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Hans Burmann

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hans Burmann
Born
Hans Burmann Sánchez

(1937-08-09) 9 August 1937 (age 88)
Bad Honnef, Germany
OccupationCinematographer
Years active1953–2012
FatherSigfrido Burmann
RelativesWolfgang Burmann (brother)

Hans Burmann Sánchez (born 9 August 1937) is a German-born Spanish cinematographer. His career in the Spanish film industry began in the early 1950s and progressed from camera assistant and camera operator to director of photography. He photographed films by directors including Mario Camus, Pilar Miró, José Luis Cuerda, Luis García Berlanga, Imanol Uribe, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Alejandro Amenábar. Among his best-known credits are La colmena (1982), The Holy Innocents (1984), Thesis (1996), Open Your Eyes (1997) and The Blind Sunflowers (2008).[1]

Burmann received five nominations for the Goya Award for Best Cinematography, for Werther (1986), La rusa (1987), The Dumbfounded King (1991), The Sow (1992) and The Blind Sunflowers (2008).[2][3][4][5][6]

Early life and career

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Burmann was born in Bad Honnef, Germany, to the German-born set designer Sigfrido Burmann and a Spanish mother. His family settled in Madrid, where he grew up in the Ciudad Lineal district near the CEA film studios. His younger brother, Wolfgang Burmann, became a film and theatre art director.[7][8]

Burmann entered the industry at the age of 15, when his father found him work as a trainee in the camera department of Condenados (1953). He subsequently worked as a camera assistant on Pedro Lazaga's Cuerda de presos (1956).[1][7] During the 1960s he worked as a camera operator, before becoming a director of photography on feature films in 1970. One of his first credits in that capacity was Ramón Fernández's comedy Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Fifth Floor Neighbour, a major commercial success in Spain.[8][9]

In the 1970s, Burmann combined popular feature films with television work. His credits included the series Los camioneros (1973–1974) and Curro Jiménez (1977–1978), as well as Miró's La petición (1976) and Camus's Los días del pasado (1978). He also photographed Miró's The Cuenca Crime (1980). The film's release was delayed for nearly two years after it was seized by the Spanish military authorities, which also initiated proceedings against Miró.[10]

Burmann developed a particularly sustained collaboration with Mario Camus. Their work together included Los pájaros de Baden-Baden (1975), Los días del pasado, La colmena, The Holy Innocents, La vieja música (1985), La rusa and The Field of Stars (2007). Following Camus's death in 2021, Burmann participated in the Spanish Film Academy's tribute to the director.[11]

During the 1990s Burmann worked on Spanish productions and international co-productions, including Miguel Littín's Sandino (1991), Uribe's The Dumbfounded King, Cuerda's The Sow, Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío's Guantanamera (1995), and Amenábar's first two feature films, Thesis and Open Your Eyes. Burmann recalled that Amenábar initially feared that the much more experienced Hans and Wolfgang Burmann would disregard the young director's decisions, but that the brothers quickly recognised his command of filmmaking.[1] A production study of Thesis includes separate accounts by Burmann and other department heads about their work on the film.[12]

His later work included several Spanish–Latin American productions, among them Tabío's Waiting List (2000), Diego Arsuaga's The Last Train (2002), Sergio Cabrera's The Art of Losing (2004) and Tabío's Horn of Plenty (2008). He also continued his collaboration with Cuerda on The Education of Fairies (2006), The Blind Sunflowers and All Is Silence (2012), his last feature-film credit as director of photography.[13]

Approach to cinematography

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Burmann has described the director and the story as the determining elements of a film's visual design. In discussing his working methods, he recalled experimenting with reflected light and with deliberate variations in film exposure and processing to reduce colour saturation and create a greyer image.[1] For period films, he sought to base the lighting on sources plausible within the setting, such as oil lamps and candles. This approach informed the muted interiors and use of shadow in The Blind Sunflowers, which is set in post-Civil War Spain.[8]

In 2017, Burmann appeared with fellow cinematographers José Luis Alcaine and Álex Catalán in a Televisión Española programme devoted to cinematography in Spanish film.[14] He later took part in a 2021 Spanish Film Academy discussion on the craft, where he characterised Berlanga's camera movements as being at the service of the story rather than displays of technique.[15]

