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László Kovács (cinematographer)
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László Kovács, A.S.C. (May 14, 1933 – July 22, 2007) was a Hungarian cinematographer who was influential in the development of American New Wave films. Most famous for his award-winning work on Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces, Kovacs was the recipient of numerous awards, including three Lifetime Achievement Awards. He was an active member of the American Society of Cinematographers and was member of the organization's board of directors.
in Cece, Hungary, Kovács studied cinema at the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest between 1952 and 1956.
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Encyclopedia
László Kovács, A.S.C. (May 14, 1933 – July 22, 2007) was a Hungarian cinematographer who was influential in the development of American New Wave films. Most famous for his award-winning work on Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces, Kovacs was the recipient of numerous awards, including three Lifetime Achievement Awards. He was an active member of the American Society of Cinematographers and was member of the organization's board of directors.
Early life
Born in Cece, Hungary, Kovács studied cinema at the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest between 1952 and 1956. Together with Vilmos Zsigmond, a fellow student and lifelong friend, Kovács secretly filmed the day-to-day development of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution on black and white 35mm film, using an Arriflex camera borrowed from their school. In November of that year, they smuggled the of film into Austria to have it developed, and they arrived in the United States in March 1957 to sell the footage. By that time, however, the revolution was no longer considered newsworthy and it was not until some years later, in 1961, that it was screened on the CBS television network, in a documentary narrated by Walter Cronkite.
Kovács settled in the United States, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1963. He worked at several manual labor jobs, including making maple syrup and printing microfilm documents in an insurance office, before making several "no-budget" and "low-budget" films with Vilmos Zsigmond, including The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies.
Film career
Kovacs' breakthrough came with the Academy Award-nominated 1969 film Easy Rider, starring and directed by Dennis Hopper. Kovács was reluctant to work on this film at first, having already worked on a number of B movie biker films, such as Hells Angels on Wheels. Hopper ultimately convinced Kovács that this film would be different and Kovacs signed on as the film's director of photography. He earned 2nd place for the Best Cinematographer Golden Laurel at the 1970 Laurel Awards. In 1970, he again worked with Hopper on the film The Last Movie. That same year, Kovács filmed the Academy Award-nominated film Five Easy Pieces, for which he received the 3rd place Golden Laurel for Best Cinematographer.
Kovács filmed more than 70 motion pictures. Among these were six films for director Peter Bogdanovich: Targets, What's Up, Doc?, Paper Moon, At Long Last Love, Nickelodeon, and Mask. Bogdanovich worked with Kovács more times than any other cinematographer.
Other notable films Kovács photographed include For Pete's Sake, Shampoo, New York, New York, Ghostbusters, Say Anything, Radio Flyer, My Best Friend's Wedding, and Miss Congeniality. He also did additional photography on acclaimed, classic films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Last Waltz.
When working on The Last Waltz, camera operators were instructed to turn their cameras off on different intervals, in order to save battery life. One of these instances was during Muddy Waters's set, but Waters's outstanding performance led director Martin Scorsese to spontaneously change his mind, and ordered all cameras to be turned on. Because the cameras took several minutes to fully warm up, most caught only the last few bars of Waters's performance. Kovács, however, either did not hear or disregarded orders to shut down his camera, and was the only cameraperson on set who managed to film Waters's entire performance. Because of this happy accident, not only does Waters's set survive on film, but it also is shot almost entirely from a single angle, thereby visually complementing the power of the performance.
Kovacs' final work appears in Torn from the Flag, a 2006 feature documentary about the 1956 Hungarian Revolution which incorporates original footage he and Zsigmond shot as film students before fleeing to the United States.
Personal life
In July 2007, Kovács died died in his sleep at his home in Beverly Hills, California. He was 74-years-old. At the time, Kovacs had been married for 23 years to his wife, Audrey. They had two daughters, Julianna and Nadia.
Awards and honors
Kovács was honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards from Camerimage (1998), WorldFest (1999), and the American Society of Cinematographers (2002). The Lifetime Achievement Award from the ASC is the organization's highest honor. In addition, Kovács received an Excellence in Cinematography Award from the 1999 Hawaii International Film Festival and a Hollywood Film Award at the 2001 Hollywood Film Festival.
The American Society of Cinematographers dedicated the 2008 Heritage Award for top student filmmakers in memory of Kovacs.
The 2008 documentary film No Subtitles Necessary: Lazlo & Vilmos explores the 50-year friendship between Kovacs and Zsigmond and their influence on filmmaking. Film critic Leonard Maltin said that, without Kovacs and fellow cinematographer Zsigmond, "the American New Wave of the late 1960s and early ‘70s wouldn’t have flowered as it did."
Further reading
- Ray Zone, New Wave King, The Cinematography of Laszlo Kovacs, ASC (2002), ASC Holding Corp., ISBN 0-935-57819-6
- Masters of Light - Conversations with cinematographers (1984) Schaefer, S & Salvato, L., ISBN 0-520-05336-2
External links
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- (2007) Carolyn Giardina,
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