WILLY KURANT

#1: Courtesy of Willy Kurant [2013]

#2: From interview [Cinémathèque française, 2013]

#3: [Top]

WILLY KURANT

Born: 15 February 1934, Liège [Luik], Belgium.

Died: 1 May 2021, Paris, France.

Career: 'I was undecided between still and motion picture photography until I took a night class at a small film school in France. During the days, I worked at a research lab. Part of my job was loading and unloading cameras and processing films used in tests. In 1954, I went to the Belgian Congo with a documentary crew for six months. I worked on 10 films as an assistant and sometimes I operated a second camera. They were 35mm films produced for the Ministry of Colonies as propaganda. I was a news cameraman for Belgian TV. During the World Fair in Brussels in 1958, I saw a German film crew with a synch motor on an Arriflex camera and a portable sound recorder. I decided to buy an Arriflex camera, an entire set of lenses and one of those sound recorders. I was freelancing for a pool of French, Belgian and Swiss TV stations. I was shooting cinéma-vérité style. I could place the sound recorder on the ground, give the mike to a reporter and roam freely. I also worked for a program on French TV and I filmed dramatic interludes - very nice looking five-minute pieces - that ran between other TV programs. I covered a few wars including the one in Vietnam and I went to the Congo again during the war for independence. In 1957, I got a scholarship from the British Council and worked at Pinewood Studios for three movies. I was very fortunate to work with Geoffrey Unsworth, Harry Waxman and Jack Hildyard as kind of a trainee-first assistant. I moved to France in 1962. I was shooting television news and was taking time off to attend a film school in Paris that graduated every cameraman in France. You couldn't work if you didn't pass an exam and have a diploma from that school. We learned photochemistry and camera mechanics. You had to shoot three short features before you qualified as a first assistant on features.' [From KODAK OnFilm website.]

Was asst to dir Joris Ivens [1953-54].

Was a member of the AFC and the ASC.

Ph numerous films for Belgian TV and was newsreel ph on '9 millions' [Belgium], 'Cinq colonnes à la une' [France] and 'Continents sans visages' [Switzerland]. Ph commercials dir by Christian Gandon, a.o.

Appeared in the doc 'Willy Kurant, itinéraire d'un découvreur' [2009, Michel Noirret & Francis Dujardin].

Awards: 'César' Award nom [1988] for 'Sous le soleil de Satan'.

Willy Kurant: 'Everyone thinks of me as a French cameraman, but I was raised in Belgium and was influenced by the Dutch master painters and the metallic blue light in the Northern sky. In the beginning, I thought film was like life at 24 frames per second, but soon realized we had license to light subjectively and interpret reality for artistic reasons. When we didn't have money to light, I found photochemical solutions to give the film a certain look. Cinematography is like playing first violin in a symphony orchestra with the director conducting. But, it is also a very interpretive art form. I believe in lighting at the spur of the moment. I'll see something in a face or in the way an actress or actor is moving and decide to change the way we cover and light that shot.' [From KODAK OnFilm website.]

