AGNÈS GODARD

AGNÈS GODARD AFC

Born: 28 May 1951, Dun-sur-Auron, Cher, France.

Education: IDHEC, Paris, France [graduated in 1980].

Career: Originally studied journalism, but switched to film after several years, graduating from the IDHEC in 1980. Started as c.asst. Her first project as a cinematographer was Wim Wenders' 'Chambre 666', made for television. There she met Claire Denis, who was working as Wenders' assistant director.

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

An exhibition of her photos, 'My Favorite Dance', opened in Paris in October 2014 [+ book published by Editions du Seuil].

Awards: Camerimage 'Golden Frog' nom [1994] for 'J'ai pas sommeil'; Torino IFF 'Equal Rights Award' [1994] for 'Tous les garçons et les filles de leur âge...'; Camerimage 'Golden Frog' nom [1997] for 'Nénette et Boni'; 'César' Award nom [1999] for 'La vie rêvée des anges'; 'César' Award [2001], BSFC Award 'Runner-up' [2000], European Film Award nom [2000] & NSFC Award [2001] for 'Beau travail'; Chlotrudis Award [2004] for 'Vendredi soir'; 'César' Award nom [2004] for 'Les égarés'; Premi 'David di Donatello' nom [2007] for 'Nuovomondo'; Premio ADF [2008] & 'César' Award nom [2008] for 'Home'; Prix spécial de la Commission Supérieure Technique de l'Image et du Son [CST] [2009] for her oeuvre; Chlotrudis Award nom [2010] for '35 rhums'; Marburger Kamerapreis [2012].

'L'enfant d'en haut/Sister' [2011]: Ms. Agnès Godard's work on Ursula Meier's 'L'enfant d'en haut/Sister' was a turning point in her long career: the first time she used a digital camera.

'It was quite an experience,' Ms. Godard said on a recent afternoon in her airy loft - a converted boiler-works factory - in the 11th Arrondissement here [Paris]. Pale, lithe and silver-haired, she spoke in a thoughtful, hushed, Gauloise-induced rasp. 'It's really a very big change to move from film to digital. The images don't have the same texture, the poetic charge is different, so you have to reinvent the images.'

In the film, Simon (Kacey Mottet Klein) lives with his older sister (Léa Seydoux) in a housing complex at the foot of a luxury ski resort in the Swiss Alps. At 12, the boy is the family's scrappy breadwinner, hitching a ride on a chairlift each day to pilfer ski equipment from the tourists before reselling it in the valley below, while his self-absorbed sister drifts in and out of view.

It's a worrying setup, but the film is more inspired by fables and Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales than gritty social realism, and Ms. Godard was determined to give it a look that would subtly reinforce that idea.

'Digital demands a very technical approach to the image,' she said, 'whereas before with film, even if there was a technical base, you could slide more easily toward a more intuitive approach. With digital, the camera sees more than us, and that's a gap to fill that's very technical and very strange and difficult to master.'

Ms. Godard said she relied on maneuvers like adding blue light to the Christmas tree in Simon's apartment to subtly heighten the visual atmosphere of the film. 'The idea of adding color was to try and make something different out of this new medium,' she said, 'not to try to recreate what we had with film, because that's a lost cause. Digital images have such precision that they are practically implacable. And what is implacable is violent, so I think it's almost opposed to the possibility of creating fiction.' [From article by Kristin Hohenadel in The New York Times, September 28, 2012.]

