BENOÎT DELHOMME

#1: Photo by Fuji Film

#2: [Left] with dir John Hillcoat - "The Proposition" [2004]

BENOÎT DELHOMME AFC

Born: 28 August 1961, France.

Education: École Nationale Supérieure Louis Lumière [graduated in 1982].

Career: Ph commercials dir by Frank Budgen [for Levi's], Mike Figgis [for Givenchy], Jordan Scott [for Marks & Spencer], John Hillcoat ['Heroes Return/Hero's Return/The Return' for The National Lottery (2011; 1m30s)], a.o. Ph music videos.

Also active as a painter.

Awards: Camerimage 'Golden Frog' nom [1993] for 'Mui du du xanh'; 'César' Award nom [1998] for 'Artemisia'; Chicago IFF Special Jury Prize [2001] for 'Ni neibian jidian'; AFI [Aus] Award [2005] for 'The Proposition'.

Website: Benoît Delhomme

Benoît Delhomme on 'Ni na bian ji dian/Et là-bas, quelle heure est-il?/What Time Is It There?' [2000]: 'When you hold the same frame for more than five minutes, you have to study the image much more than usual. Normally, when you are doing a scene, the director wants a lot of coverage and many angles to try and put the attention of the audience on one specific thing in the shot. By going to a close-up, for example. When you are holding a wide shot you say, "Okay, the audience is going to see the scene only in a wide shot, so I have to give them all the information they need." You have to study the composition a lot. It's like painting in a way. I wanted to compose the lighting and the frame with this idea. I wanted the audience to know exactly where they have to look; to concentrate the light in the most important part of the frame; to make the shot readable without close-ups. I've never had enough time in the past to do my lighting. In this film, it was fantastic. I would spend three hours preparing the shot. If you are covering a scene with 20 shots, you're going to have less time. This director felt it was better to think before shooting. He would come in in the morning and we would talk for a half hour about the meaning of the scene. I never had this luxury on a film before. From there we would try one or two lenses. It was fantastic. Normally you fight for time to light the scene and everybody says, "You have to work faster." Often, the problem is that the director doesn't know which shot is the most important. When they shoot 20 shots, for example, 10 of them may end up in the garbage. On this film, each shot was more precious.' [From interview with Phillip Williams in 'MovieMaker', Vol. #1, Issue #8.]

FILMS
1983	Trois garçons sur la route [Lakdar Lahcine] 16mm/b&w; short/22m
1984	Johnny, fais-moi mal! [Franck Landron] 16mm/c; short/3m
1984	La leçon de cinéma [Franck Landron] 16mm/c; short/4m
1985	Les perles roses de ton collier [Benoît Delhomme] 16mm/b&w; short/5m; + sound/ed/actor
1985	80 jeunes chimères [Bénédicte Brunet] s16/c; short/18m
1988	Movie-palace [Bernard Pavelek] c; doc/7m
1988	Les bûcherons de l'avenue Foch [Pierre Sigwalt] 16mm/c; doc/6m
1989	Lors du couchant [Yves Elie] c; short/13m
1990	Les empreintes [Bernard Pavelek] 16mm/c; doc/14m
1990	Le p'tit Louis [Philippe Barcouzareaud] c; short/14m
1990	Le mariage blanc [Christine Carrière] c; short/25m; prod La Fémis
1991	Le syndrome de Peter Pan [Kaloust Andalian] c; short/21m
1991	Loin du Brésil/Far from Brazil [Tilly] c
1991	La malheureuse [Manuel Flèche] b&w; short/6m
1991	Faux bourdon [Brice Cauvin] c; short/13m
1991	L'aventure d'une baigneuse [Philippe Donzelot] c; short/14m
1992	Un dimanche sans ailes [Anthony Souter] b&w; short/14m
1992	Du poil de la bête [Allan Wisniewski] c; short/4m
1992	L'amant 2 [Lionel Kopp] c; short/4m
1992	Comment font les gens? [Pascale Bailly] c; short/48m
1992	Mùi du du xanh/L'odeur de la papaye verte/The Scent of Green Papaya [Tran Anh Hung] c
1992	Reste [Marie Vermillard] c; short/20m
1992	Deux amis (Prélude) [Pierre Schöller] c; short/5m
1993	Offre d'emploi [Emmanuelle Cuau] c; short/23m
1993	Grande petite [Sophie Fillières] c
1993	Circuit Carole [Emmanuelle Cuau] c
1993	L'irrésolu/The Indecisive Guy [Jean-Pierre Ronssin] c
1994	La trêve [Emmanuel Paulin] b&w; short/15m
1994	Bête de scène [Bernard Nissile] c; short/18m
1994	Xich lo/Cyclo [Tran Anh Hung] c
1995	Chacun cherche son chat/When the Cat's Away... [Cédric Klapisch] c
1995	Un air de famille/Family Resemblances [Cédric Klapisch] s35/c
1995	Artemisia [Agnès Merlet] c
1996	Le secret de polichinelle/Headless Chicken [Franck Landron] c
1996	Grand combat, la légende de Tapha Gueye [Philippe Bordas] s16/c; doc/54m
1997	The Loss of Sexual Innocence [Mike Figgis] s16-35bu/c
1998	The Winslow Boy [David Mamet] c
1998	With or Without You [Michael Winterbottom] c
1998	The Talented Mr. Ripley [Anthony Minghella] c; New York ph; ph: John Seale
1999	Miss Julie [Mike Figgis] c
1999	Sade [Benoît Jacquot] scope/c
2000	Mortel transfert/Mortal Transfer [Jean-Jacques Beineix] scope/c
2000	Play/Comédie [Anthony Minghella] c; short/16m; ep series 'Beckett on Film'
*2000*	The Bourne Identity [Doug Liman] scheduled as doph, but replaced by Oliver Wood
2000	Ni na bian ji dian/Et là-bas, quelle heure est-il?/What Time Is It There? [Tsai Ming-Liang] c; see above
2001	L'idole/The Idol [Samantha Lang] c
2002	Adolphe [de Benjamin Constant] [Benoît Jacquot] c
2002	Rencontre avec le dragon/Dragon rouge/The Red Knight [Hélène Angel] scope/c; 2uc: Xavier Tauveron
2003	Podium [Yann Moix] scope/c; 2uc: Xavier Tauveron
2004	The Merchant of Venice [Michael Radford] s35/c; 2uc: Jako Raybaut
2004	The Proposition [John Hillcoat] s35/c; 2uc: Simon Finney

