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BEHIND THE CAMERA
WELCOMETO CYBERSPACE
ANINTERVIEWWITH
BENÔITDELHOMMEAFC
enôit Delhomme is no stranger to Bcreating strange and exotic
worlds on film. Witness his work
on a pair of acclaimed Vietnamese movies, The Scent Of Green Papaya and Cyclo, not to mention The Proposition, a stark and often shocking period tale of the Australian Outback, which won him several awards, such as the AFI’s for Best Cinematography.
His latest assignment has, however, given him the chance to explore the distinctly otherworldly – the internet, no less - in a new thriller from Japanese director Hideo Nakata who previously originated offbeat film shockers like Dark Water and The Ring.
Adapted from his own short play by Irish writer Enda Walsh (Hunger), Chatroom, filmed at Shepperton and on locations in London, co-stars Aaron Johnson, Imogen Poots and Matthew Beard in a creepy tale of teenage manipulation set between the real world and an online universe.
According to Delhomme, used to shooting in the UK after films like Anthony Minghella’s Breaking And Entering, David Mamet’s The Winslow Boy and 1408, directed by Mikael
Hafstrom: “The director’s name attracted me to this story straightaway.
I thought the combination of the script and him would make something very exciting to shoot. I didn’t see the play but cinema gives us the chance to make a visual metaphor for the internet.
“In a brief note before the script begins, Enda and Hideo wrote some lines about what they had in mind: the idea was to have these kids at home when they’re chatting online alone and isolated in their bedrooms, but then, in the film, they actually project themselves into this internet place where they then meet and talk, the idea being to show the lives they imagine for themselves. ‘What an incredibly visual idea’, I thought.”
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