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Born: 15 September 1940, Kingston, Herefordshire, England, as Christopher J. Menges, son of Herbert Menges [1902-72], musical director of the Old Vic for 25 years and principal conductor of the Symphonic String Players [Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra] from 1925-72.
Career: 'My grandfather [George Menges] was a violin player who was born and raised in Germany. He moved to England in 1890 to teach students to play the fiddle. I was born on a farm in Herefordshire, England. My family moved to London when I was 3 years old when my father became music director at the Old Vic Theatre.' After a period working at an estate agency, he was hired as an apprentice by filmmaker Alan Forbes [1958-60]. 'I was always fascinated by cameras and photography. When I was 17 years old, I went to work for our neighbor Alan Forbes. He was an American filmmaker who made documentary films for the cinema. Alan shot documentaries all over Italy, France and Britain. I was his assistant. I also recorded sound and helped him in the cutting room. Alan was a huge inspiration for me.' In 1961 he joined Derek Knight & Partners as a trainee asst editor and worked as a c.asst with doph Brian Probyn. From 1961-62 he worked as a soundman for dir Alan King and CBC-TV in Canada.
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"World in Action" - photos American Cinematographer Magazine & BSC |
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In Angola |
With soundman Ivan Sharrock in Vietnam [1969] |
In 1963 he joined the 'World in Action'-team at Granada-tv as cameraman and worked on doc's in Cyprus (civil war), South Africa, Angola (civil war), Vietnam [3x with John Irvin, Richard Taylor & Charles Denton as dir], Algeria, Zanzibar (revolution), etc. 'I began shooting films for 'World in Action', a weekly current affairs documentary series. I draw on those experiences every time I work on a new project. I spent two years in Burma on two different trips in 1963 and 1972 during a very brutal civil war between different ethnic groups who were pushed into the Union of Burma by the British. Those types of documentaries expose you to a different world. You learn about composition, and how it affects the story, and about natural lighting. You experience those things by observing. You also learn to fit into the environment with the indigenous people and that there is no one right way to tell a story. The experience of being a fly-on-the-wall while shooting documentaries helps you develop as a filmmaker. I think everybody who wants to be a filmmaker can benefit from shooting documentaries with a handheld camera.' In 1965 he was doph in Canada on a number of doc's about European artists. In 1987 he took a nine-year hiatus from ph while dir 3 features. [Quotes from the ASC website.]
Appeared in the doc 'Shooting from the Heart – Chris Menges: Cameraman' [1985, David Turner].
Awards: As doph: BAFTA TV Technical Craft Award [1977] for 'Last Summer' & 'Chicago Streets'; BAFTA TV Technical Craft Award nom [1978] for 'The Opium Business: Opium 1 - The White Powder Opera'; BAFTA Film Award nom [1984] for 'Local Hero'; 'Oscar' AA [1985], LAFCA Award [1984], NSFC Award [1985], BSFC Award [1985], BAFTA Film Award [1985], BSC Award [1984] & NYFCC Award [1984] for 'The Killing Fields'; NSFC Award [1985] for 'Comfort and Joy'; 'Oscar' AA [1987], ASC Award nom [1987], BAFTA Film Award nom [1987] & LAFCA Award [1986] for 'The Mission'; 'Oscar' AA nom [1997], LAFCA Award [1996], BAFTA Film Award nom [1997], ASC Award nom [1997] & BSC Award nom [1997] for 'Michael Collins'; ASC Award nom [1998] for 'The Boxer'; British Independent Film Awards 'Lifetime Achievement Award' [2001]; Raindance FF 'Lifetime Achievement Award' [2001]; Madridimagen 'Best Cinematography' [2002] for 'The Good Thief'; European Film Award nom [2003] for 'Dirty Pretty Things'; Independent Spirit Award nom [2006] for 'The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada'; ASC Film Award nom [2008; shared], BAFTA Film Award nom [2008; shared] & 'Oscar' AA nom [2008; shared] for 'The Reader'; ASC International Achievement Award [2009].
