American Cinematographer - December 2004 - 64

Cinematic

Impressionism

Right: French
soldiers huddle
in their rainy

trench, a.k.a.

Bingo

Crepuscule.
Delbonnel

sought to lend
these

scenes an

"oppressive"
look and feel.
Below: To

help

control the

lighting for the
trench,

460-

a

square-foot
frame

was

suspended
above it to block
out the sun.

frame

was

from
crane

a

The

hung

70-ton

and could
be tilted to

change its
orientation.

black, when I'll go six or seven stops
under.

I've

always used Kodak
stocks, including their print stocks,
because I know them by heart, and
they correspond to my way of work¬
ing. I lock things in early on so that I
can focus on lighting and not worry
about technique."
For

Delbonnel, the release-

integral part of
cinematographic
design.
"Everything is linked, and on this

print stock is
his

an

show I worked with Vision Premier

[2393] in mind from the start," he
says, adding that he and Jeunet had
to

it's

fight for that print stock because
more expensive.
Although
Jeunet
gives

within the frame.
For

Delbonnel considerable freedom in

Very Long Engagement,
shot in Super 35mm
2.35:1, Delbonnel used Arricam

the

Studios and Lites and

lighting of a sequence, the direc¬
is adamant about one aspect of

which

was

Aaton 35-

an

his films. "Jean-Pierre wants to see as

III, all outfitted with Cooke S4 lens¬
es. He used no diffusion on the lens,

much

as

tor

possible in the frame," says
guiding
principles is to show everything; he
doesn't like complete darkness, and
as

Delbonnel. "One of his

there is almost

none

in the film. An

a sequence set in a small
shed where the condemned soldiers

example is
eat

night. I wanted to play it
just the faces

at

he

prefers to diffuse with lighting.

He notes that the Cookes also natu¬

rally soften the image. "For this film,
I felt that the Cookes corresponded
to my lighting, and the brand also
offers a great range of short focal
lengths: there are eight lenses
between

14mm

and

35mm.

almost abstract, with

Working with Jean-Pierre, we could

visible, but Jean-Pierre wanted to

have returned all the lenses above

show

little of the

background. To
get the feeling he wanted, I lowered
a

the contrast

a

bit

so

that we still had

of the space. In this film, we
further toward darkness than

a sense

went
we

had before;

we even

did

a

few

if they
by the lens, we
could have made some savings!"
The picture was shot princi¬
pally with 21mm, 25mm and 27mm
lenses to give it a strong visual coher¬

32mm to Technovision

had rented to

ence.

agreed to let things go dark."
signature trait of
Jeunet's work is his systematic use of
wide-angle lenses, often placed very

that it's

Another

-

us

Delbonnel stresses, however,

shots in silhouette, where JeanPierre

60 December 2004

heightens the three-dimensional
quality of camera moves, while the
depth of field keeps more in focus

difficult

to light for
long ones. "With
short focal lengths, there's a feeling
of depth, but the background is a lit¬
more

wide lenses than

beautiful softness,

close to the actors. Short focal

tle soft. It's

lengths yield a more exaggerated
perspective and greater depth of
field than longer lenses. For the
viewer, the increased perspective

though, so you have to rework the
background lighting. You can't just
add fill light, because the image
quickly becomes flat. Because you

not a
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