CAROLINE CHAMPETIER   AFC

Born: 1954, Paris, France, as Caroline Champetier de Ribes.

Education: IDHEC, Paris.

Career: 'I began classically by entering the French school of cinema. I studied for three years and then decided to go into cinematography. I started [1976] as a second assistant and then a first. I worked with the same crew for nine years. This was the crew of French DP William Lubtchansky. During this time I learned my trade and did my first film as a DP in 1981, 'Toute une nuit' by Chantal Akerman.'

Also active as director.

Teaches at La Fémis. President of the AFC [2009-11]. Married to actor Louis-Do de Lencquesaing.

Appeared in the doc 'Women Behind the Camera' [2001-2006, Alexis Krasilovsky].

Awards: As doph: Grand Prix National - Films et Images [1998; awarded by le Ministère de la Culture].

As dir: Cabourg Romantic FF 'Golden Swann' [1999] for 'Marée haute'.

Caroline Champetier: 'Toute une Nuit' with Chantal Akerman was my first movie as a DP. It is difficult to go back such a long time and remember how it was, but I think that it is a great movie. There is something strong in looking at people during one night and what is love and what is a movie about love. As for the lighting, it was very instinctive. It was my first film and I believe that I have an instinct for light. On this film we had very little equipment but we managed. She was very precise about the framing and wanted little movement in the film. For the lighting she told me about a painting by Edward Hopper, and it was not just about the light but the feeling of loneliness of the people in this work. And the other important element for Chantal was the work of Pina Bausch, a great choreographer. She had done a documentary on Pina Bausch and used her sense of movement, of how two bodies come together, in 'Toute une nuit'. […] I worked with him [Jean-Luc Godard] at the beginning of my career. With him I learned how to expose the negative; he does not like to see much light in his image, or have many people or equipment on the set. He asks the DP to tell him exactly how he/she will expose the negative, and to be very precise. The second thing Godard taught me was to look before I lit, to look at the time of day and the room and then to decide how to light. So now I take a lot of time before a film to plan my lighting, and when we shoot I can go quickly.' [From the CSC website, 2000.]

1978        Moi, une autre [Laurence Dailly] c; short/12m; cph: Robert Foucard

1979        Fred Brauner préfère la bière [Pierre Wallon] 16mm/c; short/27m

1980        Trop tôt, trop tard [Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet] 16mm/c; cph France (1980): William Lubtchansky; ph Egypt

                    (May 1981): Robert Alazraki & Marguerite Perlado

1980        Les photos d'Alix [Jean Eustache] 16mm/c; short/15m; cph: Robert Alazraki

1981        Toute une nuit/All Night Long [Chantal Akerman] c

1984        Le livre de Marie/The Book of Mary [Anne-Marie Miéville] c; short/30m; cph: Jacques Firmann, Jean-Bernard Ménoud

                    & Yvan Niclass; this film precedes and is included in the feature 'Je vous salue, Marie/Hail, Mary' (1984, Jean-Luc Godard)

1984        Qu'est-ce que tu fais la! Sur un tableau de Jean-Charles Blais [Paule Muxel & Bertrand de Solliers] c; doc/9m

1985        Quinze août [Nicole Garcia] c; short/9m

1985        Elle et lui [François Margolin] b&w; short/23m

1985        Pauline-épaulettes [Stéphanie de Mareuil] 16mm/c; short/15m

1986        Le porte-monnaie [Daniel Sicard] c; short/2m

1986        Puissance de la parole/The Power of Speech [Jean-Luc Godard] c; short/25m; cph: Pierre-Alain Besse

1986        Soigne ta droite [Une place sur la terre comme au ciel]/Keep Up Your Right [Jean-Luc Godard] c; cph: Jacques Loiseleux

1987        Aria [seg #3 'Armide: Enfin il est en ma puissance' dir by Jean-Luc Godard] c

1987        L'amoureuse/The Lover/Women in Love [Jacques Doillon] c; cph: Christophe Pollock

1988        On s'est tous défilé [Jean-Luc Godard] c; short/13m

1988        Quand je serai jeune [Yann Dedet] c; short/17m

1988        La bande des quatre/The Gang of Four [Jacques Rivette] c

1988        La bête dans la jungle [Benoît Jacquot] c

1989        Trinité 12 h. 10 [Jean-Paul Fargier] ?; short/4m

1989        La fille de 15 ans/The 15 Year Old Girl [Jacques Doillon] c

1989        La désenchantée/The Disenchanted [Benoît Jacquot] c

1989        Les dernières heures du millénaire [Cédric Kahn] 16mm/c; short/8m

1990        Reflet [ou L'art de balayer] [Caroline Champetier] c; short/8m

1991        Le sommeil d'Adrien [Caroline Champetier] c; short/24m; + co-scrpl

1991        L'annonce faite à Marie/The Annunciation of Marie [Alain Cuny] c; cph: Denys Clerval & Serge Dalmas

1991        J'entends plus la guitare [Philippe Garrel] c

1991        Mensonge/Lie [François Margolin] c

1992        La sentinelle/The Sentinel [Arnaud Desplechin] c

1992        Hélas pour moi/Oh, Woe Is Me [Jean-Luc Godard] c

1993        Écrire - La mort du jeune aviateur anglais [Benoît Jacquot & Yann Andrea] s16/c; exp doc/36m

