Eugen Schüfftan

Birth : 1893-07-21, Breslau, Silesia, Germany [now Wroclaw, Dolnoslaskie, Poland]

Death : 1977-09-06

History

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Eugen Schüfftan (21 July 1893, Breslau, Silesia, Germany, now Wroclaw, Poland – 6 September 1977, New York City) was a German Jewish cinematographer. He invented the Schüfftan process, a special effects technique that employed mirrors to insert actors into miniature sets. One of the first uses of the process was for Metropolis (1927), directed by Fritz Lang. The technique was widely used throughout the first half of the 20th century until it was supplanted by the travelling matte and bluescreen techniques. Schüfftan won the 1962 Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White for his work on the film The Hustler.

Movies

Chappaqua
Camera Operator
Semi-autobiographical story of Conrad Rooks, who travels to France to undergo a drug-withdrawal cure. Flashbacks to the beginings of psychedelia in San Fran. Though initially confusing, as Rooks blends drug-illusion with reality, and cuts color with black-and-white and monochrome tinted shots, "Chappaqua" is conventionally constructed with a beginning, middle, and end.
The Doctor Speaks Out
Director of Photography
A serious Swiss melodrama/documentary about abortion, marketed as a sexy exploitation movie in the US. The film contains real medical footage.
Three Rooms in Manhattan
Director of Photography
When his wife leaves him, a young French actor, François Combe, moves to New York to work for a television company. One evening, he meets an attractive young woman, Kay Larsi, in a bar.
The Big Scare
Director of Photography
Two police inspectors Triquet and Vergus launch their investigations to arrest a dangerous escaped forger named Mickey Le Bénedictin.
Lilith
Director of Photography
Vincent Bruce, a war veteran, begins working as an occupational therapist at Poplar Lodge, a private psychiatric facility for wealthy people where he meets Lilith Arthur, a charming young woman suffering from schizophrenia, whose fragile beauty captivates all who meet her.
The Virgins
Cinematography
The story of five girls that lose their virginity.
Something Wild
Director of Photography
A young rape victim tries desperately to pick up the pieces of her life, only to find herself at the mercy of a would-be rescuer.
The Hustler
Director of Photography
Fast Eddie Felson is a small-time pool hustler with a lot of talent but a self-destructive attitude. His bravado causes him to challenge the legendary Minnesota Fats to a high-stakes match.
Eyes Without a Face
Director of Photography
Dr. Génessier is riddled with guilt after an accident that he caused disfigures the face of his daughter, the once beautiful Christiane, who outsiders believe is dead. Dr. Génessier, along with accomplice and laboratory assistant Louise, kidnaps young women and brings them to the Génessier mansion. After rendering his victims unconscious, Dr. Génessier removes their faces and attempts to graft them on to Christiane's.
Head Against the Wall
Director of Photography
An aimless young man is committed to a psychiatric hospital by his father in an attempt to cure him of his delinquent tendencies.
The Bloody Brood
Director of Photography
Two beatniks get their kicks by dealing drugs and violence.
La première nuit
Director of Photography
A residential area schoolboy discovers the odd universe of the Parisian metro. At one point, he glimpses the beautiful face of a blond-haired girl. Later on, he falls asleep and possibly dreams his first love dream…
Una parigina a Roma
Director of Photography
Riccardo, a brilliant pianist studying in Rome, falls in love with Germaine, a young and pretty French tourist.
Ulysses
Special Effects
A movie adaptation of Homer's second epic, that talks about Ulysses' efforts to return to his home after the end of ten years of war.
The Venus of Tivoli
Cinematography
Unemployed and homeless actors following the dream of finding the future in South America. The manager Osvaldo Curtis tricks the group of colorful and failed artists to apply for a special visa overseas.
Mina de Vanghel
Director of Photography
A romantic German girl is brought to France. After an interlude with an old roue, she falls in love with a simple, but married, man. She goes to work for him as a servant, but after a night of love with him, she commits suicide.
The Crimson Curtain
Director of Photography
A twenty year old Anouk Aimée stars as Albertine, the daughter of a bourgeois couple who house a young officer during the Napoleonic wars. Newly promoted, the officer (Jean-Claude Pascal) is quartered by a dull bourgeois couple who treat him with a cold politeness bordering on indifference.
The Respectful Prostitute
Director of Photography
Fred, the nephew of a senator,has murdered a Black man on a train. The two only witnesses are Lizzie McKay, a prostitute from New York, and Sidney, a colored man. Fred decides to seduce Lizzie in order to make her give false evidence according to which Sidney has attempted to rape her. The uncle also puts pressure on the young woman. After much hesitation, Lizzie finally accepts but Sidney, who has nearly got lynched, takes refuge at her home...
Gunman in the Streets
Director of Photography
