Nikola Tanhofer director

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Birth: 25. 12. 1926., Sesvete

Death: 24. 11. 1998., Zagreb

Tanhofer is one of the greatest Croatian cinematographers and the author of the renowned H-8 (1958), the first Croatian and Yugoslavian film of the completely modern and fascinatingly skillful direction. It is a story about bus travelers who have a terrible accident with a dramatic and emotional culmination. He studied at the University of Philosophy in Zagreb. In 1949, he made his debut on film as a director of photography of the feature film Zastava by Branko Marjanović, and since that time, he further developed his cinematographic style, mostly in black and white technique. His most famous feature films include Plavi 9 (1950) by Krešo Golik, and Sinji galeb (1953) by Branko Bauer. His most notable short films are Pozdravi s Jadrana (1958, color photography), Čuješ li me? (1965) by Ante Babaja, and Recital (1972, color photography) by Petar Krelja.

As a director he made several, in the boundaries of Yugoslavian cinematography, inventive films, such as Nije bilo uzalud (1957), social melodrama with elements of horror and thriller, and the fantasy film Sreća dolazi u devet (1961). He was both the director and cinematographer only in his last film, Bablje ljeto (1970), showing his sensibility in using color.

In 1969, he founded the department of film and television photography at the Academy for theatre, film and television in Zagreb (today Academy of Drama Arts), where he had taught for many years. He is the author of books Filmska fotografija (1981) and O boji na filmu i srodnim medijima (2000).