The “Prince of Darkness” has faded away. Gordon Willis, so nicknamed for his masterful and iconic use of shadows in a medium supposedly based on light, has passed away at the age of 82. The director of photography of such classic films as Manhattan, All the President’s Men and The Godfather Trilogy was honored with a special Academy Award in 2009, for “unsurpassed mastery of light, shadow, color and motion.”
It was an honor richly deserved. From the opening frames of The Godfather, with the world of crime and honor emerging from inky blackness with a touch of nostalgic sepia, Gordon Willis’s breathtaking compositions emerged as some of the most indelible images in cinema. His breathtaking black and white photography in Woody Allen’s Manhattan remain not only some of the most unmistakably beautiful in the history of the medium, but to some, they are also inextricably linked with the personality the city itself.
Although Gordon Willis may not be a household name, filmlovers across the world mourn his passing. Cinema has lost one of its greatest and most influential artists.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
