IEC
#1: From interview [Web of Stories]
#2: 1962
Born: 16 September 1924, Paris, France.
Died: 8 November 2016, Labenne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France.
Career: 'I was born in Paris in the 4th arrondissement. My mother was a Parisian, and my father came from Mayenne. He worked as an accountant in the Pharmaceutical Company Roche. I never dreamed of working on a movie, I always wanted to be a chemist. I was enrolled in a chemist school, but due to financial reasons, I was not able to attend the classes and I was therefore transferred to studying photography. In 1945 I was engaged in an expedition in the Far East, where war was waged with the Japanese, after which we left for Indochina.' He worked as still ph in Vietnam for 11 years: 5½ years with the French Expeditionary Forces and 5½ years as a freelancer for the magazines 'Life', 'Paris Match', 'Indochine Sud-Est Asiatique' and 'Radar'. In 1953-54 he ph his first short doc in Laos for 'La section d'action psychologique' of the Ministry of Information. With Jean-Michel de Kermadec he made a doc on the city of Cholon [near Saigon].
Ph commercials dir by Edouard Molinaro, a.o.
His ph of 'A bout de souffle' is discussed in the book 'Reflections - Twenty-One Cinematographers at Work' by Benjamin Bergery.
Appeared in the doc's 'Cinéma de notre temps: La nouvelle vague par elle-même' [1964, André S. Labarthe & Robert Valey; 52m], 'Léaud l'unique' [2001, Diane Baratier; 59m] & 'Raoul Coutard: de Saigon à Hollywood' [2006, Matthieu Serveau; 58m].
Awards: As doph: Preis der deutschen Filmkritik [1961] for 'À bout de souffle' & 'Tirez sur le pianiste'; BAFTA Film Award nom [1968] for 'The Sailor from Gibraltar'; 'César' Award [1978] for 'Le crabe-tambour'; Cannes IFF 'Grand Prix Technique' from the CST [1982] & 'César' Award nom [1983] for 'Passion'; Venice FF 'Special Prize' [1983; shared] for 'Prénom Carmen'; 'Genie' Award nom [1991; shared] for 'Bethune: The Making of a Hero'; ASC International Award [1997]; Marburger Kamerapreis [2001]; 'Manaki Brothers' Film Camera Festival, Bitola, 'Golden Camera 300 for Lifetime Achievement' [2003].
As dir: Prix Jean Vigo [1970] & Cannes FF 'Best First Work' & 'Palme d'or' nom [1970] for 'Hoa-Binh'.
"Une femme est une femme" [1961]
'In
writing about Raoul Coutard's work one should perhaps start by saying that there is no
such thing as the typical Coutard 'look', since he shuns any particular style,
preferring to adapt his images to suit each film and its director. Of course,
definite Coutard trademarks - the hand-held camera, imaginative employment of
natural light - spring to mind immediately one thinks of his name, but these are
the tools with which an artist plies his trade and by themselves do not
constitute an inimitable style (as anyone who saw some of the countless slavish
imitations spawned in the wake of 'A bout de souffle' will testify - if they've
recovered from the eye strain they suffered struggling to follow what looked
like the adventures of a trampoline family on the dark side of the moon). All
this is not to denigrate Coutard's many splendid achievements, the best of which
are unforgettable; the harsh fluorescent hell of Alphaville; the vividly
beautiful landscapes of Pierrot's worlds, both real and imaginary; the delicate,
almost magical lighting for Lola's gentle fairy tale. In recent times, however,
Coutard's credits have been limited to rather undistinguished commercial
ventures. It would indeed be ironic if the cameraman whose name is synonymous
with the 'Nouvelle Vague' of the early 60's should become a key member of the
establishment in the 70's.' [David J. Badder in 'Film Dope', #8, October 1975.]
1963
'If
François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard could be said to be the parents of French
new wave cinema, Raoul Coutard was its midwife. He was director of photography
on 17 Godard films, as well as four by Truffaut, and there is little doubt that
the look of the nouvelle vague in the 1960s would have been very different
without Coutard.
