Shedding light on a genius

all students of film, and of filmmaking techniques, should see this affectionate, insightful documentary about the great Italian cinematographer Carlo Di Palma, who died in 2004 aged 79, and was so respected in his native country that he, alone, was invited by the Vatican to film the restoration of the Sistine Chapel.

a working-class boy from Rome, whose mother was a flower-seller at the foot of the Spanish Steps, he started out as a focus operator on some of the great works of post-war Italian cinema.

In archive interviews, he recalls working on Michelangelo antonioni’s groundbreaking 1966 film Blow-Up, for which he insisted on painting london parks and fences a more vivid green. The English, he said, thought he was crazy.

Other directors whose films he enhanced, with his mastery of colour and light, included Woody allen. allen pops up here to recall Di Palma not only as a brilliant cinematographer, but also a lovely man who became one of his few close friends within the industry.

They worked on 11 films together, and would have lunch and dinner together every day. Clips from Hannah and Her Sisters, Radio Days and Husbands and Wives show precisely how clever Di Palma was with the camera.

a French colleague says, rather charmingly, that he had a unique ability to ‘sculpt’ the light.

The work of great cinematographers is sometimes overlooked by audiences, who credit the director instead. This heartwarming film sets the record straight.