In the industry from 1929 as assistant in the Gaumont-British camera department, Gilbert Taylor came into his own after his RAF service. He worked as camera operator for the Boultings on Fame is the Spur and Brighton Rock (1947), then as director of photography on three films for the brothers: The Guinea Pig (1948), and the contemporary thrillers, Seven Days to Noon (1950) and High Treason (1951), in which he began to develop his realistic use of black-and-white film. Less concerned with aesthetic beauty than with dramatic veracity, he honed his technique further on the dramas he made for J. Lee Thompson, notably Yield to the Night (1956), Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957) and Ice-Cold in Alex (1958) - and on The Beatles' debut film, A Hard Day's Night (d. Richard Lester, 1964). His achievements in black-and-white were recognised in his BAFTA nominations for the Polanski films, Repulsion (1965) and the visually remarkable Cul-de-sac (1966). He also worked with Stanley Kubrick, but with apparently less satisfaction. Bibliography Duncan Petrie, The British Cinematographer, 1996. Brian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of British Film
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