FILMS
1954	Pierre-Romain Desfossez [Gérard De Boe] b&w; doc/?m; cph: Freddy Rents
1956	Klinkaart/La briquetterie [Paul Meyer] b&w; short/22m
1956	Le retable de Notre-Dame de Lombeek/De retabel van Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-Lombeek [Paul Meyer] 16mm/b&w; short/18m; cph: ?
1957	Impression de Moscou [Johan Eekman] c; doc/11m
1958	Rythmes d'Europe/Europa langs nieuwe wegen [René Van de Weerdt] ?; doc/?m; cph: ?
1959	Le mur de la mort [Jacques Carpent] ?; short/?m; cph: ?
1959	La dernière toile [Harry Fischbach] b&w; short/?m
1959	Eve et lui [Harry Fischbach] ?; short/?m
1959	Béjart [François Weyergans] b&w; doc/19m
1961	Roosevelt Sykes 'The Honeydripper' [Yannick Bruynoghe] ?; mus short/27m; cph: ?
1961	Suite européenne/Vertrek [Patrick Ledoux] ?; cph: ?
1962	Coups de feu à 18 heures [Daniel Costelle] b&w; short/13m
1962	Un jour à Paris [Serge Korber] b&w; short/19m
1962	Dans le vent [Jacques Rozier] 16mm/b&w; doc/8m
1963	Les idoles [Marin Karmitz] b&w; mus short/9m
1963	Auto [Jean-Claude Lubtchansky] c; short/14m
1963	Encore dimanche [Jean-Christophe Averty] ?; doc/14m
1963	Un vieux [Jean-Jacques Péché] b&w; short/35m
1963	Chroniques turques/Turkish Chronicles [ep 'La corne d'or' (12m), 'Istanbul' (13m), 'Maître Galip' (11m), 'Byzance' (11m), 'Pehlivan' (13m) & 'Le Bosphore' (13m) dir by Maurice Pialat] b&w; doc series filmed in 1963 & 1964
1964	La demoiselle de Saint-Florentin [Serge Korber] ?; short/20m
1964	Nuit noire, Calcutta [Marin Karmitz] b&w; short/24m
1964	Le type au ras du cou blanc [Alain Dhenault] ?; short/10m
1964	La cage aux oiseaux [Jean-Christophe Averty] b&w; short/14m
1964	Lucie et Dominique [Jean Dewever] b&w; doc/25m
1964	La brûlure de mille soleils [Pierre Kast] c; short/26m; cph: Jacques Maillet
1965	La vengeance d'une orpheline russe [Monique & Françoise Lepeuve] c; short/10m
1965	Les créatures/The Creatures [Agnès Varda] fs/b&w
1965	L'affaire des poissons [Jeanne Barbillon] b&w; short/15m
1965	Masculin Féminin - 15 faits précis/Masculine - Feminine [Jean-Luc Godard] b&w
1966	Trans-Europ-Express [Alain Robbe-Grillet] b&w
1966	Au pan coupé/Wall Engravings [Guy Gilles] b&w-c; cph: Jean-Marc Ripert
1966	Roméos et jupettes [Jacques Rozier] c; doc/11m
1966	Mon amour... mon amour/My Love, My Love [Nadine Trintignant] ts/c
1966	Le départ/The Departure [Jerzy Skolimowski] b&w; 2uc: Andrzej Kostenko
1967	Loin du Vietnam/Far from Vietnam [Alain Resnais, William Klein, Joris Ivens, Agnès Varda, Claude Lelouch & Jean-Luc Godard; Chris Marker (superv)] 16mm+35mm-to-35mm/b&w-c; doc/120m; 11 seg + intro & epilogue; cph: Jean Boffety, Ghislain Cloquet, Alain Levent, Denys Clerval, Bernard Zitzermann & Kieu Tham
*1967*	The Deep/Dead Reckoning [Orson Welles] b&w-c; cph: Ivica Rajkovic; prod June 1967 - April 1969; unreleased
1968	The Night of the Following Day [Hubert Cornfield] c
1968	Michael Kohlhaas - der Rebell/Man on Horseback [Volker Schlöndorff] c
1969	Tout peut arriver/Don't Be Blue [Philippe Labro] b&w-c
1969	Le temps de mourir/The Time to Die [André Farwagi] c
1969	Cannabis/French Intrigue/The Mafia Wants Your Blood [Pierre Koralnik] ts/c
1969	Bhakti [Maurice Béjart] c
1970	Renaissance [Marc Lobet] 16mm/c; mus doc/?m; cph: ?
1970	Le feu sacré/The Sacred Fire [Vladimir Forgency] c
197?	Echoes of the 60's [Kevin Billington] ?; mus doc/?m
1971	Salut, Jérusalem/La Jérusalem céleste/Hello Jerusalem [Henry Chapier] c; doc/72m; cph: Anne de Gasperi
