Page 15 - Fujifilm Exposure_25 Jean Francois Robin_ok

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COMPOSING THE IMAGE AN INTERVIEW WITH JEAN-FRANCOIS ROBIN
Near the town of Genappe in Belgium on a cold driz- zly July morning you will find French-born Director of Photography, Jean- Francois Robin filming the final scene of Dominique Deruddere’s Pour le Plaisir.
The autoroute from Brussels to Waterloo has been shut down for the day. A crane offloads a crumbled car- cass of red metal, what was once a Ferrari. Bits of glass are scattered on the tarmac while ambulances with their blue revolving lights are also in the frame behind two stretchers shrouded in white sheets.
Pour Le Plaisir tells the tale of a psy- chiatrist/sex therapist trying to help his Ferrari mechanic who’s devastated by his wife’s revelation that in their eight years of marriage, she has never been satisfied. What does excite her is the idea that her sexual partner has killed someone: no murder, no orgasm.
The psychiatrist suggests the mechanic play along with this by boasting to his wife of such activity and they then enjoy their most memo- rable ever night together. However, the next day near the garage, a dead body is found and the mechanic is arrested despite protesting his innocence.
Robin says: “I don’t really know how to classify this film: a black come- dy, a thriller, a drama? When you read a good script and start visualising how to shoot it, then you want to make the film. This is the third film I’ve done with Dominique after Suite 16 and Wait Until Spring, Bandini.”
Belgian writer/director Deruddere has won international awards for his films and, in 2000, Everybody Famous was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Explains Robin: “Dominique and I have a good relationship, but this film in particular was a pleasure to work on. It was very relaxed and I didn’t have any pressure on me. On certain films you feel the pressure of the money, of the stars, or the weight of a heavy production. You can do some very creative and interesting work when conditions are so good; it’s a luxury that doesn’t happen very often these days. I think it’s because of Dominique that everything went so smoothly and that everyone worked in such harmony.”
Robin is both prolific and multi-tal- ented. He has photographed more than 60 movies since starting out in the mid 1970’s. His best known credits include Betty Blue, IP5, and Roselyne
And The Lions for Jean-Jacques Beineix, The Browning Version and Mara with Mike Figgis, Nelly And Monsieur Arnaud and A Few Days With Me for Claude Sautet, Le Bossu with Philippe de Broca, Les Annees Lumieres with Alain Tanner, Rogue Trader for James Dearden and Parking with Jacques Demy, as well as films for Alain Cavalier, Patrice Leconte, John Duigan (The Leading Man) and Coline Serreau.
He’s also a self-taught musician who plays the piano, and the author of six books, including three novels, one of which, on Jean Sebastian Bach, has been adapted for the theatre.
“Dominique wanted me to operate too and I enjoy that; actually I prefer it” says Robin. “I believe that the job of constructing the image in terms of the lighting and the composition belong together, they are the integral responsibility of the person compos- ing the image.
“When only one person interacts with the director, a strong, close rela- tionship develops between the two which is beneficial for the film. I don’t feel that it slows things down or that time is wasted when I operate and light. The totality of the image, I believe, is my responsibility.”
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Photos main: Jean-Francois Robin; above l-r: Daniel Auteuil and Vincent Perez in Le Bossu; Ewan McGregor in Rogue Trader; Michel Serrault and Emmanuel Beart in Nelly And Monsieur Arnaud (photos courtesy Moviestore Collection)
Fuji Motion Picture And Professional Video • Exposure • 13