[Right] with dir Anthony Minghella - "Breaking and Entering"

2005	Breaking and Entering [Anthony Minghella] s35/c; 2uc: Simon Finney
2006	1408 [Mikael Håfström] s35/c; 2uc: Tim Wooster
2006	Wilde Salomé/Salomaybe? [Al Pacino] 35mm+dv-to-?/c; doc/95m; cph: Robert Leacock, Denis Maloney & Jeremy Weiss; released in 2011 (Venice FF)
2006	Salomé [Al Pacino] c; 78m; released in 2013

With dir Mark Herman [left] - "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas"

2007	The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas [Mark Herman] c
2008	The Tree of Life [Terrence Malick] 35mm+65mm+RED+HD (Phantom HD Gold)-to-35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c; ph Versailles; ph: Emmanuel Lubezki
2008	Shanghai [Mikael Håfström] p/c; 2uc: Tim Wooster; action unit ph: Picha Srisansanee
2009	Chatroom [Hideo Nakata] s35-to-35mm/c; anim ph: Matthew James Day
2010	The Son of No One [Dito Montiel] s35 (+ D-Cinema)/c; addph: Jonathan Hall; aph: Randy Greer
2010	Kiss, His First/Chu wen/Ensisuukko [Ilkka Järvi-Laturi] c
2010	One Day [Lone Scherfig] s35 (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc France: Frédéric Martial-Wetter
2010	To the Wonder/The Burial [Terrence Malick] s35+65mm+RED-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c; ph Versailles (footage from 'The Tree of Life' ?); ph: Emmanuel Lubezki; filmed 2010 & 2011
2011	Lawless/The Wettest County in the World [John Hillcoat] HD (ARRI ALEXA)-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: Manuel Billeter; aph: Steve Cassidy
*2012*	King Lear [Michael Radford] pre-production; scheduled to start filming in September; status unknown
2012	A Most Wanted Man [Anton Corbijn] HD (ARRI ALEXA M)-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c; aph: Jeremy Braben
2013	The Theory of Everything [James Marsh] HD (ARRI ALEXA Plus 4:3/Hawk Scope)+s16-to-D-Cinema/c
2014	The Proposal [Sean Ellis] scope/c; comm short/6m; for Cartier
2015	Free State of Jones [Gary Ross] HD (ARRI ALEXA XT)-to-D-Cinema/c; 2uc: Jerry M. Jacob
2015	En moi/In Me [Laetitia Casta] HD/c; short/26m
2017	At Eternity's Gate [Julian Schnabel] c

FILMS AS CAMERA ASSISTANT
1985	Le lieu du crime/La mauvaise herbe/Scene of the Crime [André Téchiné] co-c.asst; ph: Pascal Marti
1985	Jean de Florette [Claude Berri] ph: Bruno Nuytten
1985	Manon des sources/Manon of the Spring [Claude Berri] co-c.asst; ph: Bruno Nuytten

FILMS AS DIRECTOR
1984	Couleurs d'été [16mm/c; 13m] ph: Franck Landron
1985	Les perles roses de ton collier [+ ph/sound/ed/actor] see Films