MFA screen series explores great art, film, literature, music

May 29, 2011|By Mark Feeney, Globe Staff

Cameraman: The Life and Times of Jack Cardiff celebrates the famed cinematographer… (STRAND RELEASING (LEFT);…)

Being one of the world’s great encyclopedic museums requires the Museum of Fine Arts to have a broad definition of “art’’ when it comes to collecting and exhibiting. One of the pleasures of the MFA’s Art on Film series, which starts Wednesday and runs throughout June, is how broadly it defines art when it comes to screening, too.

As might be expected, there are multiple documentaries about painting, photography, and the art scene. As might not be expected, there are also documentaries about film, literature, and music — more specifically, the blues.

“Cameraman: The Life and Times of Jack Cardiff’’ celebrates one of the supreme cinematographers. Cardiff (1914-2009) shot his first film in the ’30s — and his last, a TV miniseries, in 2007. In between came Hitchcock’s “Under Capricorn,’’ “The African Queen,’’ and even “Rambo: First Blood Part II.’’ No one has surpassed Cardiff as a master of Technicolor in two films for Michael Powell, “The Red Shoes’’ and “Black Narcissus.’’

When one includes his work as director, cameraman, and other job titles, Cardiff had well over 100 screen credits. Harper Lee is at the other extreme of productivity. She’s published one book, but it’s among the most beloved American novels of the 20th century, as well as the source of a much-beloved film. In “Hey, Boo: Harper Lee and ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’’’ filmmaker Mary McDonagh Murphy talks to Oprah Winfrey, Tom Brokaw, and the novelist’s sister.

Other titles offer art more commonly associated with a museum like the MFA. Two of them concern an artist whose work is currently showing at the MFA. “Chihuly in the Light of Jerusalem’’ and “Chihuly and the Masters of Venice’’ are videos about Dale Chihuly, a major exhibition of whose art is the focus of “Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass,’’ running through Aug. 7. Another video, “First Face: The Buck Starts Here,’’ takes a look at a painting jointly owned by the MFA and the National Portrait Gallery, in Washington. Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington has been called the most famous in history, since it’s the inspiration for his rendering on the dollar bill (hence the subtitle of the video).

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