American Cinematographer - May 2006 - 53

Opposite: Arthur
Burns and two

members of his
gang enjoy one
last sunset

before

riding into

town to rescue

Arthur's youngest

brother, Mike.
This page, left:
Mike (Richard

Wilson) is
flogged by
townspeople
thirsting for
justice. Below:
Director of

photography
Benoit

Delhomme, AFC

(left) and
director John

Artemisia,

Family Resemblances,
L'Idole and Sade. Although he has
always enjoyed the control a studio
affords, he also hankered to shoot
outside. "I love

being able to
wake up and say, 'I'm going to make
it a sunny day inside this place,"' says
Delhomme, "but I'm a big fan of cin¬
ematographers who can just love nat¬
ural light, like Bruno Nuytten, whom
more

I assisted

on

Jean de Florette and

of the Spring. Natural light is
difficult because you can't fight
it, you can't go against it."
That's certainly true in the out¬
back under a blinding summer sun.
Hillcoat knew The Proposition would
be a grueling shoot, but so, too, were
his previous films, Ghosts ...of the

Manon

very

Civil Dead (shot in a maximum-

security prison) and To Have and to
Hold (shot in the jungles of Papua
New Guinea). "I love working in real

away," says Hillcoat, and he
was also intrigued by the fact that
Delhomme always operates his own
camera, in part to establish a rap¬
port with the actors. "When he said
that, suddenly a penny dropped and
I knew I had someone really spe¬

with those kinds of

cial," adds the director.
For Delhomme, shooting a

nology at the time almost, to give it
a feel that you're going back in

blew

me

Western

was

a

childhood dream

When

prepping, he
rescreened such favorites as Forty
Guns, Unforgiven and Pale Rider,
paying close attention to framing.
For The Proposition, he says, "I liked
the idea of people lost in a land¬
scape, [but] I didn't think of this as
a Western or put it firmly in a genre.
That's always tricky because there
are rules to respect. And I don't
come

true.

think John [Hillcoat] came to me

ideas." Hillcoat's
was

the

that there be

Hillcoat discuss

premeditated
only stipulation

no

their

approach.

aerial shots of

landscape - "nothing higher or

faster

than

a

horse," he says.

"[Camera placement and move¬
ment] were based within the tech¬

time." Delhomme adds, "This is

a

film about Australia first, and I
wanted to show the country. I want¬
ed it to inspire me." While scouting
the outback, he found

plenty of
inspiration. "I took a lot of
stills with my digital camera because
the country was so strange to me. It

novel

took

me

time to understand how to

frame it, how to find power

and
beauty in the emptiness of the land¬
scapes."

locations and difficult locations," says
the director. When

choosing a cine¬
matographer for The Proposition,
Hillcoat first sought an Australian or
British

cameraman

countries

PLFicoiotcurrseuksfrtt.esy
Images

because those

co-producing the
project. When his initial choices were
unavailable, "I just started thinking
about my favorite cinematographers
and who would bring a fresh eye to
Australia," he says. "I knew I wanted
to give a different look to the out¬
were

back." Delhomme's work in The
Scent

of Green Papaya and Cyclo "just
American

Cinematographer 49
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