In 1956 Coutard, a 35-year-old veteran of the French Indo-Chinese conflict and a Paris Match war photographer, became a director of film photography without ever having held a movie camera. He was asked to "do the photos" for a French-Italian romantic adventure set in Afghanistan - 'La passe du diable', directed by Pierre Schoendoerffer. "I agreed," Coutard tells me when we meet in Paris, "but if I had known that the job was actually director of photography and that the film was to be in CinemaScope, I would never have said yes."
The link with Godard was forged in 1959 by another seminal figure of the new wave - Georges de Beauregard. The producer-godfather imposed Coutard on Godard, even though the director had already chosen someone else to be his director of photography on 'A bout de souffle'.
Given the apparent visual harmony with which Coutard and Godard later worked, it is hard to believe what an ill-matched couple they were to begin with. For one thing, as Coutard puts it: "Jean-Luc is a fascist of the left, and I am a fascist of the right. But I had an advantage. Jean-Luc said, 'We will shoot this film as if we were reporting a story.' And since I was a photo-journalist, that suited me."
After the film's success, Coutard found himself being passed around among other new wave directors. "The new wave was a Cahiers du Cinéma mafia," Coutard says, referring to the film magazine that spawned a generation of critics-turned-directors. "If you were not in the Cahiers, you didn't get a look in."
Truffaut then chose Coutard (in preference to the celebrated cinematographer Henri Decaë) for 'Tirez sur le pianiste'. However, says Coutard, for all the film's anarchic look and subject matter, he found Truffaut to be a traditional director. "He was very thrown by this new working method," he says. Godard, on the other hand, would work on a day-to-day basis, scribbling dialogue on a big jotter pad and dictating it to the actors.
Coutard learned early on how to handle Godard's notorious tantrums: "If you went to him with a problem while he was thinking through a scene, he would fly into a terrible rage. So you waited until he was idle. With cameramen and directors, the problem is always one of communication. When you arrive, the director has already been working on the scenario - perhaps for months. He has his own vision , then you arrive with your vision."
After finishing 'Week End' in 1967, Godard made a dramatic announcement. "Jean-Luc rang and asked me to come over," Coutard says. "When I arrived at his apartment, he said to me, 'I've had a revelation. I am a Marxist-Leninist so I can no longer make films with capitalist money.' Actually, it is the leftists who rip you off. If you want to get paid, you work for a good capitalist company, like Gaumont, which we did."
For the next decade Godard worked on the margins of cinema. Then, in 1981, he and Coutard were back working together again, on the film 'Passion'. This was followed by 'Prénom Carmen' in 1983.
Shortly after this, the partnership ended, for good, because of a banal dispute. In 1985 Godard's new partner, film-maker Anne-Marie Miéville, rang Coutard and asked if he would take over as cinematographer on her new film; she had fired her director of photography. Coutard agreed, but said that since being fired was such a humiliating experience, as a matter of courtesy he would like first to talk to the dismissed cameraman to hear his side of the story - could he have a contact number? The information was refused and Coutard turned down the job, on principle.
Some months later, Godard rang inviting him to be director of photography on his next film, 'Détective'. Coutard agreed and was told to make contact with the office of the producer. But when Coutard rang, the office mysteriously claimed that nothing was known about his engagement and they refused to return his calls. One of the script writers was Anne-Marie Miéville. And that was the end of a historic association - one of the treasures of French cinema.' [From article by Peter Lennon in 'The Guardian', 9 June 2001.]
