Walter Lassally

Award-winning cinematographer who found his stride with the emergence of the British Free Cinema movement. Like many of the directors with whom he worked--Lindsay Anderson (on the acclaimed documentary shorts "Wakefield Express" 1952 and "Thursday's Children" 1953, among others) Karel Reisz, Tony Richardson--Lassally contributed to "alternative" journals such as "Film" in the 1950s, proving an articulate champion of personal, low-budget filmmaking. He has been involved in a series of independent production companies, and worked with Greek director Michael Cacoyannis on half a dozen films including "A Girl in Black" (1956), "Electra" (1961) and "Zorba the Greek" (1964), the latter of which won him an Oscar. Lassally has done likewise on a number of Ismail Merchant/James Ivory features, including "Savages" (1972), "Heat and Dust" (1983) and "The Bostonians" (1984). He has continued bringing his beautifully clear and crisp style and his commitment to small-scale, independent international filmmaking, lensing such films in recent years as "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" (1991).