YORICK LE SAUX

 

Born: 10 August 1968, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.

Education: La Fémis [Image/Cinematography; graduated in 1994].

Career: Ph commercials dir by Erick Zonca, Thierry Rajic, a.o. Ph music videos dir by Judith Cahen, a.o.

Also active as lighting des for the theater. Co-founder of 4A4 Productions, Paris.

Awards: Namur IFF 'Golden Bayard Award' [1998] for 'Sitcom'.


'Io sono l'amore/I Am Love' [2008]: 'During pre-production, Yorick Le Saux helped [director] Luca Guadagnino narrow down his tools of choice. "Luca is probably the most technical director I've worked with," observes Le Saux. "He knows everything about cameras and lenses. I think he can tell you every special speed that Christopher Doyle used on a Wong Kar-wai movie in the Nineties! My work was to show him a lot of things - aspect ratio, filters, film stocks, lenses and so on - and then reduce and explain why we didn't need this or that. My job consisted of simplifying and finding a good way to shoot the story." Guadagnino adds, "My dream is to spend four months with special technicians finding those things that fit my movie."

Guadagnino originally wanted to frame the film in 1.33:1, "like 'The Magnificent Ambersons'," he says. But Le Saux dissuaded him. "I said, 'It's okay if you want the film to be shown on a cell phone, but to be on screens now, it has to be either 1.85 or 2.40,'" recalls Le Saux. "He was concerned about seeing the ceilings and the architecture of the palazzo, so, in the end, we chose 1.85."

The palazzo was well worth exploiting. Built in the 1930s for a wealthy family, the Villa Necchi Campiglio was designed by Milanese architect Piero Portaluppi and is now a museum, which meant the filmmakers had to contend with severe restrictions on grip and lighting equipment. "It was difficult because they were always on our backs, watching," says Le Saux. "It was impossible to put lights overhead, so almost everything went through the windows, but the windows were so huge that every light seemed small. Our budget was limited, so I was using natural light with reflectors and white bounce. I'd also try to determine the best hour for shooting, but each time, we were late."

Le Saux operated the main camera, an Arricam Lite that was equipped with a Cooke S4 prime lens or an Angénieux Optimo 24–290mm zoom. "It's a better way to feel the light," he says of operating. "When I'm not looking through the camera, I cannot feel the light from inside the movie." The B camera, which was infrequently used, was an Arri 535B.

To help differentiate the story's two worlds, Le Saux used two different tungsten stocks: Kodak Vision3 500T 5219 for the palazzo and Fuji Eterna 250T 8553 for Antonio’s bungalow and garden. "With daylight stock, the contrast on the Riviera would have been too high, too strong," he notes. The lovers' world was intended to be soft and sensual, so filtration was also boosted for the countryside scenes; Le Saux used Tiffen Pro-Mist and Soft/FX filters, sometimes at levels as high as 1 or 2. "We used a lot of filters," he notes. "The idea was to approximate the look of some of the 1970s film stocks. Sometimes we shot one extra take with a stronger filter, and if it was too much, we just didn't use it. But we did go very far." [From article by Patricia Thomson in 'American Cinematographer', July 2010.]


 FILMS

1990

Le rabattement des petits côtés [Yorick Le Saux] c; short/10m; prod La Fémis

1990

68-69 [Gérard Guéguan] ?; short/?m

1991

Narcisse [Judith Cahen] v/c; short/22m; 2 seg: 'Autoportraits' (3m) & 'Juste un petit tourbillon' (19m); prod La Fémis

1991

Thomas reconstitué/Reconstructed Thomas [François Ozon] v/c; short/10m; prod La Fémis

1992

Queue de poisson [Judith Cahen] c; short/16m; cph: Sylvia Calle; prod La Fémis

1994

Zingaro [Juliette Cheneau] ?; doc/?m

1994

Action vérité/Truth or Dare [François Ozon] c; short/4m

1994

La petite mort/Little Death [François Ozon] c; short/24m

1994

La croisade d'Anne Buridan [Judith Cahen] 16mm/c; short/58m; cph: Sylvia Calle; co-prod La Fémis

1995

Épingler Camille [Sylvia Calle] c; short/12m

1995

Strictement footinguesque [Judith Cahen] s16-35bu/c; short/25m

1995

Le vide dedans moi [Cyriac Auriol & Lola Doillon] c; short/8m

1995

Tout va mal [Marco Nicoletti] c; short/12m

1995

Une robe d'été/A Summer Dress [François Ozon] c; short/15m

1995

Les soirs blues d'été [Djibril Glissant] c; short/4m

1995

Mon copain Rachid [Philippe Barassat] c; short/17m; 2uc; ph: Bertrand Follet

1996

[Scènes de lit/Bedtime Stories] Le trou noir/The Black Hole [François Ozon] c; short/2m; also seg (#1) of 'Scènes de lit/Bed Scenes/Bedtime Stories'