FEATURE FILMS | |
---|---|
1956 |
La passe du diable/The Devil's Pass [Jacques Dupont & Pierre Schoendoerffer] cs/c |
1958 |
Ramuntcho [Pierre Schoendoerffer] c |
1958 |
Pêcheur d'islande/Island Fishermen [Pierre Schoendoerffer] ds/c |
1959 |
A bout de souffle/Breathless [Jean-Luc Godard] b&w |
1959 |
Tirez sur le pianiste/Shoot the Piano Player/Shoot the Pianist [François Truffaut] ds/b&w |
1960 |
Les grandes personnes/Time Out for Love [Jean Valère] b&w |
1960 |
Lola [Jacques Demy] fs/b&w |
"Le petit soldat"
1960 |
Le petit soldat/The Little Soldier [Jean-Luc Godard] b&w; released in 1963 |
1961 |
Jules et Jim/Jules and Jim [François Truffaut] fs/b&w |
1961 |
Une femme est une femme/A Woman Is a Woman [Jean-Luc Godard] fs/c |
1961 |
Tire au flanc/The Army Game/The Sad Sack [Claude de Givray; superv by François Truffaut] fs/b&w; + small part |
1961 |
L'amour à vingt ans/Love at Twenty [seg 'Antoine et Colette' dir by François Truffaut] fs/b&w; 5 seg; other ph: Mario Montuori, Wolf Wirth, Shigeo Hayashida & Jerzy Lipman |
1962 |
Vivre sa vie [: Film en douze tableaux]/My Life to Live [Jean-Luc Godard] b&w |
1962 |
Et Satan conduit le bal.../And Satan Calls the Turns/Satan Leads the Dance [Grisha M. Dabat] b&w |
1962 |
La poupée/The Doll/He, She or It! [Jacques Baratier] fs/c |
1962 |
Als twee druppels water/De donkere kamer van Damocles/The Spitting Image/Inconnu aux services secrets [Fons Rademakers] fs/b&w |
1962 |
Les carabiniers/The Riflemen [Jean-Luc Godard] b&w |
1963 |
Les plus belles escroqueries du monde/The Beautiful Swindlers [seg 'Le grand escroc' dir by Jean-Luc Godard] fs/b&w; 4 seg (seg by Godard was cut from the film and shown separately); other ph: Jean Rabier, Tonino Delli Colli, Jerzy Lipman & Asakazu Nakai |
#1: "Le mépris" [with spoken credits]
#2: [Right] Raoul Coutard
1963 |
Le mépris/Il disprezzo/Contempt [Jean-Luc Godard] fs/c; + small part |
1963 |
La difficulté d'être infidèle/Bonne à tout faire [Bernard Toublanc-Michel] b&w |
1963 |
Les baisers [Charles L. Bitsch, Bertrand Tavernier, Claude Berri, Jean-François Hauduroy & Bernard Toublanc-Michel] b&w; 5 seg |
1963 |
La peau douce/The Soft Skin [François Truffaut] b&w |
1964 |
Bande à part/Band of Outsiders [Jean-Luc Godard] b&w |
1964 |
Une femme mariée [: Suite de fragments d'un film tourné en 1964]/A Married Woman [Jean-Luc Godard] b&w |
1964 |
Un monsieur de compagnie/Male Companion [Philippe de Broca] c |
1964 |
La 317e section/The 317th Platoon [Pierre Schoendoerffer] b&w |
1965 |
Alphaville [ou une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution] [Jean-Luc Godard] b&w |
1965 |
Je vous salue, Mafia/Hail, Mafia [Raoul Lévy] b&w |
1965 |
Pierrot le fou/Crazy Pete [Jean-Luc Godard] ts/c |
1965 |
The Sailor from Gibraltar [Tony Richardson] b&w |
1966 |
The Defector/L'espion [Raoul Lévy] c |
1966 |
Made in U.S.A. [Jean-Luc Godard] ts/c |
With dir Jean-Luc Godard [left] - "Deux ou trois choses que je sais d'elle"
1966 |
Deux ou trois choses que je sais d'elle/Two or Three Things I Know About Her [Jean-Luc Godard] ts/c |
1967 |
La chinoise [ou plutôt à la chinoise] [Jean-Luc Godard] c |
1967 |
L'horizon [Jacques Rouffio] c |