As dir: Cannes FF 'Grand Prix of the Jury', 'Golden Palm' nom & 'Prize of the Ecumenical Jury' [1988], NYFCC Award Best Director [1988] & Independent Spirit Award 'Best Foreign Film' [1989] for 'A World Apart'; San Sebastián FF 'Prize of the Jury' & 'Golden Seashell' nom [1994] for 'Second Best'.
TV doc 'Raid into Tibet': 'In May 1964, British journalist George Patterson - who had lived in Eastern Tibet before the Chinese invasion - bluffed his way into the remote Dzum valley in northern Nepal where a small detachment of the guerrilla force was based. Patterson was accompanied by a film crew – director Adrian Cowell and cameraman Chris Menges. They met with the leader and tried to convince him to allow them to film a raid inside Tibet. The three-man film team traveled with the guerrillas over a 20,000 foot pass into Tibet and captured dramatic footage of the subsequent attack on a Chinese military convoy. By this time, the headquarters at Mustang had been apprised of the mission and had alerted the CIA and their Indian partners in Delhi. The CIA was furious at this lapse in security and immediately sent orders to intercept Patterson and his team before they could leave Nepal and relieve them of their film footage at any cost. But Patterson was one step ahead and both his team and their precious footage were able to escape safely from Nepal.'
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FILMS |
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1967 |
In Search of Opportunity [Mamoun Hassan] c; comm doc/23m; for Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme |
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1968 |
Beyond the Tropopause [Mamoun Hassan] c; comm doc/30m; for Plessey Co. |
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1968 |
Kes [Kenneth Loach] c |
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1968 |
Solo [Misha Donat] b&w; mus short/8m |
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1968 |
The Last of the Long Haired Boys [Peter Everett] c; replaced by ph Ken Hodges; unreleased commercially |
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1969 |
Loving Memory [Anthony (Tony) Scott] b&w; short/57m; cph: John Metcalfe & Anthony Scott |
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1970 |
Black Beauty [James Hill] c; cph: Fernando Arribas; 2uc: Patrick Carey |
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1971 |
Talk About Work [Kenneth Loach] 16mm/b&w; comm doc/16m |
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Stephen Frears - actor Albert Finney - C. Menges - "Gumshoe" |
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1971 |
Gumshoe [Stephen Frears] c |
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1978 |
Black Jack [Kenneth Loach] c |
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1979 |
[Star Wars: Episode V:] The Empire Strikes Back [Irvin Kershner; studio 2ud: Harley Cokliss & John Barry] p/c; studio 2uc; ph: Peter Suschitzky |
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1980 |
Vanessa Talks with Farouk Abdulaziz [Roy Battersby] 16mm/c; interview/55m |
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1980 |
Babylon [Franco Rosso] c |
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1981 |
Couples & Robbers [Clare Peploe] c; short/28m |
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1981 |
Battletruck/Warlords of the 21st Century [Harley Cokliss] c |
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1982 |
Local Hero [Bill Forsyth] c |
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1982 |
Angel/Danny Boy [Neil Jordan] c |
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1983 |
The Killing Fields [Roland Joffé] c; 2uc: Ivan Strasburg, Tony Breeze, Tom McDougal & Robbie Race; addph: Phil Meheux |
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1983 |
Comfort and Joy [Bill Forsyth] c |
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1985 |
Marie [: A True Story] [Roger Donaldson] c |
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1985 |
Fatherland/Singing the Blues in Red [Kenneth Loach] c; 3 seg: 'Actually Existing Socialism', 'Grosse Freiheit Strasse' & 'Stalinism Isn't Socialism. Capitalism Isn't Freedom' |
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1986 |
The Mission [Roland Joffé] J-D-C Scope (35mm) & 70bu/c/c; 2uc: Robin Vidgeon |
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1986 |
High Season [Clare Peploe] c |
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1987 |
Shy People [Andrei Konchalovsky] J-D-C Scope/c; 2uc: Allen S. Facemire |
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1994 |
