| Birth date | 15 September 1940 (age 86) |
|---|---|
| Birth place | Kington, Herefordshire, England |
| Occupation | Cinematographer, film director |
| Years active | 1959–2019 |
| Father | Herbert Menges |
| Relatives | Isolde Menges (aunt) |
Christopher J. Menges[1] BSC, ASC (born 15 September 1940) is an English cinematographer and film director.
He has won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for The Killing Fields (1984) and for The Mission (1986).
Early life
Menges was born in Kington, Herefordshire in 1940, the son of the composer and conductor Herbert Menges.[2] His paternal grandfather, George, was a German emigrant to the United Kingdom.[1] He was introduced to filmmaking as a teenager by his neighbour, documentarian Alan Forbes, and worked as his assistant for several years.
Menges cites Roberto Rossellini, Italian neorealism, Free Cinema, and the Czechoslovak New Wave as influences.[3]
Career
Menges began his career in the 1960s as camera operator for documentaries by Adrian Cowell. From 1961 to 1962, he worked for CBC Television's documentary division under Allan King.[1] In 1963, he joined ITV Granada's news programme World in Action, where he was a cameraman for conflict reporting, including the Vietnam War, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the Angolan War of Independence, the Algerian War, and the Zanzibar Revolution.[3]
Back in Britain, Menges was a camera operator for feature films including Poor Cow and If..... Kes was his first film as cinematographer. Menges was also behind the camera on Stephen Frears's first feature film Gumshoe in 1971.
After several documentaries and feature films, Menges became notable for more ambitious works, for which he was critically acclaimed.
Menges also worked in the Star Wars entry The Empire Strikes Back, in 2nd unit photography[3]
In 1983, Menges received his first BAFTA nomination for the film Local Hero, and only a year later won his first Academy Award for the film The Killing Fields about the genocide in Cambodia. He continued his work with helmer Roland Joffe, and Menges won his second Oscar in 1986 with the historical drama The Mission. He also shot a television play titled Made in Britain, in 1983.
In 1988, Menges made his directorial debut with A World Apart, a biopic based on the life of South African anti-apartheid activist Ruth First and Joe Slovo. This film was celebrated at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival and won three major awards.[4]
His second film as director, CrissCross, received critical acclaim, but was a box-office flop. In 1996 he moved back behind the camera to shoot the award-winning films The Boxer and Michael Collins. For the latter, he received his third Academy Award nomination in 1997.
Menges also made documentaries. In the early 1970s, he went to Burma with British film maker Adrian Cowell to shoot The Opium Warlords, a film about the drug trade. After the release of the documentary in 1974, the Burmese government was said to have put a price on their heads. Menges is mentioned in the book Conversations with Cinematographers by David A. Ellis, published by Scarecrow Press.
Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd credits Menges as an influence.[1]
Filmography
Cinematographer
Short film
| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | The War Game | Mai Zetterling | With Brian Probyn |
| 1968 | Solo | Misha Donat | |
| 1981 | Couples and Robbers | Clare Peploe |
Feature film
Documentary works
| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | Raid into Tibet | Adrian Cowell | Documentary short |
| 1968 | Abel Gance: The Charm of Dynamite | Kevin Brownlow | |
| 1969 | Wild and Free Twice Daily | Himself | |
| 1969 | Assignment Vietnam | Richard Taylor | Documentary short |
| 1971 | Talk About Work | Ken Loach | |
| The Save the Children Fund Film | |||
| 1981 | East 103rd Street | Himself | |
| 1984 | Which Side Are You On? | Ken Loach | With Jimmy Dibling |
| 1987 | Warlords of the Golden Triangle | Adrian Cowell Wai-Chuen Yung | |
| 2003 | Concert for George | David Leland | |
| 2019 | Voice of Land | Henrique Bouduard |
Director
Documentary film
- Wild and Free Twice Daily (1969)
- East 103rd Street (1981) (Also producer)
Feature film
- A World Apart (1988)
- CrissCross (1992)
- Second Best (1993)
- The Lost Son (1999)
Awards and nominations
References
- ^ "CHRIS MENGES". www.cinematographers.nl. Archived 2021-01-27 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-12-31.
- ^ "Chris Menges Biography (1940-)". www.filmreference.com. Archived 1 April 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
- ^ Pennington, Adrian (2021-05-06). "Chris Menges BSC ASC". British Cinematographer. Retrieved 2025-12-31.
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: A World Apart". festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on 20 August 2011. Retrieved 2009-07-26.
- ^ https://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/search/results
- ^ "Awards Search". Bafta. Retrieved 2025-12-31.
- ^ https://bscine.com/media/uploads/Awards/bsc-cinematography-feature-film.pdf?v=1767148124
- ^ https://bscine.com/media/uploads/Awards/bsc-lifetime-achievement-award.pdf?v=1767148124