Chris Menges Filmography

Born:: September 15, 1940 in Herefordshire, England
Occupation:: Director, Cinematographer
Biography:: British-born Chris Menges worked his way up from the editing room to documentary cameraman, earning the respect of his peers through his willingness to film in perilous locations under near-impossible circumstances. This may be why Menges evinced no fear of formidable director Lindsay Anderson...Read More

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The Visitor

Crew: Assistant Location Manager

Actors: Richard Jenkins, Hiam Abbass, Haaz Sleiman, Danai Gurira, Marian Seldes

Synopsis: A lonesome widower and college economics professor finds his mundane existence suddenly shaken up when he befriends a pair of illegal immigrants, one of whom has recently been threatened with deportation by U.S. immigration authorities, in the sophomore feature from The Station Agent director Tom McCarthy Read More

4/11/08
Stop-Loss

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Ryan Phillippe, Abbie Cornish, Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ciarán Hinds

Synopsis: After serving his tour of duty in Iraq, a young American soldier who is ordered to return to the front lines as part of the military's controversial stop-loss policy opts instead to go AWOL in a thought-provoking military drama directed by Kimberly Peirce. Sgt. Brandon King (Ryan Philippe) is a Read More

3/28/08
The Yellow Handkerchief

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: William Hurt, Maria Bello, Kristen Stewart, Eddie Redmayne

Synopsis: A band of outsiders takes to the highways in this touching independent drama. Brett (William Hurt) is a petty criminal who is eager to turn his life around after spending six years in jail. Brett is looking for a ride home to Louisiana, and happens upon a pair of teenagers up for a road trip Read More

2008
Notes on a Scandal

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, Bill Nighy, Andrew Simpson, Phil Davis

Synopsis: Lust, jealousy, and revenge come cloaked in the guise of friendship in this psychological drama. Barbara Covett (Judi Dench) is a history teacher at a high school in London; while elderly Barbara is very bright, she's also severe and domineering, with a strong personality that tends to put people Read More

12/22/06
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Tommy Lee Jones, Barry Pepper, Julio Cedillo, Dwight Yoakam, January Jones

Synopsis: Veteran screen star Tommy Lee Jones makes his directorial debut with the fractured tale of murder and injustice on the U.S.-Mexico border scripted by Amores perros and 21 Grams screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga. Mike Norton (Barry Pepper) is a fresh-faced Border Patrol officer in Cibolo County, Texas Read More

12/14/05
North Country

Crew: Camera Operator, Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator

Actors: Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Sean Bean, Richard Jenkins, Jeremy Renner, Michelle Monaghan, Woody Harrelson, Sissy Spacek

Synopsis: A fictionalized account of one of America's most groundbreaking sexual harassment lawsuits comes to the screen in this hard-hitting drama. In the late '80s, Josey Aimes (Charlize Theron) fled her abusive husband, and needed to find a way to support her two children. Aimes returned to her hometown Read More

10/21/05
Tickets

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Carlo delle Piane, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Silvana De Santis, Filippo Trojano, Carolina Benvenga

2005
Criminal

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: John C. Reilly, Diego Luna, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Peter Mullan, Jonathan Tucker

Synopsis: A con artist finds family squabbles are getting in the way of a major payday in this sharp blend of comedy and suspense, based on the Argentinean hit Nueve Reinas (aka Nine Queens). Richard Gaddis (John C. Reilly) is a smart-suited confidence man who knows how to run a big con but prefers to pull Read More

9/10/04
Concert for George

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Joe Brown, Eric Clapton, Jools Holland, Sam Brown, Jeff Lynne, George Harrison

Synopsis: Both as a member of the Beatles and as a solo artist, George Harrison was one of the best loved and most influential musicians of his generation, and when he died November 29, 2001, after a long battle with cancer, it was a tremendous blow to the many great artists who were his friends and Read More

10/3/03
The Good Thief

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Nick Nolte, Nutsa Kukhianidze, Tchéky Karyo, Saïd Taghmaoui, Gérard Darmon

Synopsis: Loosely based on Jean-Pierre Melville's French film noir Bob le Flambeur, this heist film from director Neil Jordan (Interview With the Vampire, The Crying Game) stars Nick Nolte as Bob, an aging American thief living in the French city of Nice. Addicted to both heroin and gambling, Bob is in the Read More

