GUY DUFAUX   CSC

Born: 18 July 1943, Lille, France.

Education: École supérieure des beaux-arts, Marseilles, France [Fine Arts].

Career: As a young fine arts student he immigrated in 1965 to Montréal [and became a Canadian citizen in 1971], where he began his career as a trainee electrician for dir/doph Michel Brault. A year later Brault made him his c.asst. He worked his way up to directing doc's for Radio-Canada and in 1975 became the president of the 'Association des réalisateurs et réalisatrices du Québec' [ARRQ].

Ph commercials dir by Francis Mankiewicz [for Air Canada (1984)], Cosimo Cavallaro, Jean-Claude Lauzon, Charles Binamé, a.o.

Also active as director of doc's and commercials.

His brother Georges [1927-2008] was a doph and director. His niece Sylvaine is a c.op & doph.

Appeared in the doc's 'Si smattes que ça?' [1972, Robert Blondin; ph: Alain Chartrand] & 'Jean-Pierre Lefebvre' [1974, Paul Crépeau].

Awards: 'Genie' Award nom [1987] for 'Équinoxe'; 'Genie' Award [1988] for 'Un zoo la nuit'; 'Genie' Award [1990] for 'Jésus de Montréal'; 'Genie' Award nom [1991] for 'Nelligan' & 'Moody Beach'; Halifax 12th Atlantic FF [1992] & 'Genie' Award nom [1992] for 'Léolo'; 'Genie' Award nom [1996] for 'Le polygraphe'; 'Prix Jutra' nom [2000] for 'Nguol thùa'; 'Genie' Award nom [2001] for 'Stardom'; 'Gemini' Award [2001] for 'Haven' [Part 1]; 'Prix Jutra' nom [2002] for 'L'ange de goudron'; CSC 'Kodak New Century Award' [2002]; Festival des Films du Monde 'Prix de la meilleure contribution artistique' [2006] for 'Les filles du botaniste'.

The Long, Celebrated Career of Guy Dufaux, CSC

[By Maurie Alioff in Canadian Cinematographer, November 2010]

Since the 1980s, Guy Dufaux has been considered one of the shooters who transformed this country's screen images. During the nascent years of Quebec film production, most feature moviemaking emulated the rough visual poetry and open-ended spontaneity of NFB directors such as Gilles Groulx, or basked in the carefully framed, softly lit lyricism of pictures such as Jean Beaudin's 'J.A. Martin, photographe' [1975]. Jean-Claude Lauzon's 'Un Zoo la nuit' [1987], shot by Dufaux, boldly announced a new direction. 'Un Zoo la nuit' was far more controlled than documentary-style shooting, and cooler, more hard-edged than the prettified image-making that at the time signaled art. Here was a movie highlighting cool blues and deep blacks, one that dollied elegantly through vast waterfront lofts and followed an ex-con in a leather jacket as he rode his chopper toward a tragic fate.
Before working with Lauzon, Dufaux had already expanded Canadian cinematography with 'Sonatine' [1982], actress-turned-director Micheline Lanctôt's meditation on teen suicide, and Yves Simoneau's 'Pouvoir intime' [1985], a movie demonstrating that Canadians could make genre pictures that have visual style and wit.
During a recent interview, I asked the French-born Dufaux about his pivotal role in Quebec film history, and he was typically down-to-earth: 'It's a question of timing. We were making a certain kind of movie.' Moreover, he and his collaborators worked with low budgets and 'film stocks that were not as sensitive, so shooting was more complicated. We needed more lighting, and we had less money, and it was a question of finding clever ways to film. If I had been born 15 years later, I wouldn't have done things in exactly the same way.' Taking on the role of a groundbreaking innovator 'was not exactly planned in my head.'
Looking back at his prolific career, he makes it clear that he is particularly attached to his late friend Lauzon's 'Léolo' [1991], a major challenge that resulted in what he calls 'an important milestone in the movies I did. I'm very proud of it on every level.'
For Lauzon and Dufaux, the movie demanded extreme shifts in setting and lighting as it cut from realistic exteriors to hyper-stylized studio work, from the characters' real lives to their crazed fantasies, and then to real-life situations that play like crazed fantasies. Dufaux emphasizes that he and Lauzon met the demands because the 'fantastic adventure lasted for something like 10 weeks. We had the time we needed. We didn’t have a big-budget film, but Jean-Claude could think about the mise-en-scène, and I could find the best ways to light. It's really mathematical. If you do two minutes a day, you have time to accomplish what you want, but if you do six minutes, you don't.'
For Montreal producer Kevin Tierney, the cinematographer is a class act who refuses to be intimidated by the ticking meter. On 'The Trotsky' [2008], 'Dufaux was producer-proof. I could huff, I could puff, but he never changed his pace. He's methodical. On an exterior shot of a taxi pulling up to a door, he'll light the whole fucking block.' And the younger Tierney says that Dufaux's 'old school style gives you a richness of image that is amazing. He's not a digital bypass guy. A lot of young cinematographers light in post. They often don't have a lot of experience with film.'
Unlike shooters who fetishize certain equipment, Dufaux sees the stuff he works with as nothing more than the tools of his trade. 'I don't like equipment,' he says. 'It's not for me; it's not fun. As long as it works and gives what we're looking for, it's fine.' On the other hand, Dufaux thinks a lot about his choice of lenses. On the dark comedy 'Good Neighbours', 'I decided to go with Zeiss lenses, which are colder, more contrasty. On 'Barney's Version', I worked with Cookes, which are very soft.' As for HD, it yields good results, but the 'big, awkward, badly designed cameras' are a drawback. Dufaux speculates 'maybe in five years everything will be in HD, but right now for me it's still simpler to work in film. Shooting digitally you need more technicians, a data wrangler. The workflow is a lot more complicated than in film.' On top of that, 'the films made by Kodak and Fuji are so good now, and the cameras are lighter.' Most importantly, 'When I work in film I trust myself, and I can talk directly to the lab. There’s no in-between. When you work in HD, you can do so many things with the material. Somebody can completely change the look of the film.' Despite his reservations, Dufaux makes it clear that he doesn't oppose working digitally. He takes numerous reference pictures with an electronic still camera, and his latest assignment, long-time collaborator Yves Simoneau's crime comedy, 'L'appât', is an HD movie.

