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#1: From interview [2009]

#2: "Infamous" [2005]

 

   

BRUNO DELBONNEL   AFC/ASC

 

Born: 1957, Nancy, France.

Education: Université Paris Sorbonne [Philosophy]; École Supérieure Libre d'Études Cinématographiques [ESEC], Paris, France [graduated in 1978].

Career: In the late 1970s he got a grant from the French government and directed the short 'Réalités rares'. 'I decided to move to New York. That was around 1980. I thought it might be easier - but it was tougher. I stayed in New York around six to nine months. That's when I met doph Nestor Almendros. He advised me to go back to France. So I went back to France, but I was speaking English better than before. Around that time, a commercial producer in France, who thought the best commercials were in England and the States, started hiring English and American directors and cinematographers, and they needed assistants who were able to speak English... that's how I got started.' Became c.asst working with Douglas Slocombe, Gerry Fisher, a.o., on commercials.

Ph 200+ commercials dir by Jean-Pierre Jeunet [for Commonwealth Bank], Tom Carty, Elias Merhige, Chris Palmer [for Škoda], Scott Hicks, Chee-Whan Chung [for Samsung], a.o.

Member of the ASC since 2009.

Awards: European Film Award [2001], 'César' Award nom [2001], 'Oscar' AA nom [2001], Palm Springs IFF 'Da Vinci' Award [2002], ASC Award nom [2002] & BAFTA Film Award nom [2002] for 'Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain'; 'Oscar' AA nom [2004], ASC Film Award [2004], BSFC Award '2nd place' [2004], 'César' Award [2004] & European Film Award nom [2005] for 'Un long dimanche de fiançailles/A Very Long Engagement'; Plus Camerimage 'Silver Frog' Award [2007] for 'Across the Universe'; 'Oscar' AA nom [2009] for 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'; Manaki Brothers International Cinematographers' FF 'Special Golden Camera 300 Award' [2011]; ASC Film Award nom [2013], BAFTA Film Award nom [2013], 'Oscar' AA nom [2013] & Film Independent Spirit Award 'Best Cinematography' nom [2014] for 'Inside Llewyn Davis'.

Bruno Delbonnel: 'First, digital timing is a new tool for cinematographers, but it doesn't mean you can shoot and find the look of the film afterwards in timing. Digital timing helps to go further in what was done during the shoot. Digital timing won't give you a direction of light if you didn't give this direction on the set in the first place. I did 90 percent of the lighting of 'Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain' during the main photography, using filters on the camera, gels on light, etc. Everything I could do while we were shooting, I did. Secondly, digital timing is going to change the culture of cinematography because it opens new territories. There are a lot of things that you cannot do with a lab process that are easy to do with digital timing. I think that digital timing can help us to create new kinds of images, new kinds of looks and therefore will change ways of seeing and ways of feeling emotions through light. We are just at the beginning of a very interesting way of using colors and contrast.... But of course you need two people to do that: a director and a cinematographer, who both want to experiment. Only two people can decide the look of the film - the director and the cinematographer - because they work together from the beginning so they know exactly what they want to achieve. So, the cinematographer must be there to time the film. There are so many possibilities with digital timing that you have to know exactly what you want otherwise you can spend months in timing. You can also ruin your film, because you can change it totally. We are not painters - we are not working alone - we are working for a director and for a script. If you are not at the final timing, all those discussions you had previously are useless. Cinematographers have to be involved with the timing.' [From interview on KODAK OnFilm website.]

 FILMS

1981

Le bunker de la dernière rafale/The Bunker of the Last Gunshots [Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet] b&w; short/26m

1983

Pas de repos pour Billy Brakko [Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro] c; exp short/5m

1989

Le grand cirque/The Grand Circus [Bruno Delbonnel] c; doc/80m

1992

Jour de fauche [Vincent Monnet] c; short/14m

1992

IP5: L'île aux pachydermes/IP5 [: The Island of Pachyderms] [Jean-Jacques Beineix] p/c; ph Pyrénées team (+ co-c.op); ph: Jean-François Robin

1993

Tout le monde n'a pas eu la chance d'avoir des parents communistes/Not Everyone Is Lucky Enough to Have Communist Parents [Jean-Jacques Zilbermann] c; cph: Thierry Jault

1993

Regarde-moi [Gabrielle Lazure] c; short/5m

1994

Du poulet [Tatiana Vialle] c; short/5m

1995

C'est jamais loin [Alain Centonze] c

1995

Pourvu que ça dure [Michel Thibaut] c

2000

Luis Miguel Dominguín [, el número uno] [, le torero du XXième siècle] [Marianne Lamour] DigiBeta/b&w-c; doc/52m

