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FRANCE BEHIND THE CAMERA
THEBIGGERPICTURE
AQ&AWITHDENISROUDENAFC
A CINEMATOGRAPHER WHOSE CAREER PROVES THAT ARTISTRY CAN EXIST ALONGSIDE
A POPULAR TOUCH, DENIS ROUDEN AFC HAS CARVED A NICHE FOR HIMSELF WITH BIG BUDGET, BLOCKBUSTER MOVIES IN HIS NATIVE FRANCE. HIS LATEST, THE BURMA CONSPIRACY, CO-STARRING TOMAR SISLEY, SHARON STONE AND ULRICH TUKUR, CONTINUES
THE ADVENTURES OF LARGO WINCH, HERO OF THE POPULAR GRAPHIC NOVELS WRITTEN BY BELGIAN AUTHOR JEAN VAN HAMME.
our work on diverse films such Yas MR 73, Largo Winch and Le petit Nicolas suggests that you
see no conflict between art
house and popular cinema on an aesthetic level. Would you agree?
I grew up on American cinema during the 1970s, with mainstream movies like Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now. I could also name other influences like Barry Lyndon along with the work generally of Scorsese, Coppola, and Spielberg. The thing that struck me most was this determination to do things properly, whatever the genre. These American films never dipped in quality, proving that whatever the subject you could select nice shots and lighting that enhanced the subject.
How do you view your filmography?
I always like the idea of shooting movies for a large audience. Some cinematographers are closer to the intellectual or literary aspects of the work, or to what’s called the auteur theory. I’m not opposed to this, but for me cinema is a complete art and – like any artist – I want my work to be seen. All of this must have driven my choices, even in the days when
I didn’t have much to choose from. My tastes brought me to popular movies, and to people I shared a vision with, directors like Jérôme
Salle, Olivier Marchal, Laurent Tuel and Laurent Tirard.
When you made Anthony Zimmer for Jérôme Salle you described actress Sophie Marceau as more beautiful and photogenic than ever. What is your relationship to actors and actresses on set?
I work on the movie’s atmosphere first. I can’t alter the light just for a face. Nonetheless, according to the characters and the story, actors have to be more or less beautiful; more or less severe. And I admit there’s pleasure in working with actors and actresses who are photogenic, seeing what framing and lighting will suit them according to the scene. This is why I pay a lot of attention to rehearsals; it gives me an opportunity to choose the ideal position to place the cameras in and to compose my lighting.
How are you able to make your films look somehow different to the typical French style?
I like to change things about. You can find yourself pigeonholed when you make a movie such as 36 quai des orfèvres, which had two millions admissions in France. When I was shooting Largo Winch in Asia I was offered Le petit Nicolas as well as a detective movie with a director I had already worked with. Instinctively I wanted to do Le petit Nicolas, which
offered me a change and that spoke to a different audience. I got along very well with director Laurent Tirard, and the result was a popular movie. The project was very different for me and I enjoyed shooting it.
What is it that draws you to a new project each time?
In the case of Largo Winch I enjoyed working again with Jérôme Salle. After just an hour of conversation with him over dinner I knew I’d like to do it, in fact it was impossible for me to refuse this project. But even knowing its comic book origins
I tried not to base my work on it.
A movie is made for cinema and shouldn’t have to stick precisely to the comic book that inspired it.
Do you ever pick films to fit the path of your career?
No, even if nobody ever offers me a low budget movie now, which I regret. I did productions like this before, like Un roman policier by director Stéphanie Duvivier. This was shot digitally for less than a million Euros, and was the first movie of a very driven female director. Unfortunately the distribution was very bad.
How do you approach a film technically?
Modern cinema offers a lot of wonderful tools to make a movie, the problem is you can’t use all of
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