Rudolph Maté

Biography

Rudolph Maté (Kraków, 1898 – Los Angeles, 1964) was a cinematographer who became a film director. Born Rudolf Mayer, he worked in Hungary, Austria, Germany, France and the United States. He is remembered first for his silent-era camera work in Europe and then for a long Hollywood career behind the camera, before he began directing in his late forties.

After studying art at the University of Budapest, he started out as a laboratory assistant and assistant cameraman for Alexander Korda. In the mid-1920s he worked with Karl Freund on Michael (1924) and, above all, with Carl Theodor Dreyer on The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) and Vampyr (1932). Critics have admired his high-contrast lighting and his close-ups of Joan. In France he also worked with Fritz Lang and René Clair. He settled in the United States in 1935, and his photography on Dodsworth (1936) led to steady work for Samuel Goldwyn. Over the next decade he shot films such as Foreign Correspondent (1940), To Be or Not to Be (1942) and Gilda (1946), and he received five Academy Award nominations for cinematography in consecutive years.

He moved into directing at Columbia Pictures, where Harry Cohn gave him his first solo assignment with The Dark Past (1948). His style was classical and unfussy: he told stories within the established genres rather than pursuing a distinct visual signature. His best-known film is the film noir D.O.A. (1950), starring Edmond O'Brien. In the 1950s he also made Union Station, the science fiction film When Worlds Collide (1951), which earned an Honorary Academy Award for its special effects, and several westerns and adventures. His later work, including films shot in Italy and Greece in the early 1960s, was less prominent.

Maté died of a heart attack in 1964, aged 66. He is remembered on two fronts: as a cinematographer, his work with Dreyer is counted among the finest of the silent era; as a director, he is a representative figure of studio-era filmmaking, a craftsman who moved from the camera to the director's chair.

Key films

• The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and photographed by Maté, with high-contrast lighting and carefully framed close-ups.
• Vampyr (1932), by Dreyer, shot largely on location with a dreamlike look that Maté helped shape.
• Dodsworth (1936), by William Wyler, his first major Hollywood cinematography credit.
• D.O.A. (1950), his best-known film noir as a director.
• When Worlds Collide (1951), his most successful science fiction film as a director.
• To Be or Not to Be (1942), by Ernst Lubitsch, photographed by Maté.