Berlin Calling/Alexis Sally [Roger Christian] unrealized |
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1995 |
Michael Collins [Neil Jordan] c |
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1997 |
The Boxer [Jim Sheridan] c |
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1999 |
Long Walk to Freedom/Birth of a Nation [Shekhar Kapur] project; in 2007 scheduled as a project ('The Human Factor') of dir Clint Eastwood |
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2000 |
The Pledge [Sean Penn] J-D-C Scope/c; 2uc: Paul Mitchnick |
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2000 |
Riding in Cars with Boys [Penny Marshall] c; cph: Miroslav Ondrícek |
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2001 |
The Good Thief/Double Down [Neil Jordan] c; 2uc: Philippe Houdart |
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2001 |
Dirty Pretty Things [Stephen Frears (replaced Damien O'Donnell)] c; addph: Ivan Strasburg |
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2003 |
Criminal [Gregory Jacobs] c |
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2004 |
Tickets [Ken Loach, Ermanno Olmi & Abbas Kiarostami] c; 3 seg; ph seg dir by Ken Loach; other ph: Fabio Olmi & Mahmoud Kalari |
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With dir Tommy Lee Jones [right] - photo by Dawn Jones "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" |
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2004 |
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada [Tommy Lee Jones] s35/c; ph Mexico: Héctor Ortega; 2uc: Duane Manwiller |
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2005 |
North Country/Class Action [Niki Caro] s35/c |
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2005 |
Papa [Adrian Noble] announced in 2004; scheduled for June 2005 start; status unknown |
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2005 |
Notes on a Scandal [Richard Eyre] c; 2uc: Paul Bond |
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2006 |
Stop-Loss [Kimberly Peirce] c; uncred addph: Chuck Cohen; aph (New York): Hans Bjerno |
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2007 |
The Yellow Handkerchief [Udayan Prasad] scope/c; aph: Patrick Longman |
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2008 |
The Reader [Stephen Daldry] s35-to-35mm 1.85:1/c; ph 2nd shooting period [March-July]; ph 1st shooting period [September-October 2007]: Roger Deakins |
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2009 |
London Boulevard [William Monahan] c |
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2009 |
Route Irish [Ken Loach] c |
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TELEVISION |
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1963 |
The Do-It-Yourself Democracy [Mai Zetterling] doc/45m; cph: Brian Probyn |
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1963 |
The Guns [exec prod: Tim Hewat] doc/45m; cph: Alan Hewison & David Samuelson; ep Granada-tv series 'World in Action' |
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1964 |
Raid into Tibet [Adrian Cowell] doc/b&w/30m/16mm |
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1964 |
Buddhism [Adrian Cowell] 3-part series on Buddhism |
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1964 |
The Opium Trail [Adrian Cowell] doc/50m; + sound; filmed 1964-65; aired in 1966 |
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1964 |
The Unknown War [Adrian Cowell] doc/30m/16mm; filmed 1964-65 |
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1965 |
A Boy Called Donovan [Charlie Squires] doc/b&w/52m; cph: Tony Mander |
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1966 |
Crisis on Wheels [Kevin Brownlow] doc/?m |
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1966 |
Warship Eagle [Charles Squires[ 6-part doc series; cph: Tony Mander |
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1967 |
The Tribe That Hides from Man [Adrian Cowell] doc/67m/16mm; cph: Charles Stewart, Ernest Vincze, a.o.; filmed 1967-70; some material used in the 3-part series 'The Last of the Hiding Tribes' (1998) |
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1968 |
Abel Gance – The Charm of Dynamite! [Kevin Brownlow] doc/50m/b&w; ep BBC-tv series 'Omnibus' |
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1969 |
Assignment Vietnam [?] doc/?m |
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1969 |
Wild and Free – Twice Daily [Chris Menges] doc/50m |
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1969 |
After a Lifetime [Kenneth Loach] tvm/80m |
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1970 |