1967        9 minutes [Jacques Bobet & Thomas Vámos] c; doc/9m; cph: Alain Dostie, Réo Grégoire & Thomas Vámos

1967        Jeux de Québec 1967 [Jacques Bobet] c; doc/10m; cph: Alain Dostie, Réo Grégoire & Thomas Vámos

1969        Les archanges [André A. Bélanger] ?

1970        Sécurité routière [André A. Bélanger] ?; doc/?m

1970        L'autoroute [André A. Bélanger] 16mm/c; doc/8m; ep series 'Conduite automobile'

1970        Vision [André A. Bélanger] 16mm/c; doc/18m; ep series 'Conduite automobile'

1970        Contrastes [André A. Bélanger] 16mm/c; doc/16m; ep series 'Conduite automobile'

1970        Québec ski [Fernand Dansereau] c; doc/5m & 15m

1970        Bas de laine et papier-monnaie [Guy Dufaux] ?; ?/10m

1970        Fonction publique [Jacques Gagné] ?

1970        Babel P.Q. [Claude Godbout] c; doc/10m

1971        Un vapeur [Claude Godbout] c; doc/9m

1971        L'hiver [André A. Bélanger] 16mm/c; doc/11m; ep series 'Conduite automobile'

1971        Les smattes/The Wise Guys [Jean-Claude Labrecque] c

1971        Chut... [Jacques Gagné] ?; doc/12m

1971        Le huitième jour [Claude Godbout] c; doc/12m

1971        Ultimatum [Jean-Pierre Lefebvre] b&w-c; or ph Jacques Leduc; filmed June-December

1972        Visibilité la nuit [André A. Bélanger] 16mm/c; doc/?m; ep series 'Conduite automobile'

1972        Vision et fatigue la nuit [André A. Bélanger] 16mm/c; doc/12m; ep series 'Conduite automobile'

1972        Une solution [Guy Dufaux] ?

1972        Le Musée d'Art Contemporain [Jacques Gagné] 16mm/c; doc/14m

1972        Muntu [Josée Lecours] ?; short/?m

1972        Le jeu impossible [Guy Dufaux] ?

1972        Avec ou sans crampons [Guy Dufaux] ?

1972        Le Ministère de la Justice du Canada [Claude Godbout] ?; dram doc/21m

1973        On n'engraisse pas les cochons à l'eau claire/Pigs Are Seldom Clean [[Jean-Pierre Lefebvre] 16mm-35bu/b&w

1973        Les dernières fiançailles/The Last Betrothal [Jean-Pierre Lefebvre] 16mm/c

1974        Les machines à faire peur [Guy Dufaux] ?; doc/?m

1974        Échec et mat/Le jeu d'échec [Gilles Thérien] 16mm/?; doc/30m

1974        Alpinisme [Guy Dufaux] ?; doc/26m

1975        Comme une lettre à la poste/Letter Perfect [Guy Dufaux] ?; doc/?m

1975        L'amour blessé/Les confidences de la nuit [Jean-Pierre Lefebvre] c

1975        Montréal: Ville olympique [Roger Cardinal] c; doc/12m; or ph Michel Ernst & René Verzier

1976        Le St-Laurent [Guy Dufaux] ?; doc/59m

1976        Le vieux pays où Rimbaud est mort [Jean-Pierre Lefebvre] c

1976        Les enfants de la cour I [Robert Favreau] 16mm/c; doc/26m; ep series 'Les exclus'

1976        Les enfants de la cour II [Robert Favreau] 16mm/c; doc/26m; ep series 'Les exclus'

1977        Les enfants de l'émotion [Édith Fournier & Michel Moreau] 16mm/c; doc/28m; ep series 'Les exclus'

1977        Albert s'emmêle/Albert's Last Stand [André Melançon] 16mm/c; short/28m; ep 3-part series 'Comme les six doigts

                    de la main/The Backstreet Six'

1977        Les épreuves d'Alain/Alan in Action [André Melançon] 16mm/c; short/28m; ep 3-part series 'Comme les six doigts de

                    la main/The Backstreet Six'

1977        La filature/The Not So Private Eyes [André Melançon] 16mm/c; short/28m; ep 3-part series 'Comme les six doigts de

                    la main/The Backstreet Six'

1977        Comme les six doigts de la main/The Backstreet Six [André Melançon] 16mm/c; edited version (74m) of series;

                    released November 1978 (see above)

1977        Thetford au milieu de notre vie [Fernand Dansereau & Iolande Rossignol] 16mm/c; cph: Michel Brault

1977        Avoir 16 ans [Jean-Pierre Lefebvre] c

1978        Corridors [Guy Dufaux & Robert Favreau] 16mm/c; doc/83m; + co-scrpl

1978        Les bons débarras/Good Riddance [Francis Mankiewicz] c; 2uc; ph: Michel Brault

1979        Pris au piège/Les perdants II [Guy Dufaux & Robert Favreau] 16mm/c; doc/80m; cph: Philippe Martel

1979        Le plus beau jour de ma vie... [Diane Létourneau] c; doc/81m; 2uc; ph: Jean-Charles Tremblay

1980        Hockey [Patrick Jamain] ?; doc/?m

1980        Les pièges de la mer/Cries from the Deep [Jacques Gagné] 16mm/c; doc/96m; cph: Colin Mounier, Raymond Coll,

                    Albert Falco & Bernard Delemotte

1980        Du grand large aux Grands Lacs/St. Lawrence: Stairway to the Sea [Jacques-Yves Cousteau & Jacques Gagné]

                    16mm/c; doc/96m; cph: Colin Mounier, Albert Falco, Jacques Leduc, a.o.