FILMS
1983	Chronique du Palais de la Méditerranée [Thierry Thomas] 16mm/c; short/25m
1985	La petite danseuse de 14 ans d'Edgar Degas/La danseuse de 14 ans [Henri Alekan] 16mm/c; dance film/6m; cph: François Ede; ep of series 'Le musée dansé'; prod for Musée d'Orsay
1986	Charlotte chocolat [Valérie Malek & Béatrice Sebbah] 16mm/c; short/10m
1986	Fantoches! [Pierre Barletta] c; short/13m; cph: Luc Pagès
1987	Dernière fugue [Miguel Vassy] 16mm/c; short/12m; cph: Solange Martin
1988	Tumulte [Anne Dreyfus & Camille Guichard] 16mm/c; dance film/8m; cph: Dominique Gentil
1988	Un geste simple [Alain Peyrollaz] c; short/9m
1989	Les chants de l'ombre [Clara Ott] b&w; short/19m
1990	Jacquot [de Nantes] [Agnès Varda] b&w-c; doc + dram seq/118m; cph: Patrick Blossier & Georges Strouvé
1991	Keep It for Yourself [Claire Denis] b&w; short/40m
1992	L'absence/Die Abwesenheit [Peter Handke] c
1992	Dimanche soir [Solange Martin] c; short/6m
1992	La robe à cerceau/The Hoop Skirt [Claire Denis] b&w; short/24m
1993	La vis/The Screw [Didier Flamand] b&w; short/19m
1993	Sida, paroles de l'un à l'autre [Paule Muxel & Bertrand de Solliers] c; doc/67m
1993	J'ai pas sommeil/I Can't Sleep [Claire Denis] c
1993	[Sida -] Une histoire qui n'a pas de fin/Aids, a Story That Knows No End [Paule Muxel & Bertrand de Solliers] c; doc/95m
1993	Canova mutilé [Jacques Deschamps] 16mm/c; doc/35m
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, Renato Berta, Raoul Coutard, Romain Winding, a.o.
1994	À propos de Nice, la suite [seg 'Nice, Very Nice' dir by Claire Denis] c; 7 seg; other ph: Laurent Dailland, Nathalie Crédou, a.o.
1995	Sida, paroles de familles [Paule Muxel & Bertrand de Solliers] c; doc/93m
1995	Nénette et Boni [Claire Denis] s16-35bu/c
1997	La vie rêvée des anges/The [Daydreams] [Dreamlife] of Angels [Erick Zonca] s16-35bu/c
1997	L'arrière-pays [Jacques Nolot] c
1998	La nouvelle ève/The New Eve [Catherine Orsini] c
1998	Il suffirait d'un pont [Solveig Dommartin] c; short/20m; cph: Gérard Mercier
1998	La vie ne me fait pas peur/Life Doesn't Scare Me [Noémie Lvovsky] c; cph: Bertrand Chatry
1998	Beau travail/Good Work [Claire Denis] c
1999	Le secret [Virginie Wagon] c; cph: Jean-Marc Fabre; 2uc: Pierre Milon
2000	Trouble Every Day [Claire Denis] c
2000	La répétition/Replay [Catherine Corsini] c
2001	Au plus près du paradis/Nearest to Heaven [Tonie Marshall] p/c
2001	Ten Minutes Older: The Cello [seg 'Vers Nancy' dir by Claire Denis] b&w-c; 8 seg + links; other ph: Lajos Koltai, Fabio Cianchetti, Andreas Höfer, Pascal Rabaud, a.o.
2001	Vendredi soir/Friday Night [Claire Denis] 35mm+s16-to-35mm/c
2002	Les égarés/Strayed [André Téchiné] c
2003	Wild Side [Sébastien Lifshitz] c
2004	L'intrus/The Intruder [Claire Denis] s35/c
2004	Vers Mathilde [Claire Denis] c; doc/84m; cph: Hélène Louvart
2004	Backstage [Emmanuelle Bercot] c
2005	Nuovomondo/The Golden Door [Emanuele Crialese] s35/c; ph Rome: Gergely Pohárnok
2006	Ensemble, c'est tout/Hunting and Gathering [Claude Berri] c
2006	Lady Godiva [Vicky Jewson] scope/c; French unit ph; ph: George Stephenson
2007	Home [Ursula Meier] s35-to-35mm/c
2007	35 rhums/35 Shots of Rum [Claire Denis] s35-to-35mm/c
2008	Partir/Leaving [Catherine Corsini] c
2009	Trésor [Claude Berri & François Dupeyron (replaced C. Berri, who died in January)] c
2009	Simon Werner a disparu.../Lights Out/Love Like Blood [Fabrice Gobert] s35-to-35mm/c
2010	Où va la nuit/The Long Falling [Martin Provost] c
2011	L'enfant d'en haut/Sister [Ursula Meier] HD (ARRI ALEXA)-to-35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c; see above
2011	Tu honoreras ta mère et ta mère/A Greek Type of Problem [Brigitte Roüan] HD (ARRI ALEXA)/c
2012	Los insólitos peces gato/Les drôles de poissons-chats/The Amazing Catfish [Claudia Sainte-Luce] RED Epic/c
2012	L'armée du salut/Salvation Army [Abdellah Taïa] HD (ARRI ALEXA)/c; filmed July & November
2012	Les salauds/Bastards [Claire Denis] RED Epic-to-D-Cinema/c
2013	La ritournelle/Folies Bergère/Paris Follies [Marc Fitoussi] RED Epic/c; 2uc: Pierre-Hugues Galien; filmed February/March & September
2013	Les ponts de Sarajevo/Bridges of Sarajevo/I ponti di Sarajevo [seg (RED Epic) 'Silence Mujo/Quiet Mujo' dir by Ursula Meier] HD-to-digital/b&w-c; 13 seg
2013	The Falling [Carol Morley] c
2014	Voilà l'enchaînement [Claire Denis] HD/c; short/30m
2014	Kacey Mottet Klein, Naissance d'un acteur [Ursula Meier] c; doc/14m; addph: U. Meier & Jeanne Rektorik
2015	When the Day Had No Name [Teona Strugar Mitevska] HD (Sony F55)/c