Kingdom in the Jungle [Adrian Cowell] doc/b&w/?m; cph: Charles Stewart, Ernest Vincze, a.o. |
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1972 |
The Opium Warlords [Adrian Cowell] doc/?m; filmed 1972-73; 'Menges tells the story in the flat, measured tone of one who has covered enough human disaster to know the sensational aspects are beside the point. ''We had worked out an agreement so that we could film inside the country for six months. But when we crossed the border from Thailand, we got caught in the middle of a war'' between the Shan state army and Chinese nationalists, remnants of Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang. The film makers' neutral status was soon questioned, and under pressure from the Thai Government, Burma put a price on their heads. For a year and a half, they were trapped inside the country. ''We were being hunted, actually.'' By the time Menges made it back to Bangkok, where he had left his first wife and young children, they had given him up for dead and returned to London.' [From article by Kim Heron in The New York Times, 1988.] |
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1974 |
Peshmerga – Those Who Face Death [Chris Goddard] doc/?m |
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1974 |
It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow – The Story of the 1943 Bethnal Green Tube Disaster [John Goldschmidt] tvm |
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1975 |
Chicago Streets [Harley Cokliss] doc/60m |
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1975 |
To Be Seven in Belfast [John Sheppard] doc/b&w/50m |
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1975 |
Britain on the Brink? [prod: Francis Megahy] doc/55m; cph: Nic Knowland |
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1976 |
Angola - Spring 1976 [John Sheppard] doc/?m |
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1976 |
Busker [Michael Pearce] doc/30m |
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1976 |
Beautiful, Beautiful [John Irving] ? |
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1977 |
Islay – A Personal Impression of a Hebridean Island [Lawrence Moore] doc/52m; cph: ? |
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1977 |
Last Summer [Stephen Frears] tvm |
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1977 |
Angels' Defence [John Ingram] doc/52m |
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1977 |
City of Angels [John Ingram] doc/50m |
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1977 |
Dummy [Franc Roddam] tvm |
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1977 |
The Price of Power [Alan Bell] doc/60m; cph: ? |
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1977 |
The Opium Business: Opium 1 – The White Powder Opera [Adrian Cowell] doc/?m; + co-prod |
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1978 |
The Opium Business: Opium 2 – The Warlords [Adrian Cowell] doc/?m; + co-prod; re-edited version of 'The Opium Warlords' (1972-73) |
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1978 |
The Opium Business: Opium 3 – The Politicians [Adrian Cowell] doc/?m; + co-prod |
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1978 |
The Gamekeeper [Kenneth Loach] tvm/16mm; cph: Charles Stewart |
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1978 |
Cold Harbour [Stephen Frears] tvm/60m |
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1978 |
Before the Monsoon [Michael Grigsby] 3–part doc series/16mm: 'Roots of Violence' (51m), 'State of Emergency' (53m) & 'Seeds of Democracy' (37m); cph: Jimmy Dibling; filmed October 1978-January 1979 |
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1979 |
Bloody Kids/One Joke Too Many/Red Saturday [Stephen Frears] tvm; released theatrically in 1983 |
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1979 |
A Sense of Freedom [John Mackenzie] tvm |
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1979 |
Auditions [Kenneth Loach] doc/b&w/60m/16mm |
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1980 |
A Question of Leadership [Kenneth Loach & Barry Hines] doc/50m/16mm; cph: John Davey |
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1980 |
Looks and Smiles [Kenneth Loach] tvm/b&w |
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1981 |
East 103rd Street [Chris Menges] doc/70m |
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1982 |
Walter [Stephen Frears] tvm/16mm |
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1982 |
Walter & June [Stephen Frears] tvm/16mm; sequel to 'Walter'; both films screened as 'Loving Walter' (1983) |
