Frank Tidy

Frank Tidy, the veteran British cinematographer who shot Ridley Scott ‘s The Duellists and five films for director Andrew Davis, has died. He was 84. Tidy died Friday at a nursing home in Kent, England, after a battle with dementia, his son Patrick told The Hollywood Reporter . Tidy served as Scott’s cinematographer on hundreds of commercials for RSA, the director’s U.K. production company with his brother Tony Scott, starting in the 1960s. Tidy’s first feature credit came on the war drama The Duellists (1977), which starred Keith Carradine, Harvey Keitel and Albert Finney. Critics admire the film for Tidy’s use of natural sources, like an open window or candlelight, to light the film. “The artfully choreographed showdowns are staged in some of the most gorgeous settings ever committed to film,” Stephen Pizzello wrote in American Cinematographer magazine after The Duellists was released on DVD. “Critic Pauline Kael praised The Duellists for its ‘Gericault-like compositions,’ and Tidy’s lighting would earn the approval of Vermeer himself.” Scott said in his DVD commentary that he “had no concerns about how much [of the imagery] was in the shadows. Frank knew that this was what I liked … I don’t mind sometimes if [the frame] goes totally dark. Frank just really knew how far to go.” Tidy first collaborated with Davis on the Chuck Norris action film Code of Silence (1985) and then partnered with the American director on The Package (1989), starring Gene Hackman; Under Siege , toplined by Steven Seagal; Steal Big Steal Little (1995), starring Andy Garcia; and Keanu Reeves’ Chain Reaction (1996). Tidy also shot two films helmed by Canadian Phillip Borsos: The Grey Fox (1982) and One Magic Christmas (1985). Tidy’s film résumé also includes The Mean Season (1985), Alan Alda’s Sweet Liberty (1986), The Butcher’s Wife (1991), Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992), Getting Away With Murder (1996) and Hoodlum (1997). A native of Liverpool, Tidy began his career as a stop-motion cameraman for an animation studio in London. In 1965, he formed Valley Films with director Roger Woodburn and cinematographer Peter Biziou, and they worked extensively on commercials. Survivors also include his daughter Katharine and grandchildren Sean, Ellen and Amy. Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them. The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices. Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice. Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you. Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the develop