Christopher Challis

Who was Christopher Challis?

Christopher George Joseph Challis BSC, FRPS was a British cinematographer who worked on more than 70 feature films since beginning in the industry during the 1940s.

After working as camera operator on several films for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, he made his debut as director of photography on The End of the River in 1947 one of their projects as producers. After The End of the River, Challis was camera operator under Jack Cardiff on The Red Shoes. He did not object to the demotion as he wanted to work on the film. Following this he went back to being director of photography. He was cinematographer on most of Powell and Pressburger's later films, including The Small Back Room, The Elusive Pimpernel, The Tales of Hoffmann, Oh... Rosalinda!!, The Battle of the River Plate and Ill Met by Moonlight.

His expertise in colour cinematography made him a popular choice for British film makers of the 1950s, and he worked on a number of successful comedies, including Genevieve, The Captain's Table and Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines. He worked on projects in other genres too, such as The Spanish Gardener, the war film Sink the Bismarck!, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. He was nominated for several BAFTA Awards for Best British Cinematography, including a win in 1966 for Stanley Donen's film Arabesque.