4/2/03
Dirty Pretty Things

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Audrey Tautou, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sergi López, Benedict Wong, Sophie Okonedo

Synopsis: Director Stephen Frears returns to the grittier themes of his earlier films for the urban thriller Dirty Pretty Things. Residing in London, the medically trained Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a Nigerian immigrant working as a taxi driver and a hotel concierge, but he still lives on the edge of Read More

12/13/02
The Pledge

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Jack Nicholson, Patricia Clarkson, Benicio Del Toro, Dale Dickey, Aaron Eckhart

Synopsis: Sean Penn directed this tense drama of loyalty, honor, and obsession, based on a novel by Friedrich Durrenmatt. Jerry Black (Jack Nicholson) is a veteran police detective who lives and works in a small Nevada town. On the day of his retirement, it falls to Jerry to handle an especially unpleasant Read More

1/19/01
The Lost Son

Crew: Director

Actors: Daniel Auteuil, Nastassja Kinski, Katrin Cartlidge, Ciarán Hinds, Marianne Denicourt

Synopsis: The Lost Son brings together talented British director Chris Menges with a well-known face of French cinema, Daniel Auteuil, who plays a detective in self-exile in London who deals mostly with cases of adultery. At the same time, he is trying to come to terms with the ghosts of his past. While Read More

1999
The Boxer

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Daniel Day-Lewis, Emily Watson, Brian Cox, Ken Stott, Gerard McSorley

Synopsis: Jim Sheridan (In the Name of the Father) directed this drama about a Belfast boxer, filmed with Dublin locations substituting for Belfast. Released after his 14-year prison sentence for IRA activities, 32-year-old Danny Flynn (Daniel Day-Lewis) returns to his old neighborhood and sees former-flame Read More

1997
Michael Collins

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Paul Hickey, Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn, Stephen Rea, Alan Rickman, Julia Roberts

Synopsis: The rise and fall of one of the most important and controversial figures in Ireland's struggle for independence is chronicled in this biographical drama. In 1916, the British government ruled Ireland with a firm and cruel hand, as they had for 700 years. When a group of Irish rebels staged a Read More

1996
Second Best

Crew: Director

Actors: William Hurt, Chris Cleary Miles, Keith Allen, Prunella Scales, Jane Horrocks

Synopsis: Actor William Hurt delivers one of his most acclaimed performances in this drama from Oscar-winning cinematographer-turned-director Chris Menges. Hurt stars as Graham Holt, a repressed Welsh postmaster who lives a reclusive bachelor's existence with his suicidal father (Alfred Lynch), who is in Read More

1994
Crisscross

Crew: Director

Actors: Goldie Hawn, Arliss Howard, James Gammon, David Arnott, Keith Carradine

Synopsis: Goldie Hawn makes a change of pace in this downbeat drama about a mother' sacrifice for her family, and her son's attempts to save her from herself. When John Cross (Keith Carradine) returns home to Key West, Florida in 1969 after a tour of duty as a fighter pilot in Viet Nam, he's an emotionally Read More

5/8/92
A World Apart

Crew: Director

Actors: Barbara Hershey, Jodhi May, Jeroen Krabbé, David Suchet, Paul Freeman

Synopsis: Cinematographer Chris Menges' first directorial effort, A World Apart was inspired by the lives of South African journalist Ruth First and her daughter Shawn Slovo (who wrote the film's screenplay). Barbara Hershey plays the fictional counterpart to Ms. First, Diana Roth, with Jodhi May as her Read More

6/17/88
High Season

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Jacqueline Bisset, James Fox, Irene Papas, Sebastian Shaw, Kenneth Branagh

Synopsis: Katherine (Jacqueline Bisset) is a photographer who lives in the exotic Greek islands with her sculptor husband Patrick (James Fox) in this comedy. The film lampoons tourists, contains beautiful scenery, and focuses on the relationship and eventual reconciliation of Katherine and Patrick. Side Read More

3/25/88
Shy People

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Jill Clayburgh, Barbara Hershey, Martha Plimpton, Merritt Butrick, John Philbin

Synopsis: Writer Jill Clayburgh wants to remove her coke-addicted daughter Martha Plimpton from the corruptive environs of Manhattan. When assigned to write an article about family trees, Clayburgh, with daughter in tow, heads to the bayous of Louisiana, there to seek out an elusive great-uncle--and, it is Read More

12/4/87
The Mission

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, Ray McAnally, Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn

