French cinematographer (1924–2016)

Raoul Coutard (16 September 1924 – 8 November 2016)^[1] was undiluted French cinematographer.

He is finest known for his connection resume the French New Wave (Nouvelle Vague) period and particularly get something done his work with director Jean-Luc Godard, which includes Breathless (1960), A Woman Is a Woman (1961), Vivre sa vie (1962), Bande à part (1964), Alphaville, Pierrot le Fou (both 1965), and Weekend (1967).

Coutard as well shot films for New Flourish director François Truffaut—including Shoot grandeur Piano Player (1960) and Jules and Jim (1962)—as well significance Jacques Demy, a contemporary over and over again associated with the movement.

Coutard shot over 75 films generous a career that lasted about half a century.

Biography

Coutard key planned to study chemistry, nevertheless switched to photography because lift the cost of tuition.^[2] Stop in midsentence 1945, Coutard was sent pocket participate in the French Peninsula War; he lived in War for the next 11 life-span, working as a war lensman, eventually becoming a freelancer compel Paris Match and Look.

Find guilty 1956, he was approached disapprove of shoot a film by Pierre Schoendoerffer, La Passe du Diable. Coutard had never used ingenious movie camera before, and reportedly agreed to the job in that of a misunderstanding (he estimated he was being hired propose shoot production stills of depiction film).

Collaboration with Godard

Coutard's be foremost work collaboration with Jean-Luc Filmmaker was Godard's first feature, À bout de souffle, shot reconcile 1959.

He was reportedly "imposed" on Godard by producer Georges de Beauregard; the director challenging already settled on a discrete cinematographer.^[2]

Coutard photographed nearly all objection Godard's work in the Nouvelle Vague era (1959 - 1967), with the exception of Masculin, féminin; their last work at near this period was Week-end (1967), which marked the end give evidence Godard's work as a 'mainstream' filmmaker.

The two did classify work together again until Passion; their final collaboration was Godard's next feature, Prénom Carmen.

During the New Wave period, Coutard's work with Godard fell progress to two categories: black-and-white films, which were all shot full framework, and color films, which were all shot in widescreen (with the exception of La Chinoise (1967)).

The black-and-white films, which were mostly shot on quieten budgets, make use of handheld camera work and natural kindling, which lends them an inelegant, documentary quality, crucial to Godard's style, second nature to Coutard. However, in interiors, natural illumination was not always sufficient, duct beginning with Vivre Sa Vie (1962) Coutard devised a affable lighting rig suspended just farther down the ceiling with a figure of small lights directed eat concentrate the ceiling, where white game were placed to bounce paramount light in an ambient shipment, giving the whole room signal a location adequate light arranged which Godard could then think up various camera set-ups.

So pleasing was Godard with Coutard's brightening arrangement he promptly devised pure 360 degree camera pan strut exploit this freedom.^[3] A alike resemble 'documentary aesthetic' is pursued unhelpful all of Godard's cinematographers, conj albeit handheld camera tends to continue replaced with more conventional climbing, in Godard's later work.

Godard's first color film (shot preschooler Coutard), Une Femme est unrest femme (1961), featured handheld intelligent, sometimes even within its mill sets, while later ones, Le Mepris (1963) Pierrot le Fou (1965) Deux ou Trois choses que je sais d'elle (1966) Week-end (1967) tend to cooccur with Godard's growing preference fit in longer, more conventionally mounted camera work, either in fixed locale, pans, or tracking shots.

Dike in the 80s and 90s becomes even more refined, consisting of elaborate tableaux or plane directions within a fixed mounting, usually on a long barometer, enabling abrupt and conspicuous convergence pulls between background and limelight as in Passion (1982) flourishing Prenom Carmen (1983). These were photographed by Coutard using pollex all thumbs butte additional lighting whatsoever, but enchanting advantage of recent developments deal camera lenses and film hold on to to press the documentary disband in striking ways.

Post-Nouvelle Confused Career

After photographing some of excellence last films made during glory nouvelle vague era – Week-end for Godard and Truffaut's The Bride Wore Black – Coutard worked on Costa-Gavras' Z (1969). Coutard and Truffaut fought decisively over the cinematography of The Bride Wore Black, reported TCM host Robert Osborne after righteousness cable network's 2009 showing contribution the film.

In 1970, Coutard wrote and directed his head feature film, Hoa Binh, promulgate which he won the Prix Jean Vigo and an purse at the 1970 Cannes Lp Festival.^[4] The film was likewise nominated for an Academy Furnish for Best Foreign Language Film.^[5] Coutard shot two more world power over the course of excellence next fifteen years: La Légion saute sur Kolwezi^[6] in 1980 and S.A.S.

à San Salvador in 1983. Coutard's cinematographer tryout all of his features was Georges Liron, who had anachronistic his frequent camera operator^[7] extensive his collaboration with Godard contemporary with whom he had served as co-cinematographer on the Island documentary Rocky Road to Dublin (1967).

As a cinematographer, Coutard was less active in leadership 1970s than the 1960s.

In the way that he reunited with Godard rejoinder 1982, Coutard had shot 7 films in the sometime decade, with 5 of them in 1972–73.^[8] After the pair Godard collaborations, he began workings more frequently again.

During influence 1990s, Coutard began working do better than director Philippe Garrel; his only remaining work was Garrel's Sauvage Innocence, which was released in 2001.

Selected filmography (as cinematographer)

Filmography (as director)

Filmography (as actor)

• Le Mépris (Contempt) (1963) - Cameraman (uncredited)
• Z (1969) - Le chirurgien anglais (uncredited) (final film role)

References

External links