Stanley Cortez

Cortez was born Stanislaus Samuel Kranz in New York City in 1908, to a family of Austrian Jewish emigrants.^[5] His younger brother was actor Ricardo Cortez (born Jacob Krantz), and Cortez would adopt that surname as an adult to capitalize on his brother's fame. He graduated from New York University, and initially worked in portrait photography.^[5]

He was designer of elegant sets for several portrait photographers' studios (including that of Edward Steichen),^[5] which may have influenced his strong spatial awareness and ability to effectively use camera movement: a strong feeling for space and an ability to move his camera through that space in such a way as to embody it in film's two-dimensional format.^[6]

Cortez's first job in the film industry was for Pathé News,^[5] which later allowed him to give his films a newsreel-like touch when necessary. During the 1920s and the early 1930s, he worked his way up the usual Hollywood cameraman ladder: camera assistant, camera operator, and cinematographer. He managed to work for some of the great Hollywood cameramen, among them Karl Struss, Charles Rosher, and Arthur C. Miller. On the side, Cortez managed to do an experimental film, Scherzo (1932), that drew on the techniques of Slavko Vorkapić; the short has been described as a "symphony of light" by some critics."^[who?] He joined the American Society of Cinematographers in 1933.^[5]

Cortez's early films often involved unconventional subjects, providing opportunities for experimentation. He often employed experimental techniques to enhance the visual appeal of his films. In The Forgotten Woman (1939) he did an extreme close-up of the actress's eyes to create a sense of seeing into her mind. Then Cortez had a big chance to work with Orson Welles on The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). Cortez saw the set for the film before being appointed the first cameraman. His spatial sense told him that shooting the film within these sets would be a tremendous challenge. Cortez's work on the film utilized his expertise in navigating studio space, a skill that was integral to its visual storytelling.^{[citation needed]} Some of Cortez's work on The Magnificent Ambersons was reportedly edited out during post-production.^{[citation needed]} During World War II, Cortez served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps.^[7][8]

In his later years, Cortez filmed several psychological dramas. In Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman (1947), Cortez used flashing lights placed inside the camera to create a sense of drunkenness.^{[citation needed]} Charles Laughton gave Cortez another challenge – The Night of the Hunter. The film has been widely praised for its innovative use of lighting and cinematography, and Cortez managed to endow the camera movements with a musical quality. In The Three Faces of Eve (1957), Cortez found his actress: Joanne Woodward would be to him what Greta Garbo was to William H. Daniels and Marlene Dietrich to Lee Garmes. Cortez's subtle modulations of lighting match Woodward's equally subtle changes of expression, and both together create the sense of Eve, a psychologically split personality, becoming someone else. In Samuel Fuller's 1963 film Shock Corridor, the labyrinthine hallways and rooms of the studio set are transformed by Cortez's camera into a symbol of incarceration and insanity. Fuller used Cortez again on The Naked Kiss and sought him for The Big Red One in 1978 but the producer Gene Corman said the low-budget film couldn't afford him.^[9]

Cortez started Chinatown (1974), but director Roman Polanski replaced him after a few days of shooting due to a disagreement over visual style. He was replaced by John Alonzo.^[10]

He was the President of American Society of Cinematographers from 1985 to 1986.^[4] In 1990, he received their Lifetime Achievement Award.^[11]

Cortez died in 1997 of a heart attack and is buried in Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery.^[3]