Synopsis: Featuring a majestic score by Ennio Morricone and lush Oscar-winning cinematography by Chris Menges, Roland Joffé's The Mission examines the events surrounding the Treaty of Madrid in 1750, when Spain ceded part of South America to Portugal, and turns this episode into an allegory for the mid-'80s Read More

10/31/86
Winter Flight

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Reece Dinsdale, Nicola Cowper, Gary Olsen, Sean Bean, Beverly Hewitt

Synopsis: In this British drama, Mal Stanton (Reece Dinsdale), a young British Royal Air Force recruit, meets and falls in love with the lovely Angie (Nicola Cowper). However, when Mal discovers that Angie is pregnant with the child of her former lover, he is forced to struggle with the complicated feelings Read More

2/12/86
Singing the Blues in Red

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Gerulf Pannach, Fabienne Babe, Sigfrit Steiner, Christine Rose

Synopsis: A drama about personal conflicts and the political biases of the East and West German governments in the mid-'80s, this story focuses on the defection of a talented singer. Klaus (Gerulf Pannach) is finally granted permission to leave East Germany where he is no longer allowed to perform. But Read More

1986
A Sense of Freedom

Crew: Cinematographer

Synopsis: The story of the real-life Scottish criminal who spent a decade in and out of British prisons is the subject of this film directed by John MacKenzie (Long Good Friday) and produced by Beatle George Harrison's company, Hand Made Films. The life of the violent criminal is captivating, for, following Read More

1985
Marie

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Sissy Spacek, Jeff Daniels, Keith Szarabajka, Morgan Freeman, Fred Dalton Thompson

Synopsis: Based on a true story, this drama stars Sissy Spacek as Marie Ragghianti, a Tennessee housewife stuck in a bad marriage with an abusive husband and caring for a child with long-term health problems. Determined to turn her life around, Marie leaves her husband and goes back to school. Against long Read More

1985
The Killing Fields

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Sam Waterston, Dr. Haing S. Ngor, John Malkovich, Julian Sands, Craig T. Nelson, Athol Fugard, Spalding Gray, Bill Paterson

Synopsis: The Killing Fields is a romanticized adaptation of an eyewitness magazine story by New York Times correspondent Sidney Schanberg. Covering the U.S. pullout from Vietnam in 1975, Schanberg (Sam Waterston) relies on his Cambodian friend and translator Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor) for inside Read More

1984
Comfort and Joy

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Bill Paterson, Eleanor David, Clare Grogan, Alex Norton, Patrick Malahide

Synopsis: Writer/director Bill Forsyth's follow-up to his best film, Local Hero, is another comic exploration of a man undergoing a personal crisis. In Local Hero, the American played by Peter Riegert finds himself enchanted by the people and ambience of a Scottish village he has been dispatched to purchase Read More

1984
Bloody Kids

Crew: Cinematographer

Synopsis: The "Bloody" in Bloody Kids is meant in both its scatological in literal sense. Two restless teens (Derrick O'Connor and Gary Holton) from the South End of London go on a Saturday-night spree. When girls and booze lose their appeal, the boys add murder to their itinerary. A surreal, high-energy Read More

1983
Local Hero

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Peter Riegert, Burt Lancaster, Fulton Mackay, Denis Lawson, Norman Chancer, Peter Capaldi

Synopsis: Bill Forsyth's whimsical tale of sweet-natured corporate rapacity features standout performances by Burt Lancaster and Peter Riegert. Lancaster plays Texas billionaire Felix Happer, who would rather gaze at the stars than worry about his multi-national oil company. Happer dispatches Mac MacIntyre (Peter Riegert Read More

1983
East 103rd Street

Crew: Cinematographer, Director, Producer

Synopsis: This sobering look at the heroin addiction in a family living on 103rd St. in New York would give anyone pause. The neighborhood is partly Puerto Rican and wholly poor -- with little hope of ever reaching beyond the quagmire of having too little money and no opportunities for rising up the Read More

1983
Walter

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Ian McKellen, Barbara Jefford, Arthur Whybrow, Paula Tilbrook

Synopsis: Director Stephen Frears paints a bleak and cynical picture of the ordinary Brit's ability to relate to someone less fortunate in this hard-hitting look at the world of the mentally handicapped. Walter (Ian McKellen) is a kind-hearted man who is mentally challenged. Walter's parents are remote and Read More

