Georges Benoît — Little Close-Ups of the A. S. C. (1922) 🇺🇸
The handsome phiz which frowns at you in such a friendly way from the adjacent space is owned by Georges Benoît, A. S. C, a son of La Belle France and a nephew of Uncle Sam.
It was in 1907, fifteen years ago, that Mr. Benoît began to take an interest in the photographing of motion pictures, his first experience being with Gaumont in Paris where during the year he shot upwards of eighty one reel dramas and comedies.
In 1909 he went to Africa for Gaumont and before the end of 1910 had shot 300,000 feet of jungle stuff from north of the French Congo to Capetown. These were the first African travel pictures exhibited in the United States. Mr. Benoît returned to Paris for a year and in 1912 came to the United States to take charge of the Éclair company’s studios at Fort Lee. After a year there he went to Mutual for one year and then joined the William Fox Company where he filmed the first ten feature pictures made by that company at their eastern studios. These were “Regeneration;” “Carmen” with Theda Bara; “The Serpent” Bara: “Blue Blood and Red;” “The Honor System;” “The Scarlet Letter;” “The Derelict;” “The Broadway Sport;” “When False Tongue Speaks;” “A Rich Man Fantasy,” with Valeska Surrat.
After leaving Fox Mr. Benoît went to Buenos Aires where he produced several pictures on his own account, returning to New York via the Andes to Valparaiso, Chile, shooting on the way “A Trip Through the Andes” for his own company.
Arrived in New York Mae Murray retained him for her great picture “On With the Dance” and this was followed by pictures with Gail Kane, Georges Carpentier, Mae Marsh and others, but Mr. Benoît’s chef d’oeuvre he considers to be “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam,” produced by Ferdinand Pinney Earle and now tied up in litigation so that its release is indefinitely delayed.
At this writing Mr. Benoît is chief cinematographer for Richard Walton Tully Productions now filming “The Masquerader” at Brunton Studios.
From 1899 to 1907 he was in the laboratory of the Gaumont Company in Paris, and is, therefore, a master of all branches of his profession.
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Collection: American Cinematographer, February 1922
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