Morris Engel, 1918 - 2005.

Morris Engel, the New York photographer and filmmaker whose 1953 film, Little Fugitive, established a model for independent moviemaking that influenced directors like John Cassavetes and François Truffaut, died Saturday at his home on Central Park West. He was 86.

Dave Kehr in the New York Times.

Between neorealism and the nouvelle vague stand Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin, whose independent feature Little Fugitive (1953) has been credited - by François Truffaut, who ought to know - with providing both spiritual imprimatur and nuts-and-bolts strategies for the French New Wave. Engel and Orkin were both still photographers, with Engel particularly distinguished as a colleague of Paul Strand and a pioneer photojournalist with magazines like PM, Fortune, Collier's.... Engel and Orkin provided a production template for future independent filmmakers by doing double and triple duty on their films.

[...]

It's not hard to see why Little Fugitive, Engel and Orkin's most famous and successful film, was so inspiring not only to the French but also to American auteurs like Cassavettes (Shadows) and Scorsese (Who's That Knocking on My Door?). Like the two features that would follow it [Lovers and Lollipops and Weddings and Babies], Little Fugitive is a paean to the sights, smells, and sounds of New York, from the cramped but somehow comforting streets of Brooklyn to the dazzling chaos of Coney Island as seen through a child's eyes.

Gary Morris in Bright Lights Film Journal.

Posted by dwhudson at March 7, 2005 2:25 PM