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PIERRE LHOMME AFC
“I find it absurd that the producers say we must work 12 hours a day because after ten hours, everyone is exhausted and not concentrating.”
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Lhomme was born in Paris in 1930. He says he was more interested in music and architecture when he was young, although admits the pocket money he “borrowed” from his moth- er’s purse was for the cinema.
He played the clarinet and dreamed of becoming a musician. He left France on a scholarship to study at Columbia University in New York City and then Wittenberg College in Ohio.
In New York, he spent most of the time at jazz clubs on 52nd St and Broadway where you could hear Sidney Bechet, already a personal friend of the young Lhomme, and Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker.
Gradually he became disenchanted with America and, deciding he wasn’t talented enough to be a musician, returned to France.
Lhomme enrolled at Vaugirard, the French cinematography school, where “all I wanted was to learn how to use the tools and especially the camera.” The films that had the most impact on him were those of Jean Vigo, Jean Renoir and Sergei Eisenstein.
He completed his military serv- ice in the French army’s cinematog- raphy department based in Germany, where happily he found himself with “plenty of cameras and film to practice on.”
In 1957, he went to China for three months as camera assistant to Henri Alekan on Le Cerf Volant du bout du monde and started working with Ghislain Cloquet, whom he credits for “opening my eyes and teaching me the profession.”
Cloquet moved Lhomme up to camera operator. Later on in his career, particularly with Chris Marker, he became known for his excellent hand-held camerawork. He was part of the group of filmmakers of the ‘Nouvelle Vague’ including Charles Bitsch, Francois Truffaut, Alain Cavalier, Jacques Rivette, Louis Malle, Jean Paul Rappeneau, Barbet Schroeder, Philippe de Broca, Chris Marker, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer...
Today, Lhomme is a strong advocate of working in studios “where the director, the production designer and the director of photography can control their work.”
And he always works with a cam- era operator. “There was a time I was a one man band (l’homme-orchestre), but that was on small films with small budgets, and when we had the time. These days, when everything must be done so quickly, it is impossible.
“The operator has to be at the camera at all times, available to the director. The Director of Photography can’t do that, there are too many other things to do. I think it is a great loss to the industry that the job of camera operator is disappearing. It is bad for the training process because it is the job where you learn how to interact with the actors and you learn the most about the mise en scene.”
In 1958 Lhomme photographed his first short feature film, The American, for Alain Cavalier.
Since then, his best-known fea- tures include Le Combat dans l’ile, Le Joli Mai (with Marker, who credits him as co-director to point out his contri- bution to the film), La Vie de Château, The King Of Hearts, Mister Freedom, L’Armée Des Ombres, Quatre nuits d’un reveur, Le Sauvage, La Maman et la Putain, La Chair de l’Orchidée, Dites lui que je l’aime, Navire Nights, Les Mains Negatives et Aurelia Steiner and Mortelle randonnée as well his award- winners and various work with Merchant-Ivory.
Lhomme has very firm views about his art/craft. “These days I don’t run as fast as I used to and I don’t even want to anyway. The way of making films today has nothing to do with how we used to.
“This is a profession where pleas- ure and passion play an important role (loving your work and being passion- ate about filmmaking) but those two elements have been destroyed by the long hours we shoot and the condi- tions we work under.
“I worked on a film recently where there was almost no preparation time and hardly any location scouting. It is the first time in my life I arrived in the
morning and walked on to a set that I had to light having never seen it before! I find it absurd that the produc- ers say we must work 12 hours a day because after ten hours, everyone is exhausted and not concentrating.
“If you ask me what kind of images I love on the screen, I really love Cinemascope. I am very attached to the image quality and the enormous amount of lateral space you have to work with, and that you can shoot a scene on a long focal length lens, on 100mm for example.
“It’s wonderful for the mise en scene as it allows you to have many actors in the shot. But the ‘real Cinemascope’ is about to disappear. Most people find it easier to work on Super 35 and standard equipment but, visually, that is entirely different.
“Another important issue for me is determining the format for the film and shooting for that one ratio. In the US, they massacre films shown on tele- vision; they broadcast them in whatev- er format they want. In France, too, some of the TV channels are doing that now.
“What is even more scandalous, and has aroused the attention of the members of IMAGO, is the transfer to DVD and VHS with absolute disregard of the original format the film was
Photos above l-r: César, BAFTA and BSC awards winner Cyrano de Bergerac (photo courtesy Moviestore Collection); Merchant-Ivory’s Jefferson In Paris
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