1981        L'équipe des grands défis [Guy Dufaux] ?; + scrpl/ed

1981        Voyage de nuit [Roger Frappier] c; short/27m

1981        Les fleurs sauvages/Wild Flowers [Jean-Pierre Lefebvre] 16mm-35bu/b&w-c

1981        Le futur intérieur/The Future Interior [Jean Chabot & Yolaine Rouleau] 16mm/c; 64m

1982        Charting the Frozen Sea/Au pays des glaces [Guy Dufaux] c; doc/25m

1982        Bleue brume [Brigitte Sauriol] 16mm/c; short/27m

1982        Sonatine [Micheline Lanctôt] c

1983        De l'autre côté de la glace [Guy Dufaux & Serge Morin] c; short/27m; cph: Martin Leclerc & Éric Michel

1983        Au rythme de mon coeur [Jean-Pierre Lefebvre] 16mm/b&w; doc/80m

1983        Le jour 'S..'/S Day/'S' As in... [Jean-Pierre Lefebvre] 16mm-35bu/c

1984        E=Rock4 [Guy Simoneau] v/c; doc/53m; cph: Michel Caron & André Gagnon

1984        La terrapène [Michel Bouchard] c; short/24m; ep series 'Les petits contes cruels'

1984        Les petites cruautés [Michel Bouchard] c; short/23m; ep series 'Les petits contes cruels'

1984        Les coulisses de l'entraide [Robert Favreau & Michel Moreau] 16mm/c; doc/54m

1985        Pouvoir intime/Intimate Power/Blind Trust [Yves Simoneau] c

1985        Le déclin de l'empire américain/The Decline of the American Empire [Denys Arcand] c; addph: Jacques Leduc

1985        Cinéma, cinéma [Gilles Carle & Werner Nold] b&w-c; doc/72m

1986        Équinoxe [Arthur Lamothe] c; addph: Jérôme Dal Santo

1986        La guêpe/The Wasp/Skybolt [Gilles Carle] c

1986        Bach et bottine/Bach and Broccoli [André Melançon] c; #3 of 'Tales for All'-series

1986        Le lys cassé/Death of a Silence [André Melançon] 16mm/c; short/48m

1987        Un Zoo la nuit/Night Zoo [Jean-Claude Lauzon] 16mm/c

1987        Milk & Honey [Rebecca Yates & Glen Salzman] c

1988        Pin.../Pin: A Plastic Nightmare [Sandor Stern] c

1988        Jésus de Montréal/Jesus of Montreal [Denys Arcand] c; 2uc Montréal: Jacques Leduc

1989        Portion d'éternité/Looking for Eternity [Robert Favreau] c

1990        Moody Beach [Richard Roy] c

1991        Nelligan [Robert Favreau] c

1991        Léolo [Jean-Claude Lauzon] c; uwph: Pauline Heaton

1991        Montréal vu par... Six variations sur un même thème/Montreal Stories/Montreal Sextet [seg 'Desperanto/Let

                    Sleeping Girls Lie' dir by Patricia Rozema] b&w-c; 6 seg; other ph: Paul Sarossy, Georges Dufaux, Pierre Mignot, Pierre

                    Letarte, Jean Lépine & Éric Cayla

1992        Les malheureux magnifiques/The Magnificent Losers [Mireille Goulet] c; short/5m

1993        Camilla [Deepa Mehta] c

