{"id":6831,"date":"2007-07-24T08:53:01","date_gmt":"2007-07-24T12:53:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=6831"},"modified":"2013-08-30T08:16:21","modified_gmt":"2013-08-30T12:16:21","slug":"rip-la%c2%a1szla%c2%b3-kova%c2%a1cs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=6831","title":{"rendered":"R.I.P. L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Kov\u00e1cs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Renowned and influential (yet Oscar-less) cinematographer L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Kov\u00e1cs has died<\/a> – he was 74 years old.<\/p>\n

\"200px-Easyrider76.jpg\"<\/p>\n

“Oh …. I’ve got<\/i> a helmet!”<\/p>\n

\n

\"Madlin-WupT.jpg\"<\/p>\n

“As the years go by, romance fades and something else takes its place. Do you know what is<\/i>??”
\n“Senility.”
\n“Trust.”
\n“That’s what I meant.”<\/p>\n

A few of his credits:<\/p>\n

What’s Up Doc<\/em>
\nKing of Marvin Gardens<\/em>
\n5 Easy Pieces<\/em>
\nShampoo<\/em>
\nPaper Moon<\/em>
\nEasy Rider<\/em>
\nParadise Alley<\/em> (Stallone’s directorial debut – MARVELOUS movie – and marvelous LOOKING movie, which is Kovac’s doing)
\nSay Anything<\/em>
\nGhostbusters<\/em><\/p>\n

I mean – just to name a FEW.<\/p>\n

\"whatsupdoc.gif\"<\/p>\n

His early gritty days were when he first made his mark – and so his influence is enormous – but think of the look of Paper Moon compared to the look of Shampoo and you will see the unbelievable versatility and artistry of this man. Wow.<\/p>\n

\"SHAMPOO.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\n\"papermoon2.gif\"<\/p>\n

He went on to work on some of the most successful films of the 80s – where his work became slick and commercial (these are not epithets) – and please. Say Anything<\/i>. I mean, come on. But it is his work in the late 60s, early 70s, for which he will be remembered. At least by those who “know”. It was important stuff going on then – a revolution in art, an explosion of creativity and courage. The stories being told, and how they were being told … are startling, to this day. And whether or not you “like” those movies is irrelevant. It would be like discounting the influence of Joyce because you personally don’t like him. That’s an ignorant position. Kovacs was attached to many of the auteurs of the day – and you can kind of tell which movies are his. Even with his versatility. Shampoo<\/i> LOOKS like a Kovacs picture, for example. Five Easy Pieces<\/i> might be my favorite, but then – there’s the Bogdonavich classics – and how THOSE movies looked. But without Shampoo<\/i>, without Five Easy Pieces<\/i> (keep going …) – American cinema flat out would not be the same today. We would all be poorer for it.<\/p>\n

He was IT for a while. The 1970s – in the aftermath of the collapse of the studio system – brought about a lot of good, and also a lot of crap – a lot of exploded ego, and a lot of mess – but that’s to be expected, with a lessening of control. His work – his passion and ambition and just how damn GOOD he was – helped to create the look of the 1970s American movie (Hungarian-born though he was!). Helped put American cinema on the international map again, because we had been falling far behind the rest of the world, in terms of what we were putting out, and the conventions we were willing to accept and not question. Made us look shallow and uncurious. That all changed – and the way those movies look – still have a deep impact.<\/p>\n

Oh, and of course there is a Dean Stockwell connection. They were both at their hippie\/biker\/lover-o-flowers height at the same time, along with Dennis Hopper and all the others. Kovacs was cinematographer on Psych-Out<\/i><\/a> in 1968 (which is shrieking towards me, as we speak, from a Netflix facility on the eastern seaboard).<\/p>\n

\"PSYCHOUT.jpg\"<\/p>\n

And I want to make out with the dude just for working on What’s Up, Doc<\/i> alone. i mean, honest to GOD.<\/p>\n

\"whatsupDoc3.jpg\"<\/p>\n

I have some great quotes about him from a couple different books. I’ll share them later.<\/p>\n

Rest in piece Mr. Kov\u00c3\u00a1cs. And thank you.<\/p>\n

\"kovacs.jpg\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\"PaperMoon.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\n\"easyriderKovacs.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\n\"MarvinGardens.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\n\"paradise_alley.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\n\"GHOSTbusters.bmp\"<\/p>\n

\n\"SAYanything.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\n\"whatsupDoc2.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\n\"fiveeasypieces.jpg\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Renowned and influential (yet Oscar-less) cinematographer L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Kov\u00e1cs has died – he was 74 years old. “Oh …. I’ve got a helmet!” “As the years go by, romance fades and something else takes its place. Do you know what is??” … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,23],"tags":[1518],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6831"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6831"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70219,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6831\/revisions\/70219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}