An American is on the run in the streets and back alleys of France.
Women in the Night
Set Decoration
During WW2 six allied nations women at Shanghai University are arrested by the Germans accused of killing a German officer and forced to entertain the Japanese.
Women in the Night
Art Direction
During WW2 six allied nations women at Shanghai University are arrested by the Germans accused of killing a German officer and forced to entertain the Japanese.
Women in the Night
Director of Photography
During WW2 six allied nations women at Shanghai University are arrested by the Germans accused of killing a German officer and forced to entertain the Japanese.
The Strange Woman
Producer
Isaiah, a 19th-century businessman, has his eye on the beautiful and very young Jenny. Finally of age, she accepts his marriage proposal, but their love affair quickly turns sour. Ephraim, Isaiah's college-age son, comes for a visit, immediately striking up a chemistry with Jenny. She promises marriage -- if he murders his father first. But Jenny also swoons for John, the fiancé of her best friend, Meg.
The Dark Mirror
Visual Effects
A sister and her disturbed twin are implicated in a murder and a police detective must figure out which one's the killer.
A Scandal in Paris
Production Supervisor
A smooth-talking French thief wangles his way into an important position as prefect of police.
A Scandal in Paris
Director of Photography
A smooth-talking French thief wangles his way into an important position as prefect of police.
Club Havana
Director of Photography
A doctor answers a suicide call in a Latin nightclub.
Bluebeard
Production Design
Young female models are being strangled. Will law enforcement be able to stop the crime wave before more women become victims?
Bluebeard
Director of Photography
Young female models are being strangled. Will law enforcement be able to stop the crime wave before more women become victims?
Summer Storm
Director of Photography
It's a tale of power and passions when a Russian siren, who wants the finer things in life, sinks her hooks into a judge, a decadent aristocrat and an estate superintendent, with surprising results.
It Happened Tomorrow
Technical Supervisor
A young turn-of-the-century newspaper man finds he can get hold of the next day's paper. This brings more problems than fortune, especially as his new girlfriend is part of a phony clairvoyant act.
It Happened Tomorrow
Director of Photography
A young turn-of-the-century newspaper man finds he can get hold of the next day's paper. This brings more problems than fortune, especially as his new girlfriend is part of a phony clairvoyant act.
Voice in the Wind
Technical Advisor
Former concert pianist, victim of Nazi torture, pursues a confused, melancholic existence on the island of Guadalupe.
Hitler's Madman
Director of Photography
In 1942, a young paratrooper in the RAF returns to Czechoslovakia to encourage his fellow countrymen to sabotage the German war effort.
There's No Tomorrow
Director of Photography
Evelyne, a woman of bourgeois origin, now reduced to dancing in a sleazy nightclub, is reunited with her first love, who has become a successful doctor.
The Emigrant
Director of Photography
Fearing a gangster's vengeance,his moll sails away to South Africa ,where many emigrants intend to work in the mines there.
The Shanghai Drama
Director of Photography
A Russian emigrant sings in a Shanghai nightclub under the assumed name of Kay Murphy. All she dreams of is a peaceful life with her daughter Vera. But this is only a pipe dream as she has been forced by her former lover Ivan to work for a secret criminal organization, "The Black Dragon". Vera, who studies in a Hong Kong boarding-school, knows nothing about her mother's past. When Ivan, who is also Vera's father, resurfaces and blackmails Kay, the young woman is determined to fight back...
Port of Shadows
Director of Photography
Down a foggy, desolate road to the port city of Le Havre travels Jean, an army deserter looking for another chance to make good on life. Fate, however, has a different plan for him, as acts of both revenge and kindness render him front-page news.
Hatred
Director of Photography
Captain Justin Mollenard works for a company that sells armaments to the Far East. After an eventful stay in Shanghai, where he and his cargo are the victim of a malicious attack, he returns to his hometown of Dunkirk. Mollenard receives a frosty welcome from his wife Mathilde, who resents the way in which he has neglected his family for so many years. Mollenard’s only wish is to get back to sea as soon as he can, but a sudden heart-attack leaves him paralysed and entirely in his wife’s power...
Forfaiture
Cinematography
Denise Moret joins her husband, Pierre, in Mongolia where he works as a civil engineer. One night she loose a lot of money ont eh roulette and therefore is forced to borrow money from Prince Lee-Lang. The Prince immediately begins to flirt and make advances towards Denise. Advances she rejects.
Bizarre, Bizarre
Director of Photography
A French farce set in Victorian London where a botanist and his wife get into trouble when they pretend to go missing in order to hide from their sanctimonious cousin - an Anglican bishop who is leading a campaign against such writing.
Yoshiwara
Director of Photography