1994        Voices/Voices from a Locked Room [Malcolm Clarke] announced as doph, but film was ph by Lauro Escorel

1994        Such a Long Journey [Deepa Mehta] scheduled for December start; film was dir by Sturla Gunnarsson and ph by Jan Kiesser

                    in 1997-98

1995        Le polygraphe [Robert Lepage] c

1996        A Dog of Flanders [Kevin Brodie] scheduled to start in May; prod halted; ph by Walther Vanden Ende in June 1998

1996        Joyeux calvaire/Poverty and Other Delights [Denys Arcand] c

1996        Polish Wedding [Theresa Connelly] c

1997        Nguol thùa/Tang le onzième/The Eleventh Child [Dai Sijie] c

1998        Eye of the Beholder [Stephan Elliott] c; 2uc: Nathalie Moliavko-Visotzky

1999        Stardom/15 Moments [Denys Arcand] b&w-c

1999        It Was an Accident [Metin Hüseyin] c

2000        Lauzon/Lauzone [Louis Bélanger & Isabelle Hébert] DigiBeta/c; doc/98m

2000        Love the Hard Way [Peter Sehr] c

2001        L'ange de goudron/Tar Angel [Denis Chouinard] c

2002        La louve/She-Wolf [Yves Simoneau] scheduled for September start; status unknown

2002        Les invasions barbares - le déclin continue/The Barbarian Invasions [Denys Arcand] s35/c

2005        Les filles du botaniste/The Chinese Botanist's Daughters [Dai Sijie] s35/c

2005        La rage de l'ange [Dan Bigras] scope/c

2006        L'âge des ténèbres/Days of Darkness [Denys Arcand] s35/c; addph: James Gray, André Turpin & Nathalie Moliavko-Visotzky

2007        The Timekeeper [Louis Bélanger] scope/c

2008        The Trotsky [Jacob Tierney] scope/c

2009        Assassin's Creed: Lineage [Yves Simoneau] c; 3-part online short/36m; live action + CGI; accompanied the release of

                    the vg 'Assassin's Creed 2' and meant to fill in the back story of the game

2009        Barney's Vision [Richard J. Lewis] scope/c; 2uc: Phil Oetiker

2010        Good Neighbours/Notre-Dame-de-Grâce [Jacob Tierney] c

2010        L'appât [Yves Simoneau] HD/c

1969        Landmark [prod: Julian Smither] 8-part doc series (1970) for CBC-tv

1969        L'opération lune [Pascal Gélinas] tvm

1969        Jonquière [Fernand Dansereau] doc/b&w/28m

1973        L'amour quotidien [ep 'L'argent', 'Le beau savoir', 'Le goût de la paix', 'Faire la cour', 'L'exigence', 'La déchirure', 'Et puis

                    après', 'L'ordre des choses', 'Vivre avec toi', etc. dir by  Iolande Cadrin-Rossignol & Fernand Dansereau] 13-part

                    series/16mm (1975); each ep 25m

1973        Les joueurs [ep 'Hasard du haut d'une perche' dir by Claude Godbout, 'Contrat d'amour' dir by Fernand Dansereau &

