Arthur Ibbetson on AllMovie

A camera assistant at age 22, Briton Arthur Ibbetson experienced a long training process as camera operator before receiving his first lighting-cameraman assignment with 1958's The Horse's Mouth. Ibbetson could not help but draw attention to himself with this film, which told the tale of a brilliant, eccentric painter (Alec Guinness)-- thus allowing Ibbetson to linger on loving closeups of those paintings. Extremely busy in the field of internationally financed productions, Ibbetson handled assignments ranging from the action-packed Nine Hours to Rama (1964) to the endearingly old-fashioned A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), Charles Chaplin's final film. The creative cinematography of Arthur Ibbetson has been the principal selling card of such uneven projects as Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971), A Little Night Music (1976), The Bounty (1984) and Santa Claus (1985). And on one of his rare forays into television, Arthur Ibbetson brilliantly lensed the spark-strewn extravaganza Frankenstein: The True Story (1973).