1996

[Scènes de lit/Bedtime Stories] L'homme idéal/The Ideal Man [François Ozon] c; short/4m; also seg (#5) of 'Scènes de lit/Bed Scenes/Bedtime Stories'

1996

[Scènes de lit/Bedtime Stories] Love in the Dark [François Ozon] c; short/5m; also seg (#6) of 'Scènes de lit/Bed Scenes/Bedtime Stories'

1996

Scènes de lit/Bed Scenes/Bedtime Stories [François Ozon] c; short/26m (7 seg); cph: Matthieu Vadepied (4 seg)

1996

Regarde la mer/See the Sea [François Ozon] c; short/52m

1997

Comme un frère [Cyril Bedel] c; short/13m

1997

La mort dans l'âme [Wilfried Prager] b&w (sepia); short/13m

1997

Sitcom [François Ozon] c

1997

I Would Prefer Not To [Florence Pezon] c; short/15m

1997

Un peu de temps réel [Olivier Torres] c; short/12m; + co-prod

1998

Bonne résistance à la douleur/High Pain Management [Pierre-Erwan Guillaume] c; short/25m

1998

Fin août, début septembre/Late August, Early September [Olivier Assayas] s16-35bu/c; 2uc; ph: Denis Lenoir

1999

Dans le sens du poil [Agathe Teyssier] c; short/16m

1999

Chico notre homme à Lisbonne [Edouard Baer] c; short/26m

1999

Le bel hiver [Olivier Torres] s16-35bu/c; short/32m

2000

Café de la plage/Beach Cafe [Benoît Graffin] c

2000

Un oiseau dans le plafond [Céline Macherel] s16-35bu/c; short/15m

2000

Candidature [Emmanuel Bourdieu] s16-35bu/c; short/42m

2001

Demonlover [Olivier Assayas] s35+s16-to-s35/c; 2uc; ph: Denis Lenoir

2001

SY NYC 12/12/01: The Demonlover Sessions [Yorick Le Saux] c; mus doc/30m; cph: Chris Habib

2002

La vie comme elle est [Emmanuel Bourdieu] dv-to-35mm/c; short/6m; as Yorick Lesaux

2002

Les corps impatients/Eager Bodies [Xavier Giannoli] c

2002

À ta place [Agathe Teyssier] s16-35bu/c; short/33m; + co-prod

2002

Swimming Pool [François Ozon] c

2003

Vert paradis/Les Cadets de Gascogne/Green Paradise [Emmanuel Bourdieu] c

2003

Une aventure/Only the Night [Xavier Giannoli] c

2003

Les parallèles [Nicolas Saada] c; short/31m; + co-prod

2003

5x2/5 x 2: Five Times Two [François Ozon] c

2004

Gloria mundi [Nico Papatakis] c; ph new introduction; ph: Frédéric Variot (filmed in 1975)

2004

Water [Shuichi Yoshida] c; short/28m

2004

Mon meilleur ami [Stéphane Granata] c; short/30m

2005

Les amitiés maléfiques/Poison Friends [Emmanuel Bourdieu] scope/c; + co-prod

2005

Quand j'étais chanteur/The Singer [Xavier Giannoli] c

2005

Un lever de rideau/A Curtain Raiser [François Ozon] s16-35bu/c; short/29m

2006

Début [Pascal Rambert] s16-35bu/c; short/17m

2006

Boarding Gate [Olivier Assayas] s35/c

2006

Le voyage du ballon rouge/Flight of the Red Balloon [Hsiao-hsien Hou] c; or ph Pin Bing Lee

2006

Julia [Erick Zonca] s35/c

2007

Chacun son cinéma [ou Ce petit coup au coeur quand la lumière s'éteint et que le film commence]/To Each His Own Cinema [seg (3m) 'Recrudescence/Upsurge' dir by Olivier Assayas] b&w-c; originally 34 seg

2007

Blanche neige/Schneewittchen [Angelin Preljocaj] c; ballet film/90m

2007

A l’origine/In the Beginning [Xavier Giannoli] was the intended ph, but was unavailable; replaced by Glynn Speeckaert; filmed 2007-08

2008

La femme invisible (d'après une histoire vraie)/The Invisible Woman [Agathe Teyssier] c; + co-prod/co-scrpl