                    'Hasard' dir by Réal Tremblay] series

1978        La pêche côtière [Guy Dufaux] doc/30m; ep series 'Un pays, un goût, une manière'

1978        Une naissance apprivoisée/A Birth in the Family [ep 'Dans le ventre de ma mère', 'Je la vois, je la vois...' & 'Le

                    neuvième mois' dir by Michel Moreau] 3-part doc series/16mm (each ep 24m); co-special collab ph; ph: François Gill;

                    filmed 1978-79; also released theatrically in 1979 (73m)

1980        L'âge de l'énergie [ep 'À la recherche de demain', 'Les choix collectifs', 'La crise du pétrole', 'Économies ou échecs',

                    'Géographie de l'énergie', 'L'hydro électricité: il y a des limites!', 'Le rôle de l'état', 'La route du pétrole', 'Le marché de

                    l'énergie', 'Le pétrole d'Algérie', 'Le prix de l'énergie', 'L'énergie nucléaire' & 'Les énergies douces' dir by Aimée Danis,

                    Jacques Gagné & Yves Plouffe] doc series; each ep 25m

1982        La vigie/Diabète [Robert Favreau] doc/25m/16mm; ep series 'Les chocs de la vie'

1982        Zigzags [ep #1 'La route des étoiles/The Ways to the Stars', #2 'Chemin faisant/The New Girl', #4 'Le beau rôle/The Best

                    Part', #5 'Le lève-tôt/The Early Bird' & #6 'La manigance/Follow the Leader' dir by André Melançon] 6-part series/16mm

                    (1984); each ep 25m; ep #3 'Les peurs bleues/Fighting Back' ph by Michel Brault

1984        Un amour de quartier/Close Quarters [Robert Ménard] 13-part series/16mm

1986        One Police Plaza [Jerry Jameson] tvm

1987        The Return of Ben Casey [Joseph L. Scanlon] tvm

1988        C.A.T. Squad: Python Wolf [William Friedkin] tvm

1989        Blanche est la nuit/Tears Behind the Wall [Johanne Prégent] tvm

1990        Sam & Me [Deepa Mehta] tvm

1990        Un autre homme [Charles Binamé] tvm

1992        Vendetta II: The New Mafia/Bride of Violence 2 [Ralph L. Thomas] 2-part tvm

1997        Platinum [Bruce McDonald] tvm/BetaSP

1999        One Special Night/A Winter Visitor [Roger Young] tvm

1999        The Great Gatsby [Robert Markowitz] tvm; uwph: Pauline Heaton

2000        Haven [John Gray] 2-part tvm/b&w-c

2001        Napoléon [Yves Simoneau] 4-part miniseries

2003        Word of Honor [Robert Markowitz] tvm; addph: Andrew Bako

2003        Bad Apple [Adam Bernstein] tvm

2004        The Wool Cap [Steven Schachter] tvm

2004        Dawn Anna [Arliss Howard] tvm

2005        Marie-Antoinette [, la véritable histoire] [Francis Leclerc & Yves Simoneau] tvm

197?        La clé [?] ph: Serge Chergui

1970        Bas de laine et papier-monnaie [+ ph] see Films

1972        Une solution [+ ph] see Films

1972        Le jeu impossible [+ ph] see Films

1972        Avec ou sans crampons [+ ph] see Films

1972        Le Ministère de la Consommation et des Corporations du Canada [doc/20m] ph: François Gill

1972        Le Ministère de l'Expansion économique du Canada [doc/20m] ph: François Gill

1974        Les machines à faire peur [+ ph] see Films

1974        Alpinisme [+ ph] see Films

1975        Comme une lettre à la poste/Letter Perfect [+ ph] see Films

1976        Le St-Laurent [+ ph] see Films

1978        La pêche côtière [+ ph] see Television

1978        Corridors [co-d; + co-scrpl/ph] see Films

1979        Pris au piège/Les perdants II [co-d; + cph] see Films

1981        L'équipe des grands défis [+ ph/ed] see Films

1982        Charting the Frozen Sea/Au pays des glaces [+ ph] see Films

1983        De l'autre côté de la glace [co-d; + cph] see Films