American Cinematographer - December 2004 - 63

Opposite: To
moody

create this

tableau of the
film's heroine

walking through
Montmartre after

dark,

cinematographer
Bruno Delbonnel
and colorist Yvan
Lucas

composited
together day and
nighttime footage.
Daytime footage
of clouds

was

incorporated into
the scene to give
the formations
more

definition in

the frame. This
page, top: One of
the condemned

field hospital and a military
cemetery. The narrative involves a
cast of colorful characters, including
the avuncular detective, Mathilde's
tions,

a

homespun aunt and uncle, a cow¬
ardly pimp, a failed revolutionary, a
loyal friend and a murderous prosti¬
order

delineate the many
strands of this dense detective story,
tute. In

the

to

occasionally splits into
images that convey the
exchange of letters and phone calls
or remind viewers of
important plot
points.
Despite its scale, A Very Long
Engagement is ultimately a love story
driven by a woman's unwavering
screen

two or more

bSMapcigoorhiuhnfrydetsl.);

faith. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet
and
cinematographer
Bruno

Delbonnel, AFC place this simple
tale in

(PVfriesomlansF20ac4.

ELacbcgoolrraautbrifitersessyBP©du2c0n/W3.
images

Frame All

a

world that is

sonal vision than
actment.

From

a

of a per¬
historical reen¬
more

the

very

earned

an

ASC Award nomination

for his work on the film. A

Very Long

Engagement certainly attempts to
capitalize on this success; the mam¬
moth project involved almost seven
months of shooting, dozens of loca¬
tions and a budget of approximately
45

million Euros. Warner Bros,

demonstrated its faith in the

project
by agreeing to co-produce the film
in French and by giving Jeunet com¬
plete artistic freedom, including
final cut. Delbonnel says the design
of the film's cinematography was
aided by Jeunet's propensity for
meticulous preparation. Prior to
shooting, the duo worked out and
agreed upon a series of guiding prin¬
ciples that would dictate their use of
lenses, lighting and color.
In his own approach to cine¬
matography, Delbonnel seeks to

limit the variables. On A Very

Long

Engagement, he used only two nega¬
tives, Kodak Vision 200T 5274 and
Vision2 500T 5218; he employed the
latter

only when he didn't have
enough light to use the 74. He is rig¬
orous about exposure,
checking the
calibration of his three light meters
with his gaffer every morning. He
relies upon incident readings, only
using a spot meter if he's dealing
with

a

bluescreen shoot

or

some

French soldiers
makes his way

through "no
man's land"

on

the World War I
battlefield in the

Somme. Below:
To

provide

a

stark

contrast to the

battle scenes,
shots of
Mathilde's
bedroom in

Brittany were
given a warm,
inviting tone.

other

specialized application. "I'm
extremely technical," he confess¬
es. "I do exposure tests, but from
there I don't move; I stay within the
results of my tests. I know that I have
three stops above and three stops
below, and I play within that range
unless I want the image to be
burned out, when I'll go five stops
over, or if I want to the image to go
not

-

start,

Delbonnel's

richly colored images
transport the viewer past realism
and into what could be called cine¬
matic

impressionism. As the film

reaches its emotional conclusion,
the viewer is left with an unforget¬
table

patchwork of multi-hued

memories.

Jeunet and Delbonnel's last

collaboration, Amelie, garnered five
Academy Award nominations,
including one for Delbonnel's cine¬
matography. The cameraman also
American

Cinematographer 59
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