1982
Battletruck

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Michael Beck, Annie McEnroe, James Wainwright, John Ratzenberger, Randolph Powell

Synopsis: Harley Cokliss (second-unit director for The Empire Strikes Back) made his feature-film directing debut in this Mad Max-inspired action film. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic civilization carrying on after a war for oil has depleted the world's petroleum supplies. An outlaw army under Read More

1982
Angel

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Stephen Rea, Alan Devlin, Veronica Quilligan, Peter Caffrey, Honor Heffernan

Synopsis: Writer/director Neil Jordan's debut feature is a tense thriller played out amid the violence in Northern Ireland. Stephen Rea stars as Danny, a saxophone player in a traveling band who witnesses the brutal murders of the manager of the band (who is involved in some extortion payoffs) and a deaf Read More

1982
Made in Britain

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Eric Richard, Tim Roth

Synopsis: Director Alan Clarke's influential television drama Made in Britain marked the screen debut of actor Tim Roth. Roth plays Trevor, a skinhead with a swastika tattoo on his forehead who lashes out verbally and sometimes physically at everything that surrounds him. Cinematographer Chris Menges (who Read More

1981
Looks and Smiles

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Graham Green, Phil Askham

Synopsis: Graham Green (a juvenile player, not the writer nor the Native American actor of almost the same name) is the star of the British-made Looks and Smiles. A born square peg in a round hole, Green wants desperately to fit into the world. His efforts fail, and the world has another angry young man on Read More

1981
Babylon

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Brinsley Forde, Karl Howman, Trevor Laird, Brian Bovell, Victor Romero Evans

Synopsis: Babylon is a gritty, neorealist account of the lives of a group of West Indian youths living in London. Blue (Brinsley Forde) is the Rastafarian leader of a Sound System (a mobile disc-jockey team who spin reggae records at clubs, parties, and other gatherings) who is trying to prepare for an Read More

1980
The Gamekeeper

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Phil Askham, Rita May, Andrew Grubb, Peter Steels, Michael Hinchcliffe

Synopsis: In this pseudo-documentary, the lives of a small family are chronicled as they leave the gritty city behind when the millworker father takes a job as the gamekeeper on Lord Dronfield's estate. Because the Lord seldom visits his country estate, the family is left to themselves. The serious-minded Read More

1980
The Empire Strikes Back

Crew: Second Unit Camera

Actors: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, James Earl Jones, David Prowse, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Frank Oz, Alec Guinness, Kenny Baker

Synopsis: The second entry in George Lucas' Star Wars trilogy finds Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), the green-as-grass hero from the first film, now a seasoned space warrior. Luke's Star Wars cohorts Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) are likewise more experienced in the ways and means Read More

1980
Black Jack

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Jean Franval, Stephen Hirst, Louise Cooper, Packie Byrne

Synopsis: In this fascinating adventure of the England of the 1750s, the huge Frenchman Black Jack (Jean Franval) miraculously survives a hanging by the British authorities in Yorkshire and escapes from the grim jaws of "justice." He takes to the countryside in the company of Tolly, a teenaged boy who is Read More

1979
Gumshoe

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Albert Finney, Billie Whitelaw, Frank Finlay, Janice Rule, Carolyn Seymour

Synopsis: Part spoof and part "straight," Gumshoe comes off as an affectionate tribute to the hard-boiled detective films of yore. Albert Finney stars as Eddie Ginley, a Liverpool bingo-caller and erstwhile comedian who has been weaned on the novels of Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammett. Fancying himself Read More

1971
Black Beauty

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Mark Lester, Uschi Glas, Walter Slezak, Peter Lee Lawrence, John Nettleton

Synopsis: This internationally produced adaptation of Anna Sewell's Black Beauty is essentially a vehicle for Oliver star Mark Lester. The young Lester spends most of the film trying to reclaim his beautiful black horse, which passes through several hands over the course of 90 minutes. All the setpieces of Read More

1971
Kes

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: David Bradley, Freddie Fletcher, Lynne Perrie, Colin Welland, Brian Glover

Synopsis: In this 1969 Ken Loach film, a 15-year-old named Billy Casper (played by acting newcomer David Bradley) suffers abuse both at home and at school in Yorkshire, England. At his home in the working-class section of Barnsley, Billy's brother beats him and his family neglects him. At school, most of Read More

1970
The War Game

Crew: Cinematographer

1962

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