Based on a novel by Maurice Dekobra, the film is set in the Yoshiwara, the red-light district of Tokyo, in the nineteenth century. It depicts a love triangle between a high-class prostitute, a Russian naval officer, and a rickshaw man.
Street of Shadows
Director of Photography
A slippery femme fatale, a spy for Germany during the Great War, is sent to Thessaloniki in Greece and becomes involved with a man on the other side, a French military officer.
The Trouble with Money
Director of Photography
Respected banker Karel Brand is seen as a marketable emblem of probity. When he loses 350,000 guilders, his reputation is tarnished – without the respect attached to it, he loses his job. Brand becomes unemployable, and his creditors suddenly start calling in their debts. His young daughter Willy suffers the same fate.
The Tender Enemy
Director of Photography
Line, annette's daughter, is about to marry a man she's not in love with. At the engagement party three ghosts revisit their disastrous relationships with Annette and decide to take action to help Line.
The Invader
Director of Photography
A bumbling yachtsman sails to the South of Spain with a fiery seductress, only to become the pawn in her dangerous game of love.
The Slump Is Over
Director of Photography
A provincial tour fails without money in an abandoned theater in the capital and puts on a review under the sign of optimism.
Le Scandale
Director of Photography
A woman suffers ill repute when she deserts her husband for a fling with an adventurer and gives the lover jewelry to pay the hotel bill. Will the husband be understanding and forgive her?
High and Low
Cinematography
The intersecting lives of neighbors in a courtyard apartment building in Vienna,including a football player related to the concierge,a new blonde maid hired by the wife of a baron,whom both the athlete and a baron flirt with,and a deadbeat tenant who fakes his suicide.
Unsichtbare Gegner
Director of Photography
The Oil Sharks
Director of Photography
The plot revolves around an oil swindle in a South American country.
L'Atlantide
Director of Photography
Antinea, the Queen of Atlantis, rules her secret kingdom hidden beneath the Sahara Desert. One day two lost explorers stumble into her kingdom, and soon realize that they haven't really been saved-- Antinea has a habit of taking men as lovers, then when she's done with them, she kills them and keeps them mummified.
Into the Blue
Director
A recent rediscovery, master cinematographer Schüfftan’s only film as a director is a free-spirited, fast-paced ode to being young, free, hopeful... and completely broke.
I'd Rather Have Cod Liver Oil
Director of Photography
Each evening, before saying their prayers, some children swallow their cod liver oil. One evening, the youngest child makes a daring request in his prayer.
The Scoundrel
Director
The Scoundrel
Director of Photography
Popular tune
Cinematography
Film by Lupu Pick.
Farewell
Director of Photography
Hella lives in a boarding house and has various romantic adventures before settling down with vacuum cleaner salesman Winkler.
People on Sunday
Director of Photography
A semi-documentary experimental 1930 German silent film created by amateurs with a small budget. With authentic scenes of the metropolis city of Berlin, it's the first film from the later famous screenwriters/directors Billy Wilder and Fred Zinnemann.
Napoleon
Special Effects
A biopic of Napoleon Bonaparte, tracing the Corsican's career from his schooldays (where a snowball fight is staged like a military campaign) to his flight from Corsica, through the French Revolution (where a real storm is intercut with a political storm) and the Terror, culminating in his triumphant invasion of Italy in 1797. Originally intended to be the first of six films, director Abel Gance realized the full project would be nigh impossible, and never raised the money to complete the other five. The film's legendary reputation is due to the astonishing range of techniques that Gance uses to tell his story, culminating in the final twenty-minute triptych sequence, which alternates widescreen panoramas with complex multiple- image montages projected simultaneously on three screens.
Napoleon
Visual Effects Supervisor
A biopic of Napoleon Bonaparte, tracing the Corsican's career from his schooldays (where a snowball fight is staged like a military campaign) to his flight from Corsica, through the French Revolution (where a real storm is intercut with a political storm) and the Terror, culminating in his triumphant invasion of Italy in 1797. Originally intended to be the first of six films, director Abel Gance realized the full project would be nigh impossible, and never raised the money to complete the other five. The film's legendary reputation is due to the astonishing range of techniques that Gance uses to tell his story, culminating in the final twenty-minute triptych sequence, which alternates widescreen panoramas with complex multiple- image montages projected simultaneously on three screens.
Metropolis
Visual Effects
In a futuristic city sharply divided between the rich and the poor, the son of the city's mastermind meets a prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
Manon Lescaut
Additional Photography
A French adventurer fights to save a woman in the life of prostitution.