Boris Kaufman

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Boris Kaufman (Russian: Борис Абрамович Кауфман; August 24, 1897-June 24, 1980) was an Oscar-winning (1954) cinematographer. He was the younger brother of famous filmmakers Dziga Vertov (Denis Kaufman) and Mikhail Kaufman.

Kaufman was born into a family of Jewish intellectuals living in Białystok at the time when the Congress Poland was a part of the Russian Empire.

After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Poland regained its independence, and Boris, together with his parents, moved to Poland. Mikhail and Denis stayed in the Soviet Union and became notable Soviet filmmakers producing avant garde and agitprop films. The three brothers never met again and stayed in touch only by way of letters.

After graduating from Sorbonne University, Boris turned to cinematography. He collaborated with Jean Vigo and later Dmitri Kirsanoff.

During World War II, he served in the French Army against the Nazis and when France lost he managed to escape to Canada. After working briefly with John Grierson, for the National Film Board of Canada, Kaufman moved to the United States in 1942.

He supported himself shooting short subjects and documentaries until Elia Kazan chose him to shoot his first American feature film, On the Waterfront (1954), for which Kaufman won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography and Golden Globe Award (1955). For the film Baby Doll (1956), Kaufman received a second Oscar nomination.

He was the director of photography on Sidney Lumet's first film, 12 Angry Men (1957), and The Pawnbroker (1964), among other notable films.

Boris Kaufman retired in 1970 and died in New York City in 1980.

[edit] Filmography

1927 Les Halles centrales
1928 Champs-Élysées
1928 La marche des machines
1928 24 heures en 30 minutes
1929 À propos de Nice/Nizza/On the Subject of Nice
1929 Les Halles
1931 La natation par Jean Taris, champion de France/Taris, champion de natation/Taris, roi de l'eau
1931 La vie d'un fleuve: La Seine
1932 Le mile de Jules Ladoumègue
1932 Travaux du tunnel sous l'Escaut (film is lost)
1933 Zéro de conduite/Zero for Conduct
1933 Le chemin du bonheur
1933 L'Atalante/Le chaland qui passe
1934 Le Père Lampion
1934 Zouzou
1935 Lucrèce Borgia/Lucrezia Borgia
1935 Les berceaux
1935 Jeune fille au jardin
1935 Quand minuit sonnera
1936 Klokslag twaalf
1936 L'homme sans coeur
1936 Oeil-de-Lynx, détective
1936 On ne roule pas Antoinette/You Can't Fool Antoinette
1937 De man zonder hart
1937 Cinderella
1937 Êtes-vous jalouse?
1937 Les hommes sans nom
1938 Fort Dolorès
1938 Les gaietés de l'exposition
1938 A l'ombre d'une femme
1938 Le veau gras
1939 Sérénade/Schubert's Serenade
1943 Why We Fight
1943 Hymn of the Nations
1944 A Better Tomorrow
1945 Capital Story
1945 The Southwest/Land of Enchantment. Southwest U.S.A.
1946 Journey Into Medicine
1947 The Lambertville Story
1948 Terribly Talented
1948 Osmosis
1950 Preface to a Life
1950 The Tanglewood Story/Tanglewood, Music School and Music Festival
1951 The Gentleman in Room 6
1952 Leonardo da Vinci
1952 And the Earth Shall Give Back Life
1953 On the Waterfront
1954 Garden of Eden
1954 Within Man's Power
1954 Amazing What Color Can Do
1955 Singing in the Dark
1955 A Family Affair
1955 Patterns/Patterns of Power
1955 Baby Doll
1956 Crowded Paradise
1956 12 Angry Men
1958 Home Again
1959 That Kind of Woman
1959 The Fugitive Kind
1960 Splendor in the Grass
1962 Long Day's Journey Into Night
1963 Gone Are the Days!/Purlie Victorious/The Man from C.O.T.T.O.N.
1963 All the Way Home
1963 The World of Henry Orient
1963 The Pawnbroker
1965 The Group
1967 Bye Bye Braverman
1968 The Brotherhood
1968 Up Tight!
1969 Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon