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Michael Ballhaus was born in Berlin in 1935. He belongs to the few German cameramen who managed the jump into the American film business.
After his examination he made a two-year apprenticeship for photography and afterwards worked as a stage photographer.

When he was able to watch the cinematographer Raoul Coutard (1924) during the shot to „Lola Montez“ (55), woke up the desire in Ballhaus to carry on this profession too. Four years later he was engaged by Südwestfunk Baden-Baden where he worked as a head cameraman till 1966.
His first movie he shot for Dieter Hallvervorden's comedy "Mehrmals täglich“ (68).

Michael Ballhaus got in touch with the legendary director Rainer Werner Fassbinder through the actor Ulli Lommel. A fruitful eight-year partnership resulted from this meeting. During this time they shot a total of 14 movies including highlight like „Whity“ (70), „Der amerikanische Soldat“ (70), „Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte“ (70), „Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant“ (72), „Welt am Draht“ (73) „Mutter Küsters‘ Fahrt zum Himmel“ (75), „Chinesisches Roulette“ (76), „Bolwieser“ (77), „Despair“ (77) and „Die Ehe der Maria Braun“ (78).

Because of his work for Peter Lilienthal's movie „Dear Mr. Wonderful“ (82) - which was partial shot in the USA - he got in contact with American film makers. One of his first works was „Reckless“ (82), after that followed a cooperation with Martin Scorsese for „After Hours“ (85) and „The Color of Money“ (86).
With these movies he became established and offers were not to be long in coming. In 1988 he shot „The Last Temptation of Christ“, which was already scheduled for 1984, but as a result of portests of cinema owners it was postponed to a later date.

It followed box-office hits like „Working Girl“ (88), „Postcards from the Edge“ (90), „Goodfellas“ (90), „Bram Stoker‘s Dracula“ (92), „Outbreak“ (94), „Sleepers“ (96), „Air Force One“ (97), „Wild Wild West“ (99) and „Gone Underground“ (00).

Michael Ballhaus didn't achieve an Oscar till today but for the movies „Broadcast News“ (87) and „The Fabulous Baker Boys“ (89) he got an nomination.
 

More movies from Michael Ballhaus:

Die Kassette (60) Die Nachbarskinder (60) Abschied (65) Der Kidnapper (68)  Sand (71) Der Held (72) Tschetan, der Indianerjunge (72) Adele Spitzeder (72) Das Amulett des Todes (74) Dorothea Merz (75) Deutschland im Herbst (78) Der Aufstand (80) Malou (80) Looping (80) Der Zauberberg (81) Ediths Tagebuch (83) Tod eines Handlungsreisenden (85) The House on Carroll Street (88) What About Bob? (91) The Mambo Kings (92) Quiz Show (94) What Planet Are You From? (00)