What makes films memorable and meaningful? Great cinematographers are not only translators of a director’s vision but are involved in a dance between director and actor. When combined with personal techniques like handheld, the camera itself can become a character, bringing us back in time and behind the eyes of well-known figures like Van Gogh and Stephen Hawking, which is what Benoît Delhomme did in the films At Eternity’s Gate and The Theory of Everything.
Benoît Delhomme studied cinematography at the École nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière and went on to make his breakthrough as a director of photography for the movie The Scent of Green Papaya directed by Tran Anh Hung. The film went on to win the Caméra d'Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. Benoît has established himself as an international cinematographer and has worked with creatives such as Al Pacino, Julian Schnabel, and James Marsh. Over the years, Benoît Delhomme has worked on a wide array of films where his focus has been to tell a strong story through the visual. This focus has shined not only through his work as a cinematographer, but also his work as a painter.
BENOIT DELHOMME
I certainly like a handheld camera, It's a bit like playing a saxophone. It's like the pace of walking or how I stop or I decide to go closer to the actor or to take more distance is so free. No one is telling me to go one step forward or one step back. I have to decide on the spot. So there certainly a freedom like a painter with a brush. It's nice because you have even the vibrations, your rhythms, the actor's rhythms. It's this dance.
I don't know if Julian Schnabel trusted me, and I had to prove myself. For example, he had another guy in mind. And for many weeks, he said to me, "Maybe we should keep two cinematographers?" And one evening he said, "I'm going to paint in my outdoor studio tonight if you want to come." And, I went to see him painting and brought a small digital camera. And he had music on and was doing this incredible painting. I was kind of fascinated to be there. We didn't talk. He knew I was filming him. He didn't say anything. So I spent part of the night cutting my small documentary. And in the morning at breakfast, I put my computer on the breakfast table and showed it to him, and he was so focused and very moved by what he saw. And he said, "Okay, you captured what I was doing. You've got the film."
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If you want to do your art well, you need to have some pleasure. If talking is not a pleasure, it's horrible. And when filming on a set is a bad experience, it's one of the worst things in life. As a cinematographer, if you can't make what you do personal to you, there is no soul. You need to make it personal.