TELEVISION
1982	Chambre 666/Room 666 [Wim Wenders] doc/45m/16mm; filmed at the Cannes IFF
1990	Jacques Rivette, le veilleur [Claire Denis & Serge Daney] doc/b&w-c/v/124m; ep series 'Cinéma de notre temps'
1992	Histoires autour de la folie [Paule Muxel & Bertrand de Solliers] 2-part doc/208m
1994	US Go Home [Claire Denis] tvm/68m/s16; ep #2 of 9-part series 'Tous les garçons et les filles de leur âge'
1995	Fare un film per me è vivere/Making a Film for Me Is Living/To Make a Film Is to Be Alive [Enrica Antonioni] doc/b&w-c/52m/v
1995	Duo [Claire Denis] tvm/5m; ep 7-part series 'Picture House'
1995	Jeunesse sans Dieu [Catherine Corsini] tvm
1997	Les années lycée: Petites [Noémie Lvovsky] tvm; cph: Bertrand Chatry

FILMS AS CAMERA ASSISTANT/OPERATOR
1981	Der Stand der Dinge/The State of Things [Wim Wenders] c.asst Portugal; ph: Henri Alekan, Fred Murphy & Martin Schäfer
1982	La truite/The Trout [Joseph Losey] 2nd asst op; ph: Henri Alekan
1983	Paris, Texas [Wim Wenders] co-c.asst; ph: Robby Müller
1983	Wundkanal. Hinrichtung für vier Stimmen/Exécution à quatre voix/Doktor S. [Thomas Harlan] ?; ph: Henri Alekan
1984	L'amour à mort/Love Unto Death [Alain Resnais] co-c.asst; ph: Sacha Vierny
1985	[Zoo:] A Zed & Two Noughts [Peter Greenaway] co-c.asst; ph: Sacha Vierny
1985	The Perfect Kiss [Jonathan Demme; mus short] co-c.asst; ph: Henri Alekan
1986	Der Himmel über Berlin/Les ailes du désir/Wings of Desire [Wim Wenders] c.op; ph: Henri Alekan
1987	The Belly of an Architect [Peter Greenaway] c.op; ph: Sacha Vierny
1987	Chocolat [Claire Denis] c.op; ph: Robert Alazraki
1989	Après la guerre [Jean-Loup Hubert] c.asst; ph: Claude Lecomte
1990	Daddy Nostalgie/These Foolish Things [Bertrand Tavernier] c.op; ph: Denis Lenoir
1990	S'en fout la mort/No Fear, No Die [Claire Denis] c.op; ph: Pascal Marti
1991	Prague [Ian Sellar] c.op; ph: Darius Khondji
1994	Al di là delle nuvole/Beyond the Clouds/Jenseits der Wolken [Michelangelo Antonioni & (prologue/interludes/epilogue) Wim Wenders] co-c.op 2u; ph: Alfio Contini (with M. Antonioni) & Robby Müller (with W. Wenders)

FILMS AS DIRECTOR
1982	La lumière sous la porte [short/12m; + scrpl] ph: Patrick Blossier