1971	Pink Floyd - Live at Pompeii/Echoes: Pink Floyd [Adrian Maben] b&w-c; mus perf/60m (video version), 85m & 92m (director's cut, 2002); cph: Gabor Pogány; a version, released in 1974, included new footage shot in January 1973
1972	That's Las Vegas [Frank Lang] c
1972	Keine Welt für Kinder/All These Children [Erwin Leiser] c; doc/91m; cph: Bert van Munster
1973	Les jours gris/The Gray Days [Iradj Azimi] c
1974	Amen [Roland Mahauden] c; short/?m
1975	Je t'aime, moi non plus/I Love You, I Don't [Serge Gainsbourg] c
1977	The Mafu Cage/Don't Ring the Doorbell/Deviation/My Sister, My Love [Karen Arthur] c; uncred ph; visual cons: John Bailey
1977	Le fond de l'air est rouge/A Grin Without a Cat [Chris Marker] b&w-c; doc/240m; cph: Pierre Lhomme, P.W. (Pierre-William) Glenn, Étienne Becker, Jean Boffety, a.o.; Originally released in France on 23 November 1977 with a running time of 240m. It was released with the subtitle 'Scènes de la Troisième Guerre mondiale (1967-1977)'. It was re-edited by Marker in 1993 and scaled down to two parts of 90m each, the first titled 'Les mains fragiles/The Fragile Hands' and the second 'Les mains coupées/The Severed Hands'
1977	Harper Valley P.T.A. [Richard C. Bennett & Ralph Senensky] c
1980	Mam[m]a Dracula [Boris Szulzinger] c; cph: Rufus Bohez
1980	Running Scared/Back in the U.S.A./Desperate Men [Paul Glickler] c; 2uc: Thomas Stern & Allan Martin; addph: Nathaniel Dorsky
1981	Les îles/The Islands/Die Inseln [Iradj Azimi] c; cph: Robby Müller
1981	Tag [T.A.G.] - The Assassination Game/Everybody Gets It in the End/Kiss Me, Kill Me [Nick Castle] c
1982	The Killing of America/Violence U.S.A. [Sheldon Renan & Leonard Schrader] c; doc/90m; cph: Jon Else, Tom Hurwitz, Peter Smokler & Robert Charlton
1982	Équateur [Serge Gainsbourg] c
*1982*	À nos amours/Suzanne/To Our Loves [Maurice Pialat] left prod after 2 weeks; replaced by ph Jacques Loiseleux
1984	Tuff Turf/Love Fighters [Fritz Kiersch] c; cameraman 2u: Elliot Davis
1985	A State of Emergency/Chain Reaction [Richard C. Bennett] c
1985	Flagrant désir/A Certain Desire/Trade Secrets [Claude Faraldo] c
1986	Charlotte for Ever [Serge Gainsbourg] c
1986	Sous le soleil de Satan/Under Satan's Sun [Maurice Pialat] c; replaced ph Luciano Tovoli, who fell ill after 2 weeks
1987	Milan noir/Black Milan [Ronald Chammah] c
1988	Un été d'orages/Stormy Summer [Charlotte Brandstrom] c
1989	Aventure de Catherine C. [Pierre Beuchot] c
1990	La contre-allée/Both Sides of the Street [Isabel Sebastian] c
1990	China Moon [John Bailey] p/c; uwph: Jordan Klein Sr.; released in 1994
1992	Le grand pardon II/Day of Atonement [Alexandre Arcady] c; 2uc: Yves Dahan
1992	Cuisine et dépendances/Kitchen with Apartment [Philippe Muyl] c
1993	A Business Affair/D'une femme à l'autre [Charlotte Brandstrom] c
1993	Le petit garçon [Pierre Granier-Deferre] c
1993	Priez pour nous/Pray for Us [Jean-Pierre Vergne] c
1994	White Man's Burden/White Man [Desmond Nakano] c; 2uc: Scott Browner
1995	BSC: The Baby-Sitters Club [Melanie Mayron] c
1996	Le jour et la nuit/Day and Night [Bernard-Henri Lévy] c
1997	The New Swiss Family Robinson [Stewart Raffill] c; uwph: Jordan Klein Sr.
1999	Delivering Milo [Nick Castle] c; 2uc: Ira Brenner
2000	PC and the Web [Christopher Cain] c; live action + 3-D anim; unreleased (?)
2000	Pootie Tang [Louis C.K.] c
2004	Les joues rouges [Joëlle Miquel] b&w-c; short/11m

