Nicholas Ray
FilmmakerKnown for: Rebel Without a Cause (1955), In a Lonely Place (1950)
Nicholas Ray directed They Live by Night (1948), In a Lonely Place (1950), and Johnny Guitar (1954) before Rebel Without a Cause (1955) made him the director most identified with postwar American adolescent alienation. His films are characterized by a command of widescreen CinemaScope composition — he was among the first directors to exploit the format's potential for psychological staging — and by a sympathy with characters who cannot find a place in the social world. Jean-Luc Godard dedicated Pierrot le Fou to him with the line "Nicholas Ray is cinema."
Gear & Materials(1)
Panavision
The Panaflex Gold is a 35mm motion picture camera produced by Panavision, a company that manufactures equipment exclusively for rental to productions. Its near-silent operation and compatibility with Panavision's proprietary anamorphic and spherical lens systems made it a standard for Hollywood features from the 1980s onward. Christopher Nolan and many other directors continue to use Panavision equipment for productions shot on film.
“Ray was among the earliest directors to exploit CinemaScope and widescreen anamorphic composition as psychological tools rather than novelties; his films "Johnny Guitar" (1954), "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955), and "Bigger Than Life" (1956) used the wide frame to isolate figures against architecture and landscape in ways that anticipated later directors' use of Panavision. His widescreen practice is discussed in Bernard Eisenschitz's "Nicholas Ray: An American Journey" (1993).”
Know something Nicholas Ray uses that's not listed?
Log in to submit
