American Cinematographer - September 2001 - 22

Stunning Images Shot Overseas

work and

A

Magical Paris
by Jon Silberg

reputation - until, that is, he
actually began shooting.

and Jeunet

"Jean-Pierre

Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel
large pair of shoes to fill when he
agreed to shoot Amelie from
Montmartre, a modern-day fairy tale
directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Jeunet's
previous features Delicatessen and City
of Lost Children were widely acclaimed
and helped bring cinematographer Darius
Khondji, ASC, AFC the international
renown he now enjoys. Khondji was not
available when Jeunet began planning
Amelie, so the director offered the job to
had

Amelie from

Montmartre,

Delbonnel, with whom he had worked

which stars

Audrey Tatou in
the title role, is
set in

contemporary
Paris but is

designed to look
like a fairy-tale
world. The
filmmakers
decided to give
the entire film in
a

green-gold

hue, which they
achieved

through digital

some

on

commercials.

Though Delbonnel and Jeunet had
more than 20 years, the
cinematographer worried that Amelie's
20-week shoot and extensive post could
jeopardize their friendship. Delbonnel
points out, "I'd lit most of the shorts he'd
been friends for

done, and we'd done commercials

together

so

I knew

we

could do good

work, but this was on a much larger
scale." Furthermore, Delbonnel admits to

color-correction.

20

a

September 2001

being somewhat intimidated by Khondji's

saw how I'd lit the set,
looked at the Polaroids and said, 'I trust

you.

Let's forget about Darius completely

and make

a

beautiful movie.'"

Amelie

(Audrey Tatou) lives in a
unique, fairy-tale world that looks like
contemporary Paris but feels almost
magical. "We wanted the whole film to
look very warm with very rich colors,"
Delbonnel explains. "Jean-Pierre didn't
want quite the same darkness that's
associated with his previous films. Fie
likes contrast and density in the images,
and so do I, but we wanted to go for an
almost storybook feel."
In fact, the entire film is bathed in

green-gold tone that was achieved in
part by digitizing the finished negative
and "timing" it in the computer to
a

what

necessary. "Paris is no longer
city of light," Delbonnel observes.
"It's really a gray city with very dark walls
and stone. We wanted everything to
have a very warm, golden look."
While shooting Jeunet's previous
films, Khondji had relied upon
photochemical methods (particularly
was

the

Technicolor's

ENR

and

LTC's

NEC

"Soup du Jour," AC Nov.
'98) to intensify contrast, but Jeunet told
Delbonnel that he didn't want to go that
processes; see

route on Amelie. The

cinematographer
explains, "Processes like ENR and NEC
are heavy in terms of cost and the
amount of light you need, and also in
terms of what you need in front of the
lens
such as the [contrast-altering]
-

Varicon and tools like that. Jean-Pierre

didn't want to work that way, but he
didn't want to just shoot it straight

look that couldn't be obtained

because that wouldn't capture the look

through any photochemical process.
Early discussions about the look

and mood that makes the whole story
work. We've both done a lot of work in

achieve

a

of the film had
would be

a

lot to do with how Paris

represented. The city is an inte¬
gral part of the film's feel, but the reality
of contemporary Paris did not suggest

commercials, though, and we knew that
we

could do what we wanted in telecine.

Until

very

recently, that approach
us any good unless

wouldn't have done

FMCiraoclamluvsfroxt.e,sy
Bruno

byPhots
American Cinematographer - September 2001

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