1967 |
La mariée était en noir/The Bride Wore Black [François Truffaut] c |
1967 |
Week End [Jean-Luc Godard] c |
1968 |
The Southern Star/L'étoile du sud [Sidney Hayers] ts/c |
With dir Costa-Gavras [right] - "Z"
1968 |
Z [Costa-Gavras] c; + small part |
1969 |
L'aveu/The Confession [Costa-Gavras] c; + small part |
1970 |
Êtes-vous fiancée à un marin grec ou à un pilote de ligne? [Jean Aurel] c |
1970 |
La liberté en croupe [Edouard Molinaro] c |
1970 |
L'explosion/The Hideout/Sex Explosion [Marc Simenon] c; + small part |
1970 |
Les aveux les plus doux/The Most Gentle Confessions [Edouard Molinaro] c |
1971 |
The Jerusalem File/Jerusalem, Jerusalem [John Flynn] c; addph: Brian Probyn |
1971 |
Embassy/Target: Embassy [Gordon Hessler] c |
1972 |
Le trèfle à cinq feuilles/Five Leaf Clover [Edmond Freess] c |
1972 |
Le gang des otages/The Hostage Gang/The Hostages [Edouard Molinaro] c |
1973 |
L'emmerdeur/Allez-vous perdre ailleurs/A Pain in the A... [Edouard Molinaro] c |
1973 |
Voulez-vous tuer avec moi? [Michel Audiard] ? |
1974 |
Comme un pot de fraises!/Like a Pot of Strawberries [Jean Aurel] c |
1977 |
Le crabe-tambour/Drummer-Crab [Pierre Schoendoerffer] c |
1979 |
Tout dépend des filles.../All Depends on Girls [Pierre Fabre] c; tech adv; ph: Alain Masseron |
1981 |
Passion/Godard's Passion [Jean-Luc Godard] c |
1982 |
Flash-back/Un jour ou l'autre [Olivier Nolin] c |
1983 |
Prénom Carmen/First Name: Carmen [Jean-Luc Godard] c; cph: Jean-Bernard Menoud |
1983 |
La diagonale du fou/Dangerous Moves [Richard Dembo] c |
1983 |
La garce [Christine Pascal] c |
1984 |
Du sel sur la peau [Jean-Marie Degèsves] c |
1985 |
Un secret dans la tête [Olivier Nolin] status unknown |
1985 |
Max, mon amour/Max My Love [Nagisa Oshima] p/c |
1986 |
Fuegos [Alfredo Arias] c |
1987 |
Bethune: The Making of a Hero/Dr. Bethune [Phillip Borsos] c; cph: Mike Molloy; loc shooting China (April-August); shooting continued in March 1988 |
1987 |
Blanc de Chine/Chinese White [Denys Granier-Deferre] c |
1987 |
Brennende Betten/Burning Beds [Pia Frankenberg] c |
1988 |
Ne réveillez pas un flic qui dort/Let Sleeping Cops Lie/Never Wake a Cop [José Pinheiro] c |
1988 |
Peaux de vaches/Thick Skinned [Patricia Mazuy] c; uncred |
1989 |
Il gèle en enfer [Jean-Pierre Mocky] c |
1990 |
La femme fardée [José Pinheiro] c |
1990 |
Les enfants volants/The Flying Children [Guillaume Nicloux] c; cph: Jean Badal |
1992 |
La vie crevée/Punctured Life [Guillaume Nicloux] c |
1993 |
La naissance de l'amour/The Birth of Love [Philippe Garrel] b&w; cph: André Clément |
1993 |
Faut pas rire du bonheur/Happiness Is No Joke [Guillaume Nicloux] c |
1993 |
Le crime du Padre Amaro [Olivier Nolin] status unknown |
1994 |
Le géographe Manuel [Michel Sumpf] b&w/silent (1st part) & c/sound (2nd part); cph: Denis Lenoir, William Lubtchansky, Pascal Marti, Jacques Loiseleux, Dominique Chapuis, Agnès Godard, Renato Berta, Romain Winding, a.o. |
1995 |
Le coeur fantôme/The Phantom Heart [Philippe Garrel] c; cph: Jacques Loiseleux |
2001 |
Sauvage innocence/Wild Innocence [Philippe Garrel] s35/b&w |
SHORTS, DOCUMENTARIES & TELEVISION | |