2000

Elvis de Médicis [César Vayssié] c; short/55m

2000

Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain/Amélie from Montmarte [Jean-Pierre Jeunet] s35/b&w-c

2000

The Cat's Meow [Peter Bogdanovich] b&w-c; Greece 2uc: Alexander Fischerkoesen

2001

Ni pour, ni contre (bien au contraire)/Personne n'est comme tout le monde [Cédric Klapisch] p/c; ph USA: Beatrice Mizrahi; aph: James Swanson

2003

Un long dimanche de fiançailles/A Very Long Engagement [Jean-Pierre Jeunet] s35/c; 2uc: Beatrice Mizrahi & Michel Amathieu

2004

Dangerous Parking [Peter Howitt] announced as doph; filmed October-November 2006 by ph Zoran Veljkovic

 

With dir Douglas McGrath [standing] - "Infamous"

 

2005

Infamous [Douglas McGrath] c

2005

Paris, je t'aime [seg 'Tuileries' dir by Ethan & Joel Coen] c

2005

Across the Universe [Julie Taymor] s35/c; uwph: Pete Romano

2006

Prvi put s ocem na izbore [Samia Karamehmedovic] pre-production; status unknown

2006

Life of Pi [Jean-Pierre Jeunet] pre-production; prod put on hold; filmed in 2011 with dir Ang Lee and ph Claudio Miranda

 

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"

 

2007

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince [David Yates] s35 (+ 70bu)/c; 2uc: Mike Brewster; aph: Adam Dale; model unit ph: Nigel Stone; vfx ph: James D. Kelly; filmed 2007-08

2009

Faust [Aleksandr Sokurov] 35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c

2011

Dark Shadows [Tim Burton] 35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c; splinter unit ph: Peter Talbot; aph: Jeremy Braben

2012

Inside Llewyn Davis [Ethan & Joel Coen] 35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: Craig Haagensen

2012

The Young and Prodigious Spivet/The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet [Jean-Pierre Jeunet] announced as doph, but film was ph by Thomas Hardmeier

2013

Big Eyes [Tim Burton] HD (ARRI ALEXA Plus 4:3 & Studio)/c; title seq ph: Carlos De Carvalho

2013

Le Louvre sous l'Occupation/Francofonia - Le Louvre Under German Occupation [Aleksandr Sokurov] HD/c

2015

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children [Tim Burton] HD (ARRI ALEXA XT)/c; uwph: Topher Jones

2016

Darkest Hour [Joe Wright] HD (ARRI ALEXA XT Studio)/c; 2uc: Carlos De Carvalho; aph: Jeremy Braben; filmed 2016-17

 

 TELEVISION

1995

Volga, Volga [Marianne Lamour] doc/52m; ep series 'Les grands fleuves'

1996

Aficion [Passion d'arènes]/L'afficion [Marianne Lamour] doc/52m & 110m

1997

Sigmund Freud - L'invention de la psychanalyse [Elisabeth Kapnist] doc/b&w-c/114m; for France 3 & La Sept ARTE

1999

Marie, Nonna, la vierge et moi [Francis Renaud] tvm/s16

1999

Chambre nº 13 [ep (7m) 'Chair en vie' dir by Fabienne Berthaud & Aruna Villiers] 13-part series

 

 MISCELLANEOUS

1979

Le manège [Jean-Pierre Jeunet; anim/10m] sound; ph: J-P. Jeunet

1985

37°2 le matin/Betty Blue [Jean-Jacques Beineix] co-c.asst; ph: Jean-François Robin

1986

Kamikaze [Didier Grousset] 2nd c.asst; ph: Jean-François Robin

1986

Le solitaire/The Loner [Jacques Deray] co-c.asst; ph: Jean-François Robin

1988

Foutaises [, catalogue nostalgique des plaisirs de la vie]/Things I Like, Things I Don't Like [Jean-Pierre Jeunet; short/b&w/7m] co-scrpl; ph: Jean Poisson

1990

Un coeur qui bat/A Beating Heart [François Dupeyron] co-c.asst; ph: Yves Angelo

1992

IP5: L'île aux pachydermes/IP5 [: The Island of Pachyderms] [Jean-Jacques Beineix] co-c.op (+ ph Pyrénées team); ph: Jean-François Robin

 

 FILMS AS DIRECTOR

197?

Réalités rares [short/7m] ph: Henri Alekan

1989

Le grand cirque [doc; + ph] see Films

2006

Paso doble [doc/c/41m] ph: B. Delbonnel; filmed on 6 May