Page 32 - Fujifilm Exposure_17 Africa_ok

FRENCH TOAST
FRENCH TOAST
A SALUTE TO GALLI C
Madelyn Most reports from Paris on non-stop filmmaking in France
CI NEMATOGRAPHY
N o matter what the season, its seems to be always busy here in the city of
light. Despite a rather cold, dark winter with downpours that caused la Seine to flood her banks,
there were hardy film crews all around Paris shooting day and night.
In February, DP Agnés Godard was awarded the César for Best Cinematography on Claire Denis’ Beau Travail. In March, the Association of French Cinematographers held a micro salon at Le Femis with displays of camera and lighting equipment, demonstrations of the latest film stocks offered by Fuji and others, sam- ple reels of special FX and visual effects now digitally rendered, and dig- ital blow-ups from super 16 and 35 from different laboratories.
Veteran DP Willy Kurant, who, as a very young cameraman was cata- pulted into stardom by Jean Luc Godard and Orson Welles, flew in from Los Angeles to photograph a movie with his long time collaborator, direc- tor Charlotte Brandstrom called From One Woman To Another - A Model Couple for TF1.
Said Kurant: “Members of the crew asked me why I would accept a TV movie. Well, I’ve done at least four features with Charlotte and I don’t really think about the format - television or film. It’s our working relationship that’s important. As soon as we wrap, I’ll be getting back to LA to squeeze in as much work
as possible before the dreaded strike hits”.
Robert Alazraki returned from the Imago meeting in Brussels to watch his latest film La Verité Si Je Mens 2 hit number one at the box office, while Born Romantic, directed by David Kane, which closed the London Film Festival, opened recently on London screens. Filling in the time before his next picture, he is working on his computer with Photoshop...“in order to return to my original love- stills photography.”
Francois Catonné
(Indochine) was filming at
Bulgari in the Place
Vendôme where his
Joanna Lumley lookalike
was scooping out some baubles for a French film version of Absolutely Fabulous. Interiors were shot in a stu- dio outside Paris, where I watched Francois shoot a still with his Finepix digital camera before the first take of each set up.
“I don’t see rushes anymore. On the entire production, I haven’t seen one foot of printed film. Dailies are sent on Beta cassettes that I view on a monitor. Just before I go in to grade the film, I will see a sample print of each scene for the first time ever. I use this camera as a notebook.
“At home, I download this into my computer and I can refer to it any time, but where it will really help me is several months from now when I have to grade the film. It will give me a reference for the lighting texture, mood and atmosphere I created, which otherwise I probably will have for- gotten because I will be concentrating on another film then,” said Catonné.
Photos from top: François Catonné, Dominique Le Rigoleur and Willy Kurant
EXPOSURE • 30 & 31