it.
Yours in haste, Joe Mendoza”.
David’s Biography:
Born into an illustrious railway family, on 23rd March 1923 (in Margate, Kent), he began work with the Southern Region Film Unit of British Railways in the late 40′s. In 1950 he became a camera assistant at British Transport Films. Became Director of Photography in 1955. Photographed commercials (dir by Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Adrian Lyne, David Ashwell, Ross Cramer, Daniel Bergman). Appeared in the doc ‘Exposure – An Interview with David Watkin’ (2001).
Awards:
BAFTA Film Award nomination, 1965, for ‘The Knack’ & ‘Help!’;
BAFTA Film Award nomination, 1967, for ‘Mademoiselle’;
BAFTA Film Award nomination, 1968 for ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’;
BAFTA Film Award nomination, 1970 for ‘Catch-22′;
BAFTA Film Award nomination, 1974 for ‘The Three Musketeers’;
NYFCC Award, 1981, BSC Award nomination, 1981 & BAFTA Film Award nomination, 1982 for ‘Chariots of Fire’;
NYFCC Award, 1985, LAFCA Award, 1985, BSC Award, 1986, ‘Oscar’ AA 1986 & BAFTA Film Award, 1986 for ‘Out of Africa’;
BSC Award nomination, 1990 for ‘Memphis Belle’.
FILMS
1956 Long Night Haul [James Ritchie]
1956 The England of Elizabeth [John Taylor]
1957 Holiday [John Taylor]
1958 Scotland for Sport [Kenneth Fairbairn]
1958 The Coast of Clyde [James Ritchie]
1958 Under Night Streets [Ralph Keene]
1959 Diesel Train Ride [James Ritchie]
1959 Under the River [R.K. Neilson Baxter]
1960 Blue Pullman [James Ritchie]
1960 They Take the High Road [James Ritchie]
1963 All That Mighty Heart [R.K. Neilson Baxter]
1963 Shopping Day [Don Higgins]
1963 The Six-Sided Triangle [Christopher Miles]
1963 The Scheme [Don Higgins]
1963 A… Is for Apple [John Burrows & Hugh Hudson]
1964 Rhythm ‘n’ Greens [Christopher Miles]
1965 The Knack – And How to Get It [Richard Lester]
1965 Help! [Richard Lester]
1965 Mademoiselle/Summer Fires [Tony Richardson]
1966 The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under
the Direction of the Marquis de Sade/Marat-Sade [Peter Brook]
1966 How I Won the War [Richard Lester]
1967 The Charge of the Light Brigade [Tony Richardson]
1969 Catch-22 [Mike Nichols]
1969 The Bed-Sitting Room [Richard Lester]
1971 The Devils [Ken Russell]
1971 The Boy Friend [Ken Russell]
1973 The Homecoming [Peter Hall]
1973 Yellow Dog [Terence Donovan]
1973 The Three Musketeers [The Queen's Diamonds] [Richard Lester]
1973 The Four Musketeers [Richard Lester]
1973 A Delicate Balance [Tony Richardson]
1974 Mahogany [Berry Gordy]
1975 To the Devil a Daughter/Child of Satan [Peter Sykes]
1975 Robin and Marian [Richard Lester]
1976 Joseph Andrews [Tony Richardson]
1978 Hanover Street [Peter Hyams]
1978 That Summer! [Harley Cokliss]
1978 Cuba [Richard Lester]
1980 Chariots of Fire [Hugh Hudson]
1980 Endless Love [Franco Zeffirelli]
1981 La Cenerentola/Cinderella [Jean-Pierre Ponnelle]
1982 Yentl [Barbra Streisand]
1983 The Hotel New Hampshire [Tony Richardson]
1984 Return to Oz [Walter Murch]
1985 White Nights [Taylor Hackford]
1985 Sky Bandits/Gunbus [Zoran Perisic]
1985 Out of Africa [Sydney Pollack]
1986 Journey to the Center of the Earth [Rusty Lemorande & Albert Pyun],
1987 Moonstruck [Norman Jewison]
1987 Masquerade [Bob Swaim]
1988 Last Rites [Donald Bellisario]
1988 The Good Mother [Leonard Nimoy]
1990 Memphis Belle [Michael Caton-Jones]
1990 Hamlet [Franco Zeffirelli]
1992 This Boy’s Life [A True Story] [Michael Caton-Jones]
1992 Used People [Beeban Kidron]
1992 Bopha! [Morgan Freeman]
1992 Hallo Mister God, This Is Anna [Ferdinand Fairfax]
1993 Milk Money [Richard Benjamin]
1994 One Glorious Summer [Joseph Andaloro]
1995 Bogus [Norman Jewison]
1995 Jane Eyre [Franco Zeffirelli]
1995 Night Falls on Manhattan [Sidney Lumet]
1996 Through Roses – Backstage [Jürgen Flimm]
1996 Obsession/Sucht/Berlin Niagara [Peter Sehr]
1997 Critical Care [Sidney Lumet]
1998 Tea with Mussolini [Franco Zeffirelli]
1998 Gloria [Sidney Lumet]
2000 All Forgotten/Lover’s Prayer [Reverge Anselmo]
TELEVISION
1976 Jesus of Nazareth/La vita di Gesù/Gesù di Nazareth [Franco Zeffirelli]
1988 Murder by Moonlight/Dark of the Moon/Murder on the Moon [Michael Lindsay-Hogg]
1990 The Object of Beauty [Michael Lindsay-Hogg]
1991 The Cabinet of Dr. Ramirez [Peter Sellars]