2008

Io sono l'amore/I Am Love [Luca Guadagnino] c; 2uc: Daria D'Antonio; see above

 

"Carlos"

 

2009

Carlos [, le film] [Olivier Assayas] ts/c; cph: Denis Lenoir; comp of 3-part tv-miniseries

2009

Potiche [François Ozon] 35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c

2011

Arbitrage [Nicholas Jarecki] s35-to-35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c

2011

One Plus One [Luca Guadagnino] c; fashion short/3m; for Giorgio Armani (spring/summer collection 2012)

2011

Destinée [Luca Guadagnino] HD/c; comm short/7m; prod for Cartier

2012

Skin to Skin [Luca Guadagnino] c; fashion short/2m; for Sergio Rossi

2012

Only Lovers Left Alive [Jim Jarmusch] HD (ARRI ALEXA Plus)/c; 2uc (Detroit): Christos Moisides

2013

Clouds of Sils Maria [Olivier Assayas] scope (+ digital)/b&w-c

2014

A Bigger Splash [Luca Guadagnino] 35mm+HD (Sony F55)-to-digital/c; ph UK: Peter Suschitzky; remake of 'La piscine' (1968, Jacques Deray; ph: Jean-Jacques Tarbès)

2015

Personal Shopper [Olivier Assayas] ts-to-digital/c

2017

High Life [Claire Denis] HD-to-digital/c; ph Poland: Tomasz Naumiuk

2017

Doubles vies/Double Lives/Non-Fiction [Olivier Assayas] s16/c; filmed 2017-18

2018

Little Women [Greta Gerwig] s35/c; insert ph: Joel San Juan

 

 TELEVISION

2007

Eldorado [Olivier Assayas] mus doc/90m

2009

Carlos [Olivier Assayas] 3-part (x 90m) miniseries/ts, 2010; ph majority ep #1 & 50/50 ep #3; cph: Denis Lenoir (majority ep #2); also ed into a feature film

 

 FILMS AS CAMERA OPERATOR

1992

Victor [François Ozon; short] ph: Sylvia Calle; prod La Fémis

1993

Une rose entre nous/A Rose Between Us [François Ozon; short] ph: Sylvia Calle; prod La Fémis

2001

8 femmes/8 Women [François Ozon; feature] ph: Jeanne Lapoirie

2011

Shut Up and Play the Hits [Will Lovelace & Dylan Southern; mus doc/concert film] co-c.op; ph: Reed Morano

 

 FILMS AS DIRECTOR

1990

Le rabattement des petits côtés [short] + ph; prod La Fémis; see Films

1992

Rémi [short] ph: ?

1994

La French Correction [short] ph: ?

199?

Le diable était en chaleur [short] ph: ?

2000

Va au diable [s16-35bu/c; short/20m] ph: Nathalie Sarles; + prod

2001

Making of 'Demonlover' [doc/57m/V] ph: ?

2001

SY NYC 12/12/01: The Demonlover Sessions [mus doc] + cph; see Films

2001

8 femmes - l'enfer du décor [doc/?m] ph: ?; the making of '8 femmes/8 Women' (François Ozon; ph: Jeanne Lapoirie)

 

 FILMS AS [CO-/ASSOCIATE] PRODUCER

1997

Un peu de temps réel [Olivier Torres] + ph; see Films

1999

La fatigue [Frédéric Cousseau; short] ph: Pierre Parmentier

2000

Va au diable [dir; short] see Films as Director

2001

Comme un seul homme/All for One [Jean-Louis Gonnet; short] ph: Mathias Raaflaub, a.o.

2002

À ta place [Agathe Teyssier] + ph; see Films

2002

Osmose/Osmosis [Raphaël Fejtö; feature] ph: Mathias Raaflaub

2003

Les parallèles [Nicolas Saada] + ph; see Films

2003

La nuit sera longue [Olivier Torres; short] ph: Caroline Champetier

2004

Le souffle [Mathieu Vadepied; short] ph: Pierre Bonnet

2005

Mille soleils [Matthieu Vadepied; short] ph: Thomas Bataille

2005

Les amitiés maléfiques/Poison Friends [Emmanuel Bourdieu] + ph; see Films

2008

La femme invisible (d'après une histoire vraie)/The Invisible Woman [Agathe Teyssier] + co-scrpl/ph; see Films

2009

La ligne blanche [Olivier Torres] ph: Caroline Champetier

2011

Un enfant de toi/A Child of Yours/You, Me and Us [Jacques Doillon] assoc prod; ph: Renato Berta & Laurent Chalet