Pierre Camille Petit (3 January 1920 – 22 September 1997) was a French cinematographer.

Life

Petit was born in

Fontenay-Trésigny Fontenay-Trésigny () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Location Fontenay-Trésigny is located 43 km southeast of Paris, 24 km northeast of Melun, 28 km south of Me ...

. He began his career at the age of 16½ years as a camera assistant. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he was also active as a cameraman. Among his teachers were

Léonce-Henri Burel Léonce-Henri Burel (23 November 1892 – 21 March 1977) was a French cinematographer whose career extended from the silent era until the early 1970s. He was the director of photography on more than 120 films, working almost exclusively in black-an ...

Eugen Schüfftan Eugen Schüfftan (21 July 1893, in Breslau, Silesia, Germany, now Wroclaw, Poland – 6 September 1977, in New York City) was a German cinematographer. He invented the Schüfftan process, a special effects technique that employed mirrors to in ...

Jean Bachelet Jean Bachelet (8 November 1894–1977) was a French cinematographer who started as a newsreel cameraman and whose numerous theatrical films include ''The Rules of the Game'' (1939) for Jean Renoir. Selected filmography * '' Mandrin'' (1924) ...

, Joseph-Louis Mundwiller and André Dantan. Shortly after the war ended, Petit debuted as a director of photography; over the course of in the next two and a half decades he became one of the most representative cinematographers working in French cinema (he also worked on a few foreign films). The films Petit photographed were almost continuously purely commercial productions to entertain the masses. He photographed many

historical drama A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romance film, romances, adventure f ...

gangster film A gangster film or gangster movie is a film belonging to a genre that focuses on gangs and organized crime. It is a subgenre of crime film, that may involve large criminal organizations, or small gangs formed to perform a certain illegal act. The ...

s, and

adventure film An adventure film is a form of adventure fiction, and is a genre of film. Subgenres of adventure films include swashbuckler films, pirate films, and survival films. Adventure films may also be combined with other film genres such as action, an ...

s, and occasionally comedies. He worked with the directors

Denys de La Patellière Denys de La Patellière (8 March 1921 in Nantes, France–21 July 2013) was a French people, French film director and scriptwriter. He also directed Television series. of 92. Filmography as director * 1955 in film, 1955 : ''Les Aristocrate ...

Ralph Habib Ralph Habib (Paris, 29 June 1912 – Paris, 27 June 1969) was a French film director of Lebanese origin. He started his film career with Pathé. He later worked as assistant director notably Jean Dréville and Jean-Paul Le Chanois before directin ...

Maurice Labro Maurice Labro (21 September 1910 – 23 March 1987) was a French film director. Filmography * 1947 in the movies, 1947: ' * 1948 in the movies, 1948: ''Three Boys, One Girl'' * 1949 in the movies, 1949: ''The Heroic Monsieur Boniface'' * 195 ...

Guy Lefranc Guy Lefranc (21 October 1919 - 1 February 1994) was a French director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 ...

, Pierre Billon and

Georges Combret Georges Combret (1906–1998) was a French film director, producer and screenwriter.Hayward p.423 Selected filmography * '' Duel in Dakar'' (1951) * ''The Fighting Drummer'' (1953) * ''Rasputin'' (1954) * ''The Contessa's Secret'' (1954) * ''T ...

. In the 60s, he worked on several agent and spy thrillers. Pierre Petit worked now more frequently with the A film director

Christian-Jaque Christian-Jaque (byname of Christian Maudet; 4 September 1904 – 8 July 1994) was a French filmmaker. From 1954 to 1959, he was married to actress Martine Carol, who starred in several of his films, including ''Lucrèce Borgia'' (1953), '' ...

, for whom he shot the sprawling historical costume drama production ''

Emma Hamilton Dame Emma Hamilton (born Amy Lyon; 26 April 176515 January 1815), generally known as Lady Hamilton, was an English maid, model, dancer and actress. She began her career in London's demi-monde, becoming the mistress of a series of wealthy me ...

'', and the movie star

Jean Marais Jean-Alfred Villain-Marais (11 December 1913 – 8 November 1998), known professionally as Jean Marais (), was a French actor, film director, theatre director, painter, sculptor, visual artist, writer and photographer. He performed in over 100 f ...

. During the early 1970s, Petit largely moved back from the cinema and devoted himself to the television. He retired in the early 1990s. He died in

Rueil-Malmaison Rueil-Malmaison () is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, Île-de-France region. It is located from the centre of Paris. In 2017, it had a population of 78,152. It is one of the wealthiest suburbs of Par ...

in 1997.

Filmography

External links

*
Pierre Petit
at ''Les Gens du Cinéma'' (basic information and filmography) ;

References

Kay Weniger Kay Weniger (born in Berlin in 1966) is an Austrian writer of books on media issues. He published an eight-volume encyclopaedia on international film people. Biography Weniger is the son of the German stage and film actress and the Austria ...

: ''Das große Personenlexikon des Films'', vol. 6, Berlin 2001, p. 208 {{DEFAULTSORT:Petit, Pierre French cinematographers 1920 births 1997 deaths People from Seine-et-Marne