1993        Samout et Moutnefret [Pierre Coulibeuf] c; doc/9m

1993        C'est de l'art [Pierre Coulibeuf] c; doc/75m; cph: Gérard Grenier, William Lubtchansky, Alain Weill & Bernard Zitzermann

1993        Les enfants jouent à la Russie/The Kids Play Russian [Jean-Luc Godard] v/c; dram doc/60m; cph: Christophe Pollock

1993        N'oublie pas que tu vas mourir [Xavier Beauvois] c

1994        Il faut qu'une porte soit ouverte ou fermée [Benoît Jacquot & Louis-Do de Lencquesaing] ?

1994        Fausse noce [François Cadel] b&w; short/13m

1994        3000 scénarios contre un virus/3,000 Scenarios to Combat a Virus [seg (3m) 'Mère séropositive' dir by Benoît

                    Jacquot, 'Vertige de l'amour' (5m) dir by Laetitia Masson & 'Le temps du bonheur' (3m) dir by Caroline Champetier] c;

                    30 seg/109m; other ph: Thierry Arbogast, Gérard de Battista, Dominique Chapuis, a.o.

1994        Ainsi soient-elles/Femmes/Mujeres a flor de piel [Lisa & Patrick Alessandrin] c; cph: Javier Aguirresarobe

1995        En avoir (ou pas)/To Have (or Not) [Laetitia Masson] s16/c

1995        La fille seule/A Single Girl [Benoît Jacquot] c

1995        The Typewriter, the Rifle & the Movie Camera [Adam Simon] 16mm/b&w-c; doc/55m

1995        Ponette [Jacques Doillon] c

1996        Je suis venue te dire [Laetitia Masson] c; short/23m; cph: L. Masson

1996        L'@mour est à réinventer, dix histoires d'amour au temps du sida/Love Reinvented [seg (5m) 'Tapin du soir/

                    Night Hustler' dir by Anne Fontaine] c; 10 seg; other ph: Jean-Marc Fabre, Gilles Henry, Pierre Milon, a.o.

1996        Les mains [Christophe Loizillon] c; short/20m

1997        Nettoyage à sec/Dry Cleaning [Anne Fontaine] c

1997        Alice et Martin [André Téchiné] c

1997        À vendre/For Sale [Laetitia Masson] c; cph: Antoine Héberlé

1997        Les mains [Christophe Loizillon] c; short/20m

1998        L'école de la chair/The School of Flesh [Benoît Jacquot] p/c

1998        Par coeur [Benoît Jacquot] c; doc/75m

1998        Le vent de la nuit/Night Wind [Philippe Garrel] ws/c

1999        Lush [Mark Gibson] c

1999        Selon Matthieu [Xavier Beauvois] scope/c

2000        Carrément à l'ouest/Totally Flaky [Jacques Doillon] c

2000        H-Story [Suwa Nobuhiro] c; + small part

2000        Cet amour-là [Josée Dayan] c

2000        Sobibor, 14 octobre 1943, 16 heures [Claude Lanzmann] b&w-c; doc/95m; cph: Dominique Chapuis

2000        Yves Saint-Laurent, 5 Avenue Marceau 75116 Paris [David Teboul] BetaSP/c; doc/85m

2001        La guerre à Paris/The War in Paris [Yolande Zauberman] c

2001        Novela [Cédric Anger] c; short/28m

2003        Les visages [Christophe Loizillon] c; short/27m

2003        La nuit sera longue [Olivier Torres] c; short/43m

2003        À tout de suite/Right Now [Benoît Jacquot] dv-to-35mm/b&w

2004        Promised Land/Ha-aretz hamuvtachat [Amos Gitai] dv-to-35mm/c

2004        Quand nous étions punk [Pascal Rambert] c; short/16m

2004        Le petit lieutenant [Xavier Beauvois] c; + small part

2005        Car Wash [Pascal Rambert] c; short/11m

2005        Nouvelle chance/Oh La La! [Anne Fontaine] s16/c

2005        Carmen [Jean-Pierre Limosin] c

2005        L'intouchable/The Untouchable [Benoît Jacquot] 16mm-35bu/c; addph India: Jowan Le Besco

2006        Imago Mundi - Das Gültige, Sagbare und Machbare verändern/Imago Mundi - Challenging What Is Accepted

                    [Lisl Ponger] BetaSP/c; short/37m

2006        La ragioni dell'aragosta/Sympathy for the Lobster [Sabina Guzzanti] c; doc/90m

2006        L'avocat de la terreur/Terror's Advocate [Barbet Schroeder] dv-to-35mm/c; doc/135m; cph: Jean-Luc Perréard

2006        A l'est de moi/East of Me [Bojena Horackova] c

2007        Le tueur [Cédric Anger] c

2007        L'aimée/The Beloved [Arnaud Desplechin] b&w-c; doc/70m

2007        Nanayomachi/Nanayo/The Whole World [Naomi Kawase] s16-35bu/c

2007        Plus tard [, tu comprendras]/One Day You'll Understand [Amos Gitai] c