"Un été brûlant"

2010

Un été brûlant/A Burning Hot Summer [Philippe Garrel] p (+ D-Cinema)/c

[Right] with Philippe Garrel - "La jalousie" - Courtesy of Willy Kurant

2013

La jalousie/J'ai gardé les anges [Philippe Garrel] Hawk Scope (+ D-Cinema)/b&w

TELEVISION
1955	Françoise et la ville ou La ballade de l'orpheline [Jacques Boigelot] tvm/b&w/13m/16mm
1958	Ballade pour un homme seul [Serge Leroy] tvm/?m
1958	Expo-insolite [Serge Leroy] ?/?m
1958	Les oiseaux de la Cambre [Serge Leroy] ?
1958	Visages de la rue [Serge Leroy] ?
1959	Une journée à Chimay [Serge Leroy] doc/30m
1959	Hiver sur un bois [Serge Leroy] doc/5m
1959	Les hommes de Nieuport [Serge Leroy] doc/10m
1960	Pierre Caille [Jean Antoine] ?
1960	Fellini [André Delvaux] 4-part doc series/b&w; cph: René Lebrun, Jacques van Hollebeke & Charles Abel
1960	Charles Dekeukeleire [Jacques Boigelot] ?
1960	Sous les cylindres d'acier [Claude Gabriels] ?
1960	Le Moyen-Orient Arabe 1960 - Egypte, Liban, Syrie, Jordanie [Charles Godefroid] doc/?m
1960	Le Boeing 707 [Louis Verlant] ?
1961	En ce temps là... [Jacques Boigelot] ?
1961	Sur ces chemins... [Jacques Boigelot] ?
1961	Le Liban [Charles Godefroid] doc/?m
1961	Rythmes et chansons No. 1 [László Lugossy] ?
1961	Mon frère Jacques [Pierre Prévert] doc/b&w/240m
1961	Le créateur [François Weyergans] doc/42m
1961	Le circuit de la mort au Borinage/Borinage 61 [Paul Meyer] doc/b&w/15m
1965	Anna [Pierre Koralnik] tvm/86m; first color program for French tv (1967)
1965	Elsa/Elsa la rose [Agnès Varda & Raymond Zanchi] doc/b&w/19m/16mm; cph: William Lubtchansky; ep series 'Dim Dam Dom'
1966	The Immortal Story/Une histoire immortelle [Orson Welles] c; tvm/58m; made for ORTF-tv and cinema release
1967	Idea [Jean-Christophe Averty] mus special/?m (with the Bee Gees & Julie Driscoll); for ZDF-tv & RTB-tv (1968)
1976	Outside Chance/Jackson County Jail [Michael Miller] tvm
1994	Ils n'ont pas 20 ans [Charlotte Brandstrom] tvm
1995	The Little Riders [Kevin Connor] tvm
1995	Le cheval de coeur [Charlotte Brandstrom] tvm; sequel to 'Ils n'ont pas 20 ans' (1994)
1996	Rose Hill [Christopher Cain] tvm
1997	Drôle de père/Le père de Léa [Charlotte Brandstrom] tvm
1998	Le monde à l'envers [Charlotte Brandstrom] 2-part tvm
1998	Venise est une femme [Jean-Pierre Vergne] tvm
1999	Brigade spéciale [pilot 'La septième victime' dir by Charlotte Brandstrom] 4-part series, 1999-2002
2001	Un couple modèle [Charlotte Brandstrom] tvm
2001	La vie dehors [Jean-Pierre Vergne] tvm

FILMS AS CAMERA ASSISTANT
1957	A Night to Remember [Roy Ward Baker] ph: Geoffrey Unsworth
1957	The Gypsy and the Gentleman [Joseph Losey] ph: Jack Hildyard
1958	Innocent Sinners [Philip Leacock] ph: Harry Waxman
1959	Marche ou crève [Georges Lautner] ph: Roger Fellous

TELEVISION AS DIRECTOR
1963	Vietnam: Madame Nhu [dir] report + interview/b&w/26m; ph: ?; ep series '5 colonnes à la une' (RTF1-tv)
1968	La Baie des Cochons [co-dir: Roger Benamou; prod: Philippe Labro] doc (archive)/b&w; ep series 'Caméra 3' (ORTF-tv)
1968	Cuba Diccionario [dir; prod: Philippe Labro] doc/b&w/27m; ph: ?; ep series 'Caméra 3' (ORTF-tv)