Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows FanStore News Showtimes

Caleb Deschanel

Highest Rated: 96% The Right Stuff (1983)

Lowest Rated: 7% Dream House (2011)

Birthday: Sep 21, 1944

Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Acclaimed as a superior color cinematographer, Caleb Deschanel began his career shooting the stunning John Cassavetes film "A Woman Under the Influence" (1974). The Philadelphia native studied at USC and the American Film Institute and with Gordon Willis before embarking on his career. While working as a director of photography, Deschanel also shot several short films (including the prize-winning "Trains" 1976), documentaries and TV commercials. He received widespread acclaim for two 1979 features, Carroll Ballard's "The Black Stallion" and Hal Ashby's "Being There." In the former, Deschanel's lyric cinematography and almost fauvistic use of strong, pure color, captured the budding "love story" between Kelly Reno and the horse, (making the texture of Picasso's less vivid "A Boy and His Horse" seemingly come alive). The film is often cited as one of (if not THE) most beautifully lensed of the 70s; its pictorial beauty greater, perhaps, than the narrative. "Being There" was in many ways an opposite canvas, in which the dialogue had prominence, yet the look of the feature was just as lyric, but with diffused color so as not to offset the eccentric reality the film was trying to uncover. Deschanel earned back-to-back Oscar nods for his work on Philip Kaufman's paean to the space program, "The Right Stuff" (1983) and Barry Levinson's period baseball drama "The Natural" (1984). The latter used light as a force, an almost overblown imagery that unsettles the audience, leaving it to question the reality within the narrative yet at the same time, providing a melodic sensibility to baseball, a game to which words have paid homage, but films have rarely been able to put into equally poetic pictures.

Show Less Show More

Highest rated movies

96% 90% The Right Stuff
Watchlist
95% 92% Being There
Watchlist
95% 85% Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography
Watchlist
91% 83% The Black Stallion
Watchlist
89% 91% A Woman Under the Influence Watchlist
88% 70% Fly Away Home
Watchlist
85% 86% Friedkin Uncut Watchlist
83% 88% The Natural
Watchlist
81% 63% The Spiderwick Chronicles Watchlist
80% 63% The Escape Artist
Watchlist

Filmography

Movies

Credit
No Score Yet No Score Yet Wildwood Cinematographer - 2024
51% 88% The Lion King Cinematographer $543.6M 2019
85% 86% Friedkin Uncut Self - 2018
77% 87% Never Look Away Cinematographer $1.3M 2018
29% 33% Unforgettable Cinematographer $11.3M 2017
56% 34% Rules Don't Apply Cinematographer $3.6M 2016
12% 44% Winter's Tale Cinematographer $12.6M 2014
64% 67% Jack Reacher Cinematographer $54.6M 2012
34% 50% Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Cinematographer $37.5M 2012
80% 61% Killer Joe Cinematographer $2.0M 2011
7% 36% Dream House Cinematographer $21.3M 2011
47% 72% My Sister's Keeper Cinematographer $49.2M 2009
38% 28% Killshot Cinematographer $17.0K 2009
81% 63% The Spiderwick Chronicles Cinematographer $71.1M 2008
36% 41% Ask the Dust Cinematographer $742.6K 2006
46% 76% National Treasure Cinematographer $173.0M 2004
50% 80% The Passion of the Christ Cinematographer $371.4M 2004
30% 46% The Hunted Cinematographer $34.2M 2003
62% 81% The Patriot Cinematographer $113.3M 2000
52% 64% Anna and the King Cinematographer - 1999
32% 66% Message in a Bottle Cinematographer $52.8M 1999
27% 72% Hope Floats Cinematographer $60.0M 1998
88% 70% Fly Away Home Cinematographer $24.6M 1996
73% 54% It Could Happen to You Cinematographer $37.8M 1994
95% 85% Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography Unknown (Character) - 1993
62% 44% Crusoe Director - 1988
83% 88% The Natural Cinematographer - 1984
96% 90% The Right Stuff Cinematographer - 1983
80% 63% The Escape Artist Director - 1982
No Score Yet 63% Let's Spend the Night Together Cinematographer - 1982
20% 33% More American Graffiti Cinematographer - 1979
95% 92% Being There Cinematographer - 1979
91% 83% The Black Stallion Cinematographer - 1979
89% 91% A Woman Under the Influence Cinematographer - 1974
No Score Yet No Score Yet Rodeo Cinematographer - 1969

TV

Credit
90% 83% Bones Director 2007
22% 79% Conviction Director 2006
78% 92% Twin Peaks Director 1990-1991