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1982 |
Made in Britain [Alan Clarke] tvm; ep series 'Tales Out of School' |
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1982 |
R.H.I.N.O.: Really Here in Name Only [Jane Howell] tvm; ep series 'Tales Out of School' |
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1982 |
The Red and the Blue – Impressions of Two Political Conferences - Autumn 1982 [Kenneth Loach] doc/78m |
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1983 |
The Skin Horse [Nigel Evans & John Samson] doc/52m; cph: Dave Bridges, Tim Broad & John Holland |
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1984 |
Winter Flight/The Big Surprise [Roy Battersby] tvm |
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1984 |
Which Side Are You On? [Kenneth Loach] doc/50m; cph: James Dibling & Ken Morse; broadcast on 'The South Bank Show' was cancelled |
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1993 |
The Heroin Wars [Adrian Cowell] 3-part series/156m - 'The Opium Convoys', 'Smack City' & 'The Kings of Opium'; filmed between 1964-92; released 1996 (re-edited & new material); in 1997 shown as 'The Opium Kings' (re-edited + new footage ph by Ned Johnston, a.o.) in the WGBH-tv series 'Frontline' |
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2002 |
Concert for George [David Leland] concert film/146m/HD; doph; cameramen: Roger Pratt, Nic Knowland, Barry Ackroyd, Joan Churchill, a.o. |
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FILMS & TELEVISION AS DIRECTOR |
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1969 |
Wild and Free – Twice Daily [+ ph] see Television |
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1971 |
A Completely Different Way of Life? [tv-doc/b&w/50m; + prod] ph: James Dibling & Ray Orton |
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1973 |
Radical Lawyer [tv-doc] |
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1975 |
A Family Doctor [tv-doc] |
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1978 |
Fly on the Wall [tv-doc] |
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1981 |
East 103rd Street [+ ph/co-prod] see Television |
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With actress Jodhi May - "A World Apart" |
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1987 |
A World Apart [feature] ph: Peter Biziou |
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1990 |
CrissCross/Alone Together [feature] ph: Ivan Strasburg |
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1992 |
The Life and Death of Chico Mendes [feature; prod cancelled] eventually made in 1993-94 as the tvm 'The Burning Season' dir by John Frankenheimer & ph by John R. Leonetti |
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1993 |
Second Best [feature] ph: Ashley Rowe |
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1998 |
The Lost Son [feature] ph: Barry Ackroyd |
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MISCELLANEOUS |
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1958 |
March to Aldermaston [group doc (16mm/b&w/30m) with Lindsay Anderson, Karel Reisz, a.o.] co-prod assistance; ph: Wolfgang Suschitzky, Peter Jessop, a.o.; a shorter version was called 'Deadly Harvest' |
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1958 |
No Governors [Alan Forbes; unfinished doc] c.asst; ph: ? |
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1959 |
The Visit [Jack Gold; short] co-c.asst; ph: Alan Forbes |
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1959 |
The House of Street Urchins/Padre Borelli [Alan Forbes; tvm] c.asst (+ co-scrpl); ph: ? |
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1959 |
No Place to Hide [Alan Forbes & Derek Knight; doc/b&w/10m] c.asst; ph: ? |
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1961 |
Manolis [Paul Crosfield; short/56m] prod runner; ph: Harry Orchard |
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1962 |
The Saturday Men [John Fletcher; 'Free Cinema' doc] c.asst; ph: Brian Probyn |
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1962 |
Wargame/The War Game [Mai Zetterling; short/15m] c.asst; ph: Brian Probyn |
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1967 |
Poor Cow/No Tears for Joy [Kenneth Loach] c.op; ph: Brian Probyn |
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1968 |
If… [Lindsay Anderson] c.asst + co-c.op; ph: Miroslav Ondrícek |
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1981 |
Before and After the Monsoon [Ian Christie, Keith Griffiths & John Stewart] interview with dir Michael Grigsby about 'Before the Monsoon' (1978) illustrated with footage ph by C. Menges |