Selected filmography

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Year Title Director(s)
1970Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Fifth Floor NeighbourRamón Fernández
1975Los pájaros de Baden-BadenMario Camus
1976La peticiónPilar Miró
1978Los días del pasadoMario Camus
1980The Cuenca CrimePilar Miró
1980Nightmare CityUmberto Lenzi
1982La colmenaMario Camus
1983El picoEloy de la Iglesia
1984The Holy InnocentsMario Camus
1986WertherPilar Miró
1987La rusaMario Camus
1991SandinoMiguel Littín
1991The Dumbfounded KingImanol Uribe
1992The SowJosé Luis Cuerda
1995GuantanameraTomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío
1996ThesisAlejandro Amenábar
1997Open Your EyesAlejandro Amenábar
1999Paris-TimbuktuLuis García Berlanga
2000Waiting ListJuan Carlos Tabío
2002The Last TrainDiego Arsuaga
2004The Art of LosingSergio Cabrera
2006The Education of FairiesJosé Luis Cuerda
2007The Field of StarsMario Camus
2008The Blind SunflowersJosé Luis Cuerda
2008Horn of PlentyJuan Carlos Tabío
2012All Is SilenceJosé Luis Cuerda

Awards and nominations

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Year Award Category Work Result
1987Goya AwardsBest CinematographyWertherNominated
1988Goya AwardsLa rusaNominated
1992Goya AwardsThe Dumbfounded KingNominated
1993Goya AwardsThe SowNominated
2009Goya AwardsThe Blind SunflowersNominated

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 "Hans Burmann, Director de Fotografía". Welab Plus (in Spanish). Retrieved 6 August 2026.
  2. ↑ "Werther". Premios Goya (in Spanish). Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain. Retrieved 6 August 2026.
  3. ↑ "La rusa". Premios Goya (in Spanish). Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain. Retrieved 6 August 2026.
  4. ↑ "El rey pasmado". Premios Goya (in Spanish). Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain. Retrieved 6 August 2026.
  5. ↑ "La marrana". Premios Goya (in Spanish). Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain. Retrieved 6 August 2026.
  6. ↑ "Los girasoles ciegos". Premios Goya (in Spanish). Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain. Retrieved 6 August 2026.
  7. 1 2 Weniger, Kay (2001). Das große Personenlexikon des Films: Die Schauspieler, Regisseure, Kameraleute, Produzenten, Komponisten, Drehbuchautoren, Filmarchitekten, Ausstatter, Kostümbildner, Cutter, Tontechniker, Maskenbildner und Special Effects Designer des 20. Jahrhunderts (in German). Vol. 1: A–C. Berlin: Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf. p. 609. ISBN 978-3-89602-340-7.
  8. 1 2 3 "Hans Burmann, directores de fotografía de nuestro país". 35mm (in Spanish). 12 July 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2026.
  9. ↑ "No desearás al vecino del quinto (1970)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved 6 August 2026.
  10. ↑ "'El crimen de Cuenca' se estrena después de dos años de prohibición". El País (in Spanish). 13 August 1981. Retrieved 6 August 2026.
  11. ↑ ""Para que veáis cómo era Mario" – Homenaje a Mario Camus". Academia de Cine (in Spanish). 16 October 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2026.
  12. ↑ Vera, Cecilia; Badariotti, Silvia; Castro, Débora (2002). Cómo hacer cine: Tesis, de Alejandro Amenábar (in Spanish). Madrid: Editorial Fundamentos. pp. 73–84. ISBN 978-84-245-0910-0. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  13. ↑ "Todo es Silencio". Zebra Producciones. Retrieved 6 August 2026.
  14. ↑ "Los directores de fotografía protagonizan la próxima semana de 'Historia de nuestro cine'" (in Spanish). RTVE. 28 April 2017. Retrieved 6 August 2026.
  15. ↑ "Los oficios del cine: encuentro en torno a la dirección de fotografía". Academia de Cine (in Spanish). 12 November 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2026.
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