---|---|
1956 |
Paradiso terrestre/Earthly Paradise/Ritual of Love [Luciano Emmer & Robert Enrico] 16mm/c; doc/87m; cph: ? |
1957 |
Than le pêcheur [Pierre Schoendoerffer] c; short/26m |
1959 |
Ne tuez pas votre enfant [?] ?; short/?m |
1959 |
Nicky et Kitty [André Mercier] ?; doc/13m |
1959 |
Doit-on les punir? [Henri Calef] ?; doc/22m; cph: G. Raulet |
1960 |
La chute [?] ? |
1960 |
Petit jour [Jacques Pierre] b&w; mus short/16m; cph: Guy Suzuki |
1960 |
Chronique d'un été/Chronicle of a Summer [: Paris, 1960] [Jean Rouch & Edgar Morin] b&w; doc/85m; cph: Roger Morillière, Jean-Jacques Tarbès & Michel Brault |
1960 |
Bourdelle, sculpteur monumental [Albert Navarra] 16mm/b&w; doc/18m; cph: Claude Beausoleil |
1960 |
Singal, l'antilope sacrée [Raoul Coutard] ?; short/?m |
1962 |
Vacances portugaises/Les égarements/Portuguese Vacation/Les sourires de la destinée [Pierre Kast] b&w; short/57m |
1964 |
L'avatar botanique de Mlle. Flora [Jeanne Barbillon] ?; short/14m |
1964 |
Les voix d'Orly [Robert Lachenay] ?; exp short/8m |
1965 |
Scruggs/A Game Called Scruggs [David Hart] b&w; short/54m; uncred cph: David Muir |
[From reportage] - [Left] with Louis Guilbert - "Riom le beau"
1966 |
Riom le beau [Louis Guilbert] ?; doc/10m |
1967 |
Tu es danse et vertige [Raoul Coutard] ?; short/?m |
1967 |
Vive eau [Louis Roger] c; doc/13m |
1968 |
Au péril de la mer [Louis Roger] c; doc/13m |
1968 |
Rocky Road to Dublin [Peter Lennon] 16mm/b&w-c; doc/70m |
1968 |
Concerto Brandebourgeois [François Reichenbach] c; mus short/12m; cph: F. Reichenbach |
1970 |
Eici, l'aigo es d'or [Louis Guilbert] c; short/417mtr |
1970 |
Jolly Green [Raoul Coutard] ?; doc/40m |
1974 |
Le mouvement des eaux [Louis Guilbert & Jacques Rouxel] ?; doc/?m |
1977 |
[Le défilé du] 14 juillet [Raoul Coutard] 16mm/c; doc/13m |
1985 |
Parachute [Sabine Eckhard] b&w; short/13m |
1985 |
Diabolique [Frédéric Schoendoerffer] cs/c; short/?m |
1988 |
La piste aux étoiles [Guillaume Nicloux] ?; short/?m |
1990 |
Nachbarschaft [Sabine Eckhard] c; short/9m |
1990 |
Kaffeeklatsch [Sabine Eckhard] c; short/15m |
1991 |
Maigret et les plaisirs de la nuit [José Pinheiro] tvm; ep of 'Maigret'-series |
1991 |
Something's Wrong with You [Roger Walter] c; short/11m |
1996 |
Jeden Tag Weihnachten/Chaque jour est Noël [Miko Zeuschner] c; student film/37m |
FILMS AS DIRECTOR | |
---|---|
1960 |
Singal, l'antilope sacrée [short; + ph] see Shorts etc. |
1967 |
Tu es danse et vertige [short; + ph] see Shorts etc. |
1969 |
Hoa-Binh/The Bamboo Incident [feature; + scrpl] ph: Georges Liron |
1970 |
Jolly Green [doc; + ph] see Shorts etc. |
1974 |
Une nuit en Lorraine [tvm/?m] ph: ?; for FR3 Nord Picardie |
1975 |
La ville étranglée [co-d: Jean Larteguy; tv-doc/?m] ph: ? |
1976 |
La marche verte [doc/?m] ph: ? |
1976 |
Les deux pieds sur terre [tv-doc/?m] ph: ? |
1977 |
[Le défilé du] 14 juillet [doc; + ph] see Shorts etc. |
1977 |
L'adjudant Chef X [tv] ph: ? |
1979 |
La légion saute sur Kolwezi/Military Coup in Kolwezi/Operation Leopard [feature] ph: Georges Liron |
1982 |
S.A.S. à San Salvador/SAS Malko - "Terminate with Extreme Prejudice" [feature] ph: Georges Liron |