{"id":55572,"date":"2026-07-15T20:12:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=55572"},"modified":"2026-07-15T20:12:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:12:53","slug":"jerusalem-international-film-festival-robert-richardson-the-white-devil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=55572","title":{"rendered":"Jerusalem International Film Festival: Robert Richardson: The White Devil"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jana Hojdov\u00e1 and Robert Richardson\/Photo courtesy of the Jerusalem International Film Festival<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As he recalls shooting Howard Hugh\u2019s (Leonardo DiCaprio) plane bursting into flames in The Aviator<\/em> (2004), cinematographer Robert Richardson muses, \u201cI lost a little bit of my eyebrow.\u201d For the legendary cinematographer, winner of three Academy Awards, taking risks is part of the job. Jana Hojdov\u00e1\u2019s documentary Robert Richardson: The White Devil<\/em>, screened at the Jerusalem International Film Festival, is a vivid portrait of the man and his work, which are inseparable, for Richardson, \u201clife is making films.\u201d Replete with scenes from his work over a 40-year career, and interviews with Richardson\u2019s close collaborators \u2013 Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese, and Quentin Tarantino – the documentary is a cinephile\u2019s delight. But it is just as compelling for the non-specialist as it places its emphasis on Richardson as an individual rather than the technical aspects of cinematography.<\/p>\n

Richardson is very open and honest in talking about his life, sharing the difficult aspects and what he views as his own failures, as well as the details of his spectacular career. Interviews with Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino are one of the film\u2019s highlights, reflecting on the relationship between director and cinematographer, candidly describing the tensions that occurred in the process of their work, as well as the admiration they have for Richardson. There is a unique aspect to the film, in which the director Hojdov\u00e1 appears as well, because the two spent three months of COVID lockdown together at Richardson\u2019s Cape Cod home, with Hojdov\u00e1 filming with her phone, and Richardson filming her as well. There is an almost familial atmosphere to some of these Cape Cod scenes, as the two converse and sometimes disagree, as when Hojdov\u00e1 says, \u201cWe will do it in a close up,\u201d and Richardson responds: \u201cNo.\u201d Richardson\u2019s home movies complete the portrait of the cinematographer as husband and father. \u00a0Yet, as he readily admits, \u201cI\u2019m deeply addicted to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richardson first became interested in film in college, when he attended a film festival dedicated to Ingmar Bergman\u2019s films, that he says, \u201cchanged my life.\u201d In a conversation that took place after the screening of the film at the festival, Hojdov\u00e1 told the audience that she first became interested in Richardson\u2019s work after seeing Natural Born Killers (1994). Hojdov\u00e1, at the time a cinematography student (she is a graduate of Prague\u2019s FAMU film school) wrote to Richardson, not knowing if the famous cinematographer would respond, and received a long and detailed answer from him, which then led to their correspondence, and eventually to the making of the documentary. Although his career is based on feature films, Robert Richardson: The White Devil reveals an affinity for documentation. In addition to the many home movies, Richardson\u2019s basement is full of photo albums, storyboards, and detailed diaries that he kept while making the movies that have made him famous. Although his career has been made behind the camera, Richardson is a fascinating protagonist in his own story.<\/p>\n

There will be two additional screenings of Robert Richardson: The White Devil at the Jerusalem International Film Festival: Friday, July 17th<\/sup> at 15:00, and Saturday, July 18th<\/sup> at 19:15. Tickets may be ordered via the festival website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As he recalls shooting Howard Hugh\u2019s (Leonardo DiCaprio) plane bursting into flames in The Aviator (2004), cinematographer Robert Richardson muses, \u201cI lost a little bit of my eyebrow.\u201d For the legendary cinematographer, winner of three Academy Awards, taking risks is part of the job. Jana Hojdov\u00e1\u2019s documentary Robert Richardson: The White Devil, screened at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":55573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[100,96,690,683,691],"class_list":["post-55572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-festival","tag-film","tag-jana-hojdova","tag-jerusalem-international-film-festival","tag-robert-richardson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55572"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55574,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55572\/revisions\/55574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}