Beauty Break: The work of Allen Daviau (1942-2020)
Thursday, April 16, 2020 at 10:05PM 
on the set of Empire of the Sun (1987) with Christian Baleby Nathaniel R
The film industry has lost another major talent to the coronavirus. Five time Oscar nominated cinematographer Allen Daviau has passed away at age 77 from complications from COVID-19. The acclaimed director of photography was born in New Orleans but grew up in Los Angeles so he was close to the movies before making them.
He met Steven Spielberg in the 1960s and worked with him before either of them had ever had a Hollywood gig on the short film Amblin' which Spielberg's production company was later named for. Though Daviau was never particularly prolific and retired from the cinema in 2004 he left behind beautiful pictures and was honored with a liftetime achievement award from the American Society of Cinematographers in 2007. Let's celebrate that fine eye after the jump with some of his work...
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982) - Oscar nomination
The Falcon and the Snowman (1985)
The Color Purple (1985) - Oscar nomination
Empire of the Sun (1987) - Oscar nomination, ASC win, BAFTA win
Avalon (1990) - Oscar nomination
Bugsy (1991) - Oscar nomination, ASC win
Fearless (1993)
What was your favourite film of his and don't you wish they'd given him an Honorary Oscar?
Reader Comments (22)
Fearless
Just beautiful
Spielberg's films owe so much to his world-class DPs: Kaminski, Slocombe, Daviau. EMPIRE OF THE SUN is just phenomenal - too bad it was the same year Storaro had THE LAST EMPEROR!
Think he has a shout for Empire of the Sun, and the two first shots yoi posted from E.T...the second shot is as famous as any shot is ever likely to be. He should have won there.
As much as I love JFK and Robert Richardson's work there, Bugsy has always been my choice. It's lush, beautiful and handsomely evocative of its handsome world. It looks beautiful and transfixed on its subject, perfectly.
E.T. I think is the best film he shot though I think Empire of the Sun features his best work as a photographer.
The Color Purple and ET are my favorite of his.
Fearless came to mind as soon as I saw Allen Daviau's name. There are more prestigious films listed here -- and others like Defending Your Life and Congo -- but Fearless stands out to me.
It's probably because Peter Weir films are always visually interesting. John Seale photographed most of them, and he's no slouch either.
Allen Daviau passed without an honorary Oscar.
Please follow the link to sign a petition addressed to the AMPAS Board of Governors to award esteemed actress Liv Ullmann an honorary Oscar this year.
https://www.petitions.net/award_liv_...honorary_oscar
Spread the word. We want a strong voice.
Stunning work. While the E.T. moon shot is iconic, the one you shared of the three kids is equally masterful. Also the shot with Celine and Shug reading the letters in The Color Purple. I don’t remember much of the characters or the storyline of Empire of the Sun but the images have stayed with me.
Both Fearless and Empire of the Sun were gorgeously shot.
But the two memorable films (for me) that Allen Daviau shot were:
Defending Your Life which is a film no one discusses anymore and which features Meryl Streep at her most accessible, fun, and what I consider her best performance. I love the artistic choices Daviau made in showing the afterlife and how it mimics present-day (1990s) life. Meryl, Albert Brooks, Lee Grant, Buck Henry, and especially Rip Torn were all great in it.
The other is Amblin' (25 minutes) which Daviau shot in 1968, with Spielberg. In one of his rare public appearances he said that cinematography is not about beautiful shots (although he was an exemplar in that area too) but how it tells and narrates the story effectively even without words/voice-overs. Amblin chronicles a story of two drifters who wordlessly conveyed how they became partners in the deserted wilderness, get entangled with each other, with other people they encountered, and how the search for beauty can be intensely personal. Daviau's sui generis shots were inventive and with just spare musical score he told a poignant story of two lost people finding a place in the midst of placelessness. (Look this film up, I think it is still available online).
My favorite of his is "The Color Purple", those stills you excerpted are eye-poppingly gorgeous, as is the whole movie. Beautiful compositions of the actors and the surrounding landscape.
James - Maybe a private email to Nathaniel as he has contact with Anne Dowd, Melanie Lynsey, Dana Delaney and likely a couple more fairly Hollywood folks. He does like to play humble and pretend his situation is the same as fifteen years ago, but he is high up in the pundit world, and once you’re annually in the same room as A-listers for any reason that counts for something.
My mind went straight to the purple field in The Color Purple.
Extraordinary work also in Empire of the Sun and Avalon.
A talented man with an eye for the gorgeous vista.
Me -- 1991 was so stacked for cinematography. I admire the work on JFK a lot as well butI would have been torn between Bugsy (for the reasons you state) and Thelma & Louise... talk about gorgeous vista and th ability to light a movie star (x2 ) superbly and in evocative ways.
The Color Purple should have won cinematography, score and song. It's so silly it went empty handed.
And how many COVID-19 deceases related we have now in the industry?
Looking back, I'd say he should've triumphed for both E.T. and THE COLOR PURPLE.
I would have given him the Honorary Oscar. Absolutely. It's too late for him, Ballhaus, Di Palma and other greats, but we still got time for Giuseppe Rotunno or Caleb Deschanel.
A very good cinematographer and it's a shame (for us) that he didn't work more.
His work in E.T. crackles on the screen. I can almost smell the night air.
I've got to say, I think his shooting of The Color Purple is one of the film's drawbacks. it detracts from the subject matter.
Empire of the Sun is a stunner, cinematography-wise. Yes, a pity he came up against The Last Emperor that year. The latter is a film I love - but I might have been tempted to give the win to Daviau. The crowd scenes are so epic.
Bugsy is beautiful-looking but yes, 1991 was a great year for cinematography. As well as the two Nathaniel mentions, Terminator 2 and The Price of Tides were also terrific. I think I'd have given it to Thelma & Louise, but boy is it close.
R.I.P. Allen Daviau.
Gorgeous shots!
I feel like people have been talking about Defending Your Life quite a bit recently, actually. It’s on a bunch of streaming services and has become a bit of a cult classic.
Daviau had the unfortunate circumstances to be up against Oscar giants for his first four nominations (Gandhi, Out of Africa, The Last Emperor and Dances with Wolves). None of those are bad winners at least.
Great work- "The Falcon and the Snowman" is a good movie that really should be better known
You know who should have won in 1991? Tak Fujimoto for The Silence of the Lambs. It's not pretty, but it's amazing cinematography with some of the most expressive close-ups since Dreyer and a real sense of danger in the way the camera moves, like it was so scared that it had to tiptoe. Look how the camera never goes fast, even in the action sequences. It's always there, like a witness, cold feet and butterflies in the stomach. The horror is always there, in light, too. But he wasn't even nominated.