American Cinematographer - January 1995 - 51

wide lens, which tends to distort
a set, but we used it in
very subtle

It looked O.K., because we
were
distorting curves instead of
ways.

right angles. The room had a cu¬
pola that was painted gold, and I
basically used the reflections of
that gold paint. I also played
around with my lamps and put
yellow gels on sometimes. When
you deal with oil lamps and
candles, it's very difficult to be
cold, so you have to stay in the
warmer
range. But I'm not crazy
about using a lot of gels and
changing the colors. If you have
wonderful sets, why change the
colors?"
In

general, aside from

soft diffusion, Rousselot
avoided the use of filtration. "I
tried to put as few things as pos¬
sible between my eyes and the
some

things I was shooting," he says. "I
wanted to light the sets in a way

set, I'm not

tion. Each set

proach to the material extended
to the tale's much-publicized

or

situation carries

spirit that you have to go with.
I usually don't use a lot of harsh
light; I mainly use soft light. I al¬
ways feel bad if I change that look
a

with filters

or

smoke."

When

lighting the film's
present-day sequences, which
serve

to frame the tale's flash¬

backs, Rousselot decided to give
the visuals

bit

edge. With
more
lights at his disposal,
Rousselot jumped from his "pe¬
riod stop" of 2.8 to a "modern
stop" of 4 or 4.5. "Because of the
higher stop, the images in the
present-day footage are a little bit
crisper," he points out. "It's not
a

more

extreme difference, but it's
noticeable; there's more depth of
an

field and the look is

they

ration to the look. In the

a

January 1995

are

together."
Rousselot's refined ap¬

homoerotic undertones. In defi¬
ance of tabloid
gossip and ad¬

Interview, despite
look and feel, is devoid of
the sort of explicit eroticism that
Rousselot says he abhors. "As far
as the erotic
aspects of the film
vance

rumors,

its sexy

that wouldn't conflict with what

about. If I've got

much closer

scenes,

slightly
sharper. Also, the colors are a bit
colder, and they add more sepa¬

were

the colors

going to try to
light it blue! I don't believe that
anything comes out of contradic¬
warm

A

wide-angle

view of the
"catacombs"
beneath the
Theatre des

Vampires. Note
the combination
of Chinese

lanterns,
candles and
other supple¬
mental

sources.

concerned, I tried to lend
scenes a more serious,
brooding quality. I'm not crazy
are

those

about shooting scenes that in¬
volve sex; most sex scenes in the
cinema deal with pleasure and

happiness, and they're ultimately
boring! When I read a script and
I come to the page where the
characters make love, it's basi¬

cally boring to me; the story
stops. I prefer scenes with drama,
scenes

that

move

the narrative

along."
The most

period

American

demanding as-

Cinematographer

49



American Cinematographer - January 1995

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American Cinematographer - January 1995 - 100
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