Godspeed Cinematographer Roger Pratt

Roger Pratt, the cinematographer on such films as Brazil (1985) and Batman (1989), died on December 31 2024 at the age of 77.

Roger Pratt was born in Leicester on February 27 1947. He attended Loughborough Grammar School  and then served with Voluntary Services Overseas. He graduated from Durham University before attending the London Film School.

He began his career as a cameraman on such films as Bleak Moments (1971), My Childhood (1972), and Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). His first credit as cinematography was on The Sender in 1982. During the Eighties he served as the cinematographer on the films The Meaning of Life (1983), Brazil (1985), Mona Lisa (1986), Consuming Passions (1988), High Hopes (1988), Paris by Night (1988), and Batman (1989). On television he worked on such TV movies as Dutch Girls and the mini-series The Planets.

In the Nineties Roger Pratt was the cinematographer on the movies The Fisher King (1991), Year of the Comet (1992), Shadowlands (1993), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), 12 Monkeys (1995). In Love and War (1996), The Avengers (1998),. Grey Owl (1999), The End of the Affair (1999),. 102 Dalmatians (20000), and Chocolat (2000). On television he worked on the TV shows The Storyteller: Greek Myths and Performance.

In the Naughts he served as the director of photography in the movies Iris (2001), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Troy (2004), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Closing the Ring (2007) Ink heart (2008), Dorian Gray (2009), and The Karate Kid (2010). In the Teens he worked on the films Jadoo (2013) and Keeping Rosy (2014). 

Roger Pratt was a master when it came to light and shadows, with his cinematography often resembling that of German expressionism and American film noir. This can be see in Brazil, which he lit as if it was a black-and-white movie even though it was shot in colour. He used a similar technique on Batman, sometimes using only one tone in a shot so that characters such as The Joker would stand out even more. Roger Pratt's talent for visual dissonance would come to good use in the movie 12 Monkeys, where warm and cold light were often used in the same scene. Of course, here it must be point out that Roger Pratt was nothing if not versatile. While Brazil and Batman were very dark, Chocolat was a brighter movie, although Mr. Pratt still offered up contrasts in light and colour. Roger Pratt was an extremely talented cinematographer who worked on some of the best and most popular movies of the late 20th Century.