Gordon Willis, who died this week, spoke with Jack Egan about his work on films including “The Godfather,” “Manhattan” and “All the President’s Men” for this 2006 career retrospective in Below the Line magazine.
Gordon Willis the cinematographer’s cinematographer, marks a milestone this month when he turns 75 on May 28. Willis was one of the most notable directors of photography in the early 1970s as part of a new wave of American moviemaking. His signal accomplishments range from his innovative use of minimal lighting and under-exposure to create mood and mystery, his consummate sense of framing, his unexcelled ability to visually underscore the narrative thrust of a film and